Rimbaud, narcissism and emotional dependency in an infernal delirium
In a ‘Delirium’ (A Season in Hell), Rimbaud describes, in the form of a brutally authentic confession, the torture of a ‘foolish Virgin’ emotionally dependent on her narcissistic and ‘infernal Bridegroom’. Most of the analyses conducted demonstrate the autobiographical nature of the poem. In terms of French analysis, Suzanne Bernard, for example, questions whether the ‘infernal Bridegroom’ is a portrayal of the accursed poet, Rimbaud, while the ‘foolish Virgin’ depicts Rimbaud’s sweet beloved, Verlaine. Or, as Marcel A. Ruff phrases it, she is the hallucinating soul of Rimbaud’s earlier self, consumed by a later, freed, Rimbaud. Pierre Brunel eventually concluded it was a ‘text with numerous meanings’, which is a common approach to Rimbaud’s writings...
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