Stéphane Mallarmé, 1842-1897, was driven by a yearning for the ideal, and felt an immense despair when his human attempts to reach up to it, through his poetry, fell far too short. The void (le Néant) into which he fell is the subject of the present study. Sources used were the writer's poetry, as well as all critical works which seemed pertinent to the study of this poet whose symbolism is so wonderfully and yet frighteningly deep and meaningful.