Perfume Patrick Suskind\'s 1985 Novel Perfume Deals

Perfume

Patrick Suskind's 1985 novel Perfume deals with themes controversial enough to raise eyebrows. After all the protagonist is a mass murderer whose victims are all virgins. The crimes therefore reveal the confluence of gender and politics, as well as moral integrity. However outlandish the premise of Perfume might be, the book remains part of a literary canon. The book was well-received by critics and remains a core part of any university modern literature program. Moreover, the book retains amazing literary merit. The author employes characterization, symbolism, and other literary devices with aplomb and it would be outlandish to even think about banning such an artistic gem. Many of the world's best novels have caused a stir quite like the one created by Patrick Suskind. J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye is a prime example of how prudishness, ignorance, and lack of foresight can mar artistic, social, and political progress. Patrick Suskind's Perfume should surely be included in school syllabi and honored for its social commentary and its historical and literary merits.

As the title suggests, the human sense of smell is the core motif of Perfume. Smell is not often dealt with in any depth in literature. The olfactory device is given at best a cursory nod, as smells do invoke memories in the minds of characters. Smell is most often used as a part of setting construction, helping guide the reader through the narrator's multi-sensory landscape.

Unfortunately smell too often takes a back seat to the more lauded senses of sight and hearing. What a character sees takes precedence over what a character smells. Sounds also dominate other senses. Sensuality may convey multiple senses, and yet smell and perhaps taste are the two senses that are deemed the most needless -- and even possibly primitive.

Smelling is something that human beings do very poorly, in fact. Dogs and other animals have much finer senses of smell, honed over millennia of physical evolution. The human being is so olfactorily inhibited as to be handicapped in this area. Human beings are the smelling-impaired, the nasally challenged mammals.

However, in Perfume, the sense of smell is more than just a biological function. Smell is elevated beyond the level of the mundane, and assumes a sort of spiritual dimension. Patrick Suskind's protagonist Jean-Baptiste Grenouille was in fact born with a defect of his own: he lacks a personal scent. Whether his lack of personal scent is traceable to an actual medical condition -- such as one that precludes the individual from producing pheromones -- is irrelevant in the novel. What is remarkable about Jean-Baptiste Grenouille's condition is the way in which the protagonist defines himself via smell precisely because of his condition. He transmutes his condition into a quest for the ultimate aromas. He therefore compensates for his core defect by seeking ways to artificially manufacture that which he lacks.

Smell is therefore a symbol, a motif, and a powerful motivator. Readers encounter the sense of smell when it is lacking, such as on Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. Smell serves an important function in creating bonds of intimacy, especially sexual intimacy. As with all tremendously tragic literary heroes, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille becomes an archetype, an icon that all readers can relate to. From Jean-Baptiste Grenouille's unique perspective, we learn about ourselves. This is why we can never even so much as entertain the idea that Perfume should be censored in any way.

Having no scent marks Jean-Baptiste Grenouille as being a social outcast; the reactions other characters have towards him help define his psychological and moral character. It is as if others cannot trust a person with no smell for the exact reason why smell has an evolutionary function. For animals, and for the primitive human brain, smell serves as a primary defense mechanism. People can smell food that has gone off, which makes smell a foremost line of defense against illness. Smelling others helps us to understand our feelings towards them, such as when we are attracted to others because of their scents. Babies recognize their parents because of their distinct odors, so whether we like it or not, human beings are like the other animals.

Author Patrick Suskind creates an apt juxtaposition between Jean-Baptiste Grenouille and Madame Gaillard, who has no sense of smell. Here we have to oddly olfactorily handicapped individuals one who has no scent to give off and who is therefore potentially a threat; and one who has no sense of smell and who is therefore completely vulnerable to threat. Ironically, Madame Gaillard finds another reason to persecute Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. Madame Gaillard believes that Jean-Baptiste Grenouille's disability is a supernatural curse and she condemns him. This reaction comes across as being less rational than those who curse Jean-Baptiste Grenouille because they feel he must be hiding something. After all, a person with no scent is akin to an invisible man. Others cannot trust Jean-Baptiste Grenouille without smelling him. The reactions to Jean-Baptiste Grenouille show that Patrick Suskind suggests that human beings are more primitive and irrational than we give ourselves credit for. This deep underlying message is yet another reason why Perfume should be considered high literature and not some smut to be dismissed.

His handicap drives protagnoist Jean-Baptiste Grenouille to discover artificial scents. This quest becomes so obsessive that he can internally justify murder, murders which are themselves symbolic because they are framed as virgin sacrifices. These are more than mere murders; they are Jean-Baptiste Grenouille's attempt at salvation, atonement, and universal balance. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille wants to take back what has been cruelly taken from him. The act of "taking" takes on greater importance when the virgin murders are viewed as rapes. Killing virgins connotes rape: a crime that is more about patriarchal power than about sexual desire. In killing virgins, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is attempting to reclaim his personal and spiritual power. The impact is twisted and demented, but Patrick Suskind portrays the murders more as a literary device than as any way of condoning the acts.

The very concept of perfume is a spiritual one. People wear perfume as a means of communicating via scent. However, perfumes are also used in religious contexts. They are oils, unctions, lotions, and potions. From incense burned in temple ceremonies to the scented oils rubbed onto ritual objects, perfumes do have direct historical uses in religious settings.

Therefore, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille's motivations are partly spiritual and partly personal. He understands the need for perfume, as he has been isolated and ostracized due to his lack of scent. Perfume will enable Jean-Baptiste Grenouille to communicate with the outside world, just as a hearing aid performs that function for the deaf. Another way that author Patrick Suskind imbues perfume with spiritual power is by showing how death eradicates personal scent.