Religious undertones in Rimbaud and Verlaine’s relationship
Rimlaine has very noticeable religious undertones to me and I just wanted to ramble about it. Their relationship could be interpreted as an allegory for Religious trauma in a way. I wanna look at that lens for both of them, but I’m mostly gonna talk about how Rimbaud enables this trauma, or at least plays a part in it.
I want to start with how Verlaine has been affected by religion.
"That's the problem." Verlaine's tone was tense and hostile.
"Rimbaud. Just once, I want you to imagine just how much it could affect a person if you told them they weren't human. Imagine how it feels to be told you weren't born with God's love, that you are nothing more than a character set someone suddenly came up with. Imagine the depths of a person's heart pierced by those words. It's a pitch-black abyss where the moon can't be seen. There is no hope. There is no salvation. Do you get it? Even those feelings of despair are merely something someone designed!" (Stormbringer)
Verlaine has been dehumanized so throughly that “there is no salvation” for him. There is no God or holy scripture that can save him because he fully believes that he will never be human enough for God. He thinks this way because he sees it in practice within their organization. We see how Rimbaud treats Verlaine, but never anyone else. They most likely don’t show him the same warmth. Rimbaud always tells him he’s human to reassure him because he personally cares about him, but to the French government he is just a spy, a soldier. They couldn’t care less about him on a personal level, which causes them to dehumanize him.
And yet, Rimbaud sees nothing wrong with working for that same government who constantly dehumanizes Verlaine, but he’s still wants Verlaine. It’s a contradiction that he doesn’t even realize because his job is second nature to him, like a religion. Hell he even abandons everyone he used to know for it because of his unwavering faith. He trusts and believes in his organization because he believes what they do is for the greater good. They are helping people, and yet the person he is by far closest to is directly hurt by it. He doesn’t realize any of it because that same organization treats Rimbaud in a similar way. It uses him as a soldier to carry out their bidding. They obviously don’t care about him as a person if Rimbaud had to leave his family and previous lover for it. Rimbaud sees nothing wrong with this because to him that’s just the way things are. It’s the status quo.
He so incredibly brainwashed by the organization, but Rimbaud still loved Verlaine in a way that defied his loyalty to his country. He no longer work with him because it was for his organization. At some point he was working with him because he trusted him with his life. He was devoted to him.
At the end of Stormbringer he lighthearted seems to scold Verlaine for forgetting one of the main rules to follow as a spy, don’t let your emotions get in the way, but that’s exactly what Rimbaud did. He was too attached to Verlaine and the organization at once. His love blinded him to Verlaine’s distain, ultimately dooming their last mission. It feels reminiscent of how in religion it is preached how we all need to love each other and under God we can all be equal, but at the same time sinners are often shamed and made to feel guilty for even the smallest of things. I know that’s not how it is in all religious spaces, but it often tends to be that way. Verlaine’s experience feels similar to how it like to be lgbtq+ in the Church. You’re told that you’re accepted there but at the same time one of the most key and essential parts of you is denounced as a sin. It makes you feel like something is wrong with you in a way that’s far worse than anyone else which can often be dehumanizing.
The problem wasn’t that Rimbaud shouldn’t have let himself get attached, it was that he was apart of an organization that didn’t let him get attached.
He was easier to manipulate and use if he devoted himself entirely to them. It’s like how most religious spaces have a strong sense of community, but only to the people inside their church. If they help other people they have to do it in a way that try’s to force others to join them. It’s like how Rimbaud had to leave his family for the organization. Then he tried to help Verlaine, but only if they could both be together in the organization. He could only be with him if they had the same faith, the faith that constantly dehumanizes them both.
Also just think about what their mission with Chuuya was. Find a child in a far off country and take it home to their organization so it can mold Chuuya into the perfect soldier for their cause, just like Verlaine. It feels similar to how missionary’s go out to different countries and try to “save” people by forcing their religion on them. That’s why Rimbaud has no problem with this plan. In a way he thought he was saving Chuuya, just like how he “saved” Verlaine.
I think it’s important to note just how Rimbaud’s way of thinking changes at the end of the fifteen light novel. The way he tells Chuuya that he’s human is by saying,
"Live," Randou said in almost a whisper. "There is no longer. any way of knowing...who you are or where you came from," he rasped. "But even if...you are but a pattern...etched on the surface of raw power...you are you. Nothing changes that...because all people, all humanity... their brains and flesh...are nothing more than patterns— beautiful patterns...upon the material world..." (Fifteen)
Doesn’t really sound like something that aligns with most religious text right? Nothing like some sort of message about how God loves everyone and everything on Earth because it’s all his creation. It feels like a more scientific or matter of a fact way of saying it doesn’t matter if he’s originally human or not. I think he realized why he wasn’t able to reassure Verlaine that he wasn’t human and so he reflected and broke out of the mindset he’d been fed by his organization. He loses his religious mindset too when that happens.
I point out how this excerpt lacks any religious undertone because Rimbaud has previously spoken in a religious manner before. At the end of his notebook he wrote,
“Tomorrow, at the enemy base. I would gladly walk through any hell for my partner‘s sake. So as long as there is a god in the heavens, this bond in my heart, and a future within reach.” (Stormbringer)
He seems to be or have been a religious man. I believe there are some panels from the fifteen manga where he looks like he’s praying almost when fighting Dazai and Chuuya.
Anyways I’d like to see what other people think about this or if there is anything anyone else would like to add. This isn’t super organized or anything so hopefully I explained things well enough. I know I’ve seen someone say they think Rimbaud has Catholic guilt specifically, but I don’t know much about Catholicism so I can’t really comment on that (I was raised Protestant).
I could totally add more to this and do some more analysis if I wanted,but that would take awhile and I just wanted to at least introduce the idea that Rimlaine could be interpreted this way.
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