Dark Secrets
October 20, 2010 by caren.ng
Baudelaire writes his poems in a depressing manner and the imperfections of “man”. In every poem there is the mention of darkness, a key word in describing humans and their unhappiness. It seems that people just want want they don’t have and ultimately the cause of their unhappiness or dissatisfaction with life. “Dissatisfied with everything, dissatisfied with myself, I long to redeem myself and to restore my pride in silence and solitude of the night. Souls…strenghten me, sustain me, keep me from the vanities of the world and its contaminating fumes.”(Baudelaire 1396) He describes the world as such a materialistic place yet he himself cares about his pride and reputation. People are drawn to secrets due to “…a fairy has bestowed the love of masks and masquerading, the hate of home and the passion for roaming.”(Baudelaire 1396) Because a “fairy has bestowed” the curiosity in man is what makes them restless and want to experience all there is in life but yet they complain and whine about life itself. Of course selfishness is human nature, “But what does it matter what reality is outside myself, so long as it has helped me to live, to feel that I am and what I am?”(Baudelaire 1397) A perfect phrase to explain the selfishness of man, that he only thinks of himself and his thoughts are the only important reasonings. There is never satisfaction because a person will always want more, want what they do not have, or believe that “the grass is greener on the other side” which is not necessarily true. Baudelaire wrote “It always seems to me that I should be happy anywhere but where I am” (Baudelaire 1397) yet he ends it with “Anywhere! Just so it is out of the world!” He is not satisfied with anyplace on earth thus he conclude to be anywhere but this world. Baudelaire seem to portray men as people who just do not know what they want in life, instead claims that they want everything else.
Similar with “The Lady with the Dog” by Chekhov, where Gurov is a man who moves from one woman to the next even though he is married, proves that he is not satisfied with his life. He begins his double life and keeping it a secret from the world. Yet he ends up falling in love with the one woman, Anna, who is also married and lives far away. He does not see the pleasure in his life other than when he is with Anna,” everything in the world is beautiful really, everything but our own thoughts and actions, when we lose sight of the higher aims of life, and of our dignity as human beings,”(Chekhov 1528) and thats because he can’t have her all to himself. Gurov eventually realizes that people may not be who they really are, that everyone has a double life just like his own. What is shown on the surface is a facetious mask that people hide behind to protect their reputation or who they really are, conforming to society and hiding their deepest desires. “He began to judge others by himself, no longer believing what he saw and always assuming that the real and the only interesting life of every individual goes on as under cover of night, secretly.”(Chekhov 1534)
These two authors show that everyone has secrets, everyone have a mask on which they show to the world, and only in “darkness”, alone with their own thoughts are they truly themselves. They also show how greedy man can be by wanting what they cannot have therefore they are unhappy beings roaming the earth aimlessly and dissatisfied.