From the very beginning, Genet has been preoccupied with flower imagery and flower symbolism. The two titles, Notre Dame des Fleurs and Miracle de la Rose, plus the abundance of flower references in all of Genet's works give ample evidence of his interest in, and knowledge of flower symbolism…. [There is] a relationship (in Genet's mind) between flowers, crime, and solitude. (pp. 87-8)

An accumulation of the references to lilacs in Haute Surveillance reveals a tally of sixteen "lilacs" in the 1949 version, and twelve in the 1965 version. This represents only a count of the nouns and does not include pronouns even when they clearly refer to lilacs. The high frequency of references is immediately significant since it suggests that the lilac symbolism is definitely not fortuitous. However, the frequency of references is less important then the dramatic use of the lilacs as esoteric symbol which explains and supports the meaning and action of the play.

In the 1949 version Genet first establishes a relationship between lilacs and the tomb, that is between lilacs and the general concept "death." This is a traditional relationship found in the majority of folk legends involving lilacs…. Genet then develops a sometimes ambiguous symbol pattern in which there exists a confusion between the flower-death-criminal-sex symbol and the lilac-death-murder-fate-betrayal-criminal-sex symbol. Genet, aware that his symbols do not correlate as exactly as he wishes, clarified the symbol pattern in the 1965 edition by changing the word "lilacs" to "flowers" …, thus establishing a dichotomous symbol pattern in which both lilacs and flowers correlate to criminals and sex, but only the lilac equates to murder.

The above distinction between murder and death is necessary because death is not the major theme in this play that it is, for example in les Bonnes or le Balcon. Murder is important because it provides the linking element between the criminal and the saint, and because it is the common denominator in determining the level of attainment in the religious-criminal hierarchy…. The central theme of the play is Lefranc's desire to advance in the religious-criminal hierarchy from mere petty thief-supplicant … to murderersaint. One function of the lilacs, which are involved in both Yeux-Verts' murder of the girl and Lefranc's murder of Maurice, is to force the comparison between Yeux-Verts' essentially accidental and unwanted murder and Lefranc's consciously chosen crime in order to illustrate that Genet's sympathy lies with Lefranc.

In both versions of the play, Genet moves from the lilac-flower-death symbol to a flower-criminal symbol. (pp. 88-9)

In both French and English there are various slang expressions in which the word flower is a sexual euphemism—for example, to "deflower." Genet, in Miracle de la Rose, uses the word "effleuré" (note the root of the word is "flower") to mean "one who is buggered," and in Notre Dame des Fleurs he compares the male sex organ to a lily. In describing Harcamone's murder of the ten or eleven year-old girl, Genet says that Harcamone "ne pouvait garder plus longtemps sa fleur," a clear reference to his virginity. Since Harcamone is the prototype for Yeux-Verts, and since Yeux-Verts' murder is patterned after Harcamone's, it seems likely that the lilac reference here means that the girl followed Yeux-Verts because she wanted his sex. Furthermore, Yeux-Verts demonstrates that his nickname—"Paulo les dent fleuries"—is indeed appropriate for he had a bunch of lilacs between his teeth when he attracted the girl. (pp. 90-1)

The progression toward a climax continues with Lefranc's announcement that he has finished with flowers, that he intends to create his own flowers…. Lefranc's statement is related to the fact that he has written letters for the illiterate Yeux-Verts, and on these letters Lefranc has sketched flowers and doves. It must be noted that Lefranc also has a penchant for sketching false tattoos in imitation of famous criminals, and, in the criminal hierarchy, there is a unique symbolism attached to these tattoos…. It is not the flowers, nor the tattoos themselves that fascinate Lefranc-Genet, it is their symbology, their mythical aspect. When Lefranc says he has finished with flowers, he means that he has finished with vicarious experience, with sketching flowers for other people, with trying to live someone else's myth. When he says that he will create his own flowers (a reminder of Genet's intention to so bedeck his convicts with flowers that they will become gigantic and new flowers), he means that he wants to establish his own myth…. (pp. 92-3)

By killing Maurice and by involving the lilacs in the gesture …, Lefranc seeks to create his own myth as "The Lilac Murderer" (to "become a flower, a gigantic and new one"), and to advance in the criminal-religious hierarchy from petty thief to murderer. (p. 93)

Unlike most flowers, there is no biblical or even Christian symbolism connected with the lilac, quite simply because the lilac is not mentioned in the Bible and because it was not introduced into Europe until the sixteenth century. Thus Genet was quite free to find "therein the many meanings I wish to find." Generally, in the so-called "language of flowers," the lilac is a symbol of the first emotions of love, which is not without ironic implications in so far as Harcamone's murder (the probable source of Houte Surveillance) of the ten or eleven year-old girl is concerned. Furthermore, it is traditional in England and in Germany that it is "unlucky to bring lilacs in the house, but elsewhere only the white, which will cause a death in the household." It would seem that Genet began with a basic symbol, that is, it is unlucky to take lilacs into a house for they will cause a death, and then expanded this symbol to include the basic themes of the play—murder, betrayal, fate, sex, and the criminal-religious hierarchy. (pp. 93-4)