As the title suggests this is a highly olfactory novel. Set in Eighteenth Century France, it is bathed in the putrid stink of the time. Instead of being purely visual, everything and everyone are described by their smell, which proves in many cases to be much more revealing.
Story of a Murderer
The story is about Jean-Baptiste Grenouille a man born into a life where, from birth he is unloved and unwanted. He is born without any personal odour but with a heightened sense of smell. He becomes obsessed with aroma and desires to create the perfect scent. The only way he can do this is by capturing the scent of young, beautiful women; by killing them and bottling their fragrance. Although his quest is for olfactory perfection, what he ultimately seeks is acceptance and love.
Parasitic Theme
Throughout the novel Grenouille is compared to creatures that humans are repulsed by. In fact even his surname, when translated from the French, means frog. Because of his lack of smell he is seen as being sub-human and so is constantly being described as some sort of insect, such as a spider or tick; generally one that sucks the blood of another.
He lives his life like a parasite. Each person he meets he uses for his own ends and then discards them; they then invariably meet a terrible end. Even his own mother does not escape this fate. She gives birth to him amidst the stench of a fish market and when she is found, knife in hand, after having cut his umbilical cord she is accused of attempted murder and is hanged.
Grenouille is cut off from humanity and so is able to look at it with objective eyes and what he sees, or rather, smells, is rotten and malodorous. Each person he meets is merely food to sustain him in his task.
Gothic Imagery
The novel uses gothic imagery and graphic language to evoke a fetid world of dark morals. Through Grenouille’s nose we have an existential view of the world and an insight into the workings of the human psyche.
The gothic imagery used evokes ideas about the nature of the mind and all that is hidden within it. At one point in the story Grenouille distances himself from humanity and lives alone in a cave. The cave symbolises the mind and all the darkness and unknown horrors that are contained in it.
Perfume looks into the nature of human beings and what it finds is quite revolting. The people within the novel are driven by wealth, pride and lust and Grenouille can smell it on them. The whole of Paris is putrid which is why Grenouille seeks the scent of purity on the girls whom he kills.
The Need for Love
Even though he repulses all those he meets and purposely distances himself from people what Grenouille really seeks is acceptance. He makes the scent to humanise himself. Having a scent will make him one of them, but having the scent of these girls will make him seem better than them. It is an olfactory mask that makes the Parisian people exult him and he becomes almost godlike; one to be adored. This culminates in an ending that shakes the very foundations of what it is to be human.
Patrick Suskind, Perfume, Penguin, 1986, ISBN: 0-14-012083-1
Jade Weighell - My name is Jade Weighell and I have a BA in English and Drama and an MA in English Literature. I write book reviews and have been ...
