The purpose of writing this essay is to explain Grenouille’s psychopathy and sociopathy behaviors throughout the story. Grenouille’s strange behaviors were the main focus points he is known for. For instance, he was addicted to perfume and he was blind but he got around because of his strong sense of smell and he could predict the weather. In my opinion, Grenouille is both a psychopath and a sociopath, because of his weird behaviors and his lack of knowledge of knowing his wrong doings. This is because of his condition. A psychopath is the term used to refer a more serious disorder, linked to genetic traits, producing more dangerous individuals. A psychopath lacks empathy and a conscience. For example, when he killed the girl, he didn’t know …show more content…
People thought Grenouille was innocent because of his low key but psychotic actions. But Grenouille was raised in a fish house in which he was left to die. Grenouille grew up in an era of Paris where physical hygiene was an understatement and not taken into consideration. In the 18th century Paris was known for its royalty and upper class lifestyle. However, during this time filth was considered beneficial thus causing people to wash even less. People believed that the air was contaminated with germs and water opened up the pores to the skin allowing the germs to enter the body making them more vulnerable to disease. Also, Grenouille himself is haunted by smells. He recognizes the odors of separate stones and of the varieties of water; he can locate even the most tremulous perfume from miles away; he can separate the simplest stench into its various elements - that of a human being, for example, being composed of cat feces, cheese and vinegar. As a child and young man, he survives as an outsider only through some stubborn instinct - deciding ''in favor of life out of sheer spite and sheer malice'' -but this means that in 18th-century France, in an age of ''reason'' and a time of ''progress,'' he is a barbaric intruder. For him, this is a world stripped bare of its more elegant trappings and organized around the one fundamental principle of
Vincent’s flaws are seen as a restriction on him from the moment he is born. The audience sees this through the nurse’s proclamation that his “early fatal potential” is at “ninety seven percent probability.” The stigma attached to such a condition is shown when his father refuses to give Vincent. his own name, demonstrating effectively how his inferiority results in him being abandoned from the outset of his life. These events are indicative of the stigma attached to the notion of being an ‘INVALID’ in this “not too distant” future. However, what this synthetic and artificial world in Gattaca fails to account for is the strength of the human spirit, which relates to the concept of “...
In the Süskind's novel, Perfume, Grenouille is seen as a monster. Grenouille was the agent of all deaths including the 24 women, his mother, and all his caretakers. He abused the power of scent and smell ,and had a detestation for all forms of life. He is a monster because of his actions, thoughts and behaviour. It was society that made him into this beast because they all saw him as something different yet, all he truly ever wanted was love, something he was forever denied.
The novel Perfume exemplifies many literary aspects of “DITTSS,” through each one of its 59 chapters. All of which completing the text and making it the remarkable novel it is today. Through the text the author is able to portray characters in such ways that are believable to the reader. Patrick Suskind uses specific diction to develop the major characters in the novel Perfume. Through word usage and word choice Suskind is able to develop these characters. Each and every character comes to life with each word read by the reader. The character Grenouille, portrayed as a foul monster with inhuman like features and abilities. With his weird infatuation to smells, Suskind really makes Grenouille that the bittersweet protagonist from beginning to end. From the first few pages of the work, one can see the true nature of the child when minor character, Jeanne Bussie, makes the notion that baby Grenouille is “possessed by the devil.” The author’s intent was to show the character true demeanor and feelings behind the character by using the words possessed and devil the reader can see that the feelings towards Grenouille are wrong and that he is in fact the devilish being Suskind makes him out to be. Moving on to a time when Grenouille lived with Madame Gaillard, he was then treated as an outcast. “…..noticed that he had certain abilities and qualities that were highly unusual, if not to say supernatural: and childish fear of darkness and night seemed to totally foreign to him.” In this quote Suskind gives the character Madame Gillard first opinion on Grenouille overall as a child. In her opinion, she uses words like “unusual” to show that his character was not normal he was different, from anything she had ever seen. Also words like “super...
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is a novel written by Patrick Süskind tells the story of Grenouille, a man who knows he is a god amongst humans and his life 's goal is to make humanity view him this way. Observing the Süskind 's use of bildungsroman, anthropomorphism and foreshadowing, it can be stated that Grenouille 's realization that he had no scent of his own, was detrimental to his future decisions, to achieve his goal of being revered as though he was god on earth.
When Grenouille was born his mother immediately rejected him, opting to throw him in with the fish guts and get rid of him, and he spends the majority of his life in the same cycle. When he is put into the arms of his wet-nurse she takes a very strong disliking towards him and gives him back to the church, and he is then passed around like a hot potato until he’s done helping out Baldini. Grenouille’s rejection by society from the time he was born contributes to him spending seven years alone in a mountain which he only leaves because he rejects himself in a dream that makes him admit to himself that he has no scent.
The relationship shared by Pierre and Helene is best described as a lustful charade. It is no coincidence that Pierre, one of the most introspective characters in the novel, first marries a shallow, inwardly-ugly adulterer. His first recorded attitude towards Helene is one of admira...
This allows Süskind to explore the thoughts of other characters, allowing for a greater comprehension of their rejection of Grenouille, which is inherently due to his lack of scent; for example, his wet nurse leaves him with Father Terrier as she believes that he is evil because he “doesn’t smell at all” . The portrayal of Grenouille as a subhuman entity coupled with this narrative style causes the reader to subconsciously deem Grenouille to be subhuman.
Initially, the odor and conditions near Grenouille’s birthplace desensitize his mother’s cruelty. First, Süskind sets the scene as, “Millions of bones and skulls were shoveled into the catacombs of Montmartre and in its place a food market was erected” (4). The graphic idea of death that accompanies the setting description dulls the reader’s perception of Grenouille’s mother and her actions. Süskind repeatedly references the disheveled cemetery located next to the food market as a way of distracting the reader from what Grenouille’s mother plans to do. Then, Süskind depicts the fish stall scene as horribly unhygienic in order to detract from Grenouille’s mother’s inhumane decision to kill her own son. Süskind describes the setting with, “The fish, ostensibly taken that morning from the Seine, already stank so violently that the smell masked the odor of corpses” (4-5). The explicit and disgusting description and detail of the filthy landscape numbs the reader and distracts from Grenouille’s murderous mother.
During Grenouille’s childhood, Grenouille labors for Baldini and subjects himself to Talliade Espinasse. Despite being young and looked down upon, Grenouille exhibits aggressive, manipulative behavior through Biblical allusions. When bringing leather to Baldini, Grenouille says “ you want to make this leather I’ve brought you smell good, don’t you ? (71). Although Grenouille labors, Grenouille serves at a subservient position in order to provide the false illusion in that his masters have the ultimate power. Resembling the snake in the garden of Eden, Grenouille mimics snake like behaviors in order to deceive his masters into thinking they have ultimate power and to reach his objective. Grenouille only concerns himself with the leather for the benefit of him working for Baldini and reaching his goal of perfumery perfection. After Grenouille stops aiding Talliade Espinasse, Talliade leaves on his journey and “his followers waited that Christmas eve… he neither returned as an old man nor a young one” ( 161). Despite Christmas Eve being a time of Jesus’s birth, Talliade falls into death and misfortune. The ironic misfortune Talliade encounters signifies that characters that Grenouille interacts upon only serve to Grenouille’s desires and receive misfortune when they serve no purpose. This reinforces the role of inadequate
Suskind introduces the readers to the fact that in the novel it is a person’s scent, which makes someone human and gives them an identity. Suskind establishes a setting where everything is described by scent. Scent is given utter importance as everything stank, “the streets stank, the courtyards, the people stank of sweat and unwashed clothes”, which in turn posed them their identity. Since Grenouille lacked the basic scent, it exemplified that he had no identity and lacked ‘humanness’. Since Grenouille wanted to be accepted, he used his skills and his perfume to deceive the society and making them believe them that he existed. But at the same time Suskind enables the readers to come across Grenouille’s real identity through the use of metaphors.
These Enlightenment ideals become the embodiment of Grenouille as he progresses through France on a journey to fulfill a destiny he creates for himself. Grenouille becomes God throughout Perfume. Grenouille’s methods and actions allude to the ways God takes control of destiny and lead the people away from impurities. The three facets represent the idea of Grenouille taking a godly role among people. Grenouille creates, saves, and destroys and overall makes the lives of the people better in his lifetime.
The daughter of a wealthy architect, Dominique Francon is a powerful woman who is convinced the world is full of rotten corruption and that all things good have no chance of survival. She believes she understands the world of the successful.She perceives that in order to gain power, one must change and conform themselves to society and in doing so will lose their pride and dignity in oneself. She hates how society destroys talent, goodness and excellence. Society slowly corrupts the work of excellence and changes good into evil.
The power of scent is revealed to endow physical and mental manipulation of an individual within the novel Perfume. While in Madame Gaillard’s orphanage the children instigate physical violence against Grenouille as they “attempt murder” against him. The vehement tone of “murder” implies evil action that the children resort to as they are unable to comprehend Grenouille’s indifference. Reasoning,
Süskind describes Grenouille as such in order to show how humanity sucks the life from one another so as to serve their own purposes. He also uses a tick to show how resilient human beings are, as Süskind has Grenouille lay “dormant for years” until he “[scents] blood” and prepares to move into action once again (69). However, the bad connotation surrounding ticks seems to lend itself to the malignant nature of humans, as they can appear to be neutral or even good for a time, however they are merely waiting to strike once
Abstract Chapter 2, Social Pathology and Perspectives, begin with Dr. Earl Rubington and Dr. Martin Weinberg explaining the origin of the concept of defining what to do about a Social Problem. This chapter discusses the organic analogy, child savers, and a universal criterion for pathology, how pathology is used in everyday life and the moral premise of social pathology. The Concept of Social Problems First, Rubington and Weinberg suggest that urbanization, around the 19th century, was the root cause of social problems. The migration of farmers and countrymen into the cities and factories created situations where there were migrations from inside and outside of the American borders created unstable conditions for living and working.