We discussed how Baudelaire felt the feeling of boredom and monotony was self-imposed, because in reality things were happening and it was people who made their own lives uninteresting, not society.
“Crowds” (pp 21-22) relates to Baudelaire’s ideas about the flâneur and ennui. His insistence that the beggar applies his manifestation of justice to his “colleagues” once again affirms his distrust of societal formation and his belief that position in society does not necessarily reflect upon true character.
By first determining that there are no nearby policemen, the protagonist is illustrated as understanding, but disregarding, the illegal nature of his actions, implying a lack of respect for the laws of modern society. The narrator’s decision to pounce on an innocent, unassuming beggar aligns with Baudelaire’s desire to shock the public and to wake them from their blasé attitudes towards the world around them. In this prose poem, Baudelaire implies that equality is not based in material wealth, but rather in courage and strength. He maintains that the protagonist is first goaded into violent action through the reading of “fashionable books” of the time, illuminating his wariness towards common thought. His 49th story in The Parisian Prowler, “Let’s Beat Up the Poor!”, demonstrates the disdain he felt both for the development of the class system and for those who insisted that they knew what was best for the growing poor. One of Baudelaire’s goals in his creation of poetry was the explanation of the ongoing changes that the beginning of the Modern Age brought to society.
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