It was in these works that the key elements of Cocteau's world, the elements that he would draw on for the next thirty years, were finally put in place. These elements may be briefly summarised in the following terms:
Mythology. Cocteau had always been obsessed with classical mythology, as evident from his earliest poems. In particular, throughout his life Cocteau kept returning to the figures of Oedipus and Orpheus. The more time passed, the more he mixed classical mythology with his own personal mythology: Oedipus and Orpheus were transformed into modern figures, joined by Dargelos the death-bringing schoolboy, the good angel Heurtebise, and numerous other characters loosely based on figures from Cocteau's life.
Melodrama. Cocteau was brought up on late 19th century French melodrama. Suppressed during the years he spent around the Ballet Russe, his taste for melodrama re-emerged in the aftermath of Radiguet's death, most notably in Les Enfants terribles (1929). From here on, Cocteau's obsession with death filtered through into almost all his works. Death in Cocteau's works is usually theatrical – suicides and poisonings are especially common – but it is also immediate, ever-present and frighteningly real.
The Fantastic. In Europe, throughout the 19th century and in much of 20th century, fantasy did not carry the same association with pulp fiction and popular entertainment that it did in the United States. Cocteau's use of the fantastic bore little relation to that of Poe and Lovecraft. Rather, it referenced the non-narrative tradition of poetic fantasy established by Goethe, Coleridge and Baudelaire. The Romantic poets were the messengers from the beyond that Cocteau aspired to be, and their use of fantasy was the inevitable result of their artistic journeys. At the same time, Cocteau's frequent use of camera tricks and trompe l'œil follows directly in the cinematic tradition established by Méliès in the last years of the 19th century.
