One of the fundamental themes in Mallarmé's work, according to Vermorel, is the idealization of the poet's mother, whom he lost when he was five years old, and of his sister, whom he lost when he was fifteen. Though there were other losses, especially the death of his young son, Anatole, in 1879, all of which prompted themes of death, tombs, etc., in his work, the main underlying theme seems to be reunion with his mother whom the omnipotence of ideas brings to life again in a sort of nostalgic return to primary narcissism. Vermorel considers the importance of mourning in grief and in creative activity. Melanie Klein argued that the creative impulse is contemporaneous with the depressive phase and is born of the need to restore the lost object. A psychological critic of Mallarmé, Charles Mauron, catalogued a network of obsessive metaphors which underlie Mallarmé's work. But,