Main characters and literary models
Vitalie Rimbaud, mother (1825 – 1907):
- proud of Arthur
- tried to avoid him to read subversive books
- always tried that he get a properly profession but nevertheless gave him money even though she kept him short
- issued ultimatiums: return to school, get a job or leave home but then she relented eventually
- she was not entirely unhappy to have a son who antagonized the whole town (enfant terrible)
- superego (Überich) incarnated
Georges Izambard (1848 –1931):
- a young teacher in Charleville got a mentor of Rimbaud
- he borrowed him books from such as Victor Hugo
- regime- und kirchenkritische Gesinnung
- poet
- Rimbaud hoped he would publish his poems as he was member of a little publishing company but, he didn't.
Victor Hugo (1802 – 1885):
- huge success in 1862 publishing his most famous work «Les Misérables – it has a similar importance for French literature like Goethe in Germany.
- rebel against the regime and the church
- had been thrown out of France, exil (canal islands). From here he attacked Bonaparte as «Napoléon le Petit»
- compained for the copyright
Charles Baudelaire (1821 – 1867):
- most famous work: «Les Fleurs du mal» (The Flowers of Evil), expresses the changing nature of beauty in modern, industrializing Paris during the 19th century.
- Baudelaire's highly original style of prose-poetry influenced a whole generation of poets including Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud and Stéphane Mallarmé among many others.
- He is credited with coining the term "modernity" (modernité) to designate the fleeting, ephemeral experience of life in an urban metropolis, and the responsibility art has to capture that experience.
Paul-Marie Verlaine (1844 – 1896):
- Born 1844 he was ten years older than Rimbaud.
- rich family
- only living born child of the family
- began to write early
- began to study law
- alcoholic and mentally unstable, violent against his wife and his mother (attempted murder)
- ritual like Forerunner of the cocktail hour
- the relationship to Rimbaud was a difficult but very creative time for his poetry
- member of The Parnassians poetry community, their princip was l'art pour l'art and they got their name from «Parnassos» the «mountain of muse» greek mythology „Berg der Musen“ in der griechischen Mythologie.
- He died as a famous person.
