“Perfume” is a cross-genre novel indited by the German author, Patrick Süskind in 1985. Set in seventeenth-century France, the novel pertains to the life of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a sociopathic, enlightened Parisian whose hyperosmia, and ardent desire to experience olfactory pleasure, leads him to murder twenty-six virgin girls, twenty-five of whom were used to create the ultimate perfume. Greouille’s propensity for perfume is accentuated by the use of “Perfume” as the novels title; it is Grenouille’s passion, exemplified by his desire to “possess everything the world could offer in the way of odours” and recreate the human scent.
Süskind utilises a third person narrative through-out the novel, distancing the readers from Grenouille; they are not privy to his
…show more content…
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.
Süskind explores subhumanity through the behaviour of Grenouille’s mother. Grenouille’s mother, the deuteragonist, abandons Grenouille after childbirth, and professes that “she would have let the thing perish” upon being apprehended. Using “let” accentuates her lack of care for the child; not only is her indifference such that she is willing to let him perish, but she refuses to end the child’s suffering, preferring to allow him to die rather directly causing it. The noun “thing” perpetuates this; it can be assumed that Grenouille’s mother is unaware of her child’s gender, thus limiting her to gender neutral terminology. Furthermore, the use of
Throughout John Gardner’s Grendel, the audience bears witness to a creature who has been ostracized by the world around him. Throughout his journey, the stories protagonist tries to live out his own life the way he wants to, despite being labeled as evil by those around him. Due to this constant criticism by his peers, he develops an inferiority complex that he desperately tries to make up for as the story progresses. Throughout his development, Grendel very rapidly moves past his existentialist beginning, through a brief phase of forced skepticism, and into a severely nihilistic point of view.
...st person. The narrator is looking back on this story and remembering things from a child’s point of view. The reader only sees the narrator’s opinion in the story, but that allows the reader to have his own opinions as well, questioning the literary work constantly. This makes the story more complex and permits the reader to wonder what is going on inside each of the characters’ heads.
This essay will include “The Necklace”, “Civil Peace”, and “The Thrill of the Chase”. The necklace is a great example of how our desires can create tragedy rather than happiness. Madame Forestier would have rather been idolized for her wealth instead of buying items that grant her survival. She says,”It’s just that I have no evening dress and so I can’t go to the party.”
In her, “Modernity and the Spaces of Feminity,” Griselda Pollock questions the representations and myths of modernity in Paris during the nineteenth century. The Impressionist movement, dominated by a masculine perspective, represent Paris as being the new place for recreation, leisure and unrestrained pleasure. But, what about Impressionist women painters? what was their point of view? Pollock argues that a historical asymmetry, which is a social and economical difference produced by a social structuration of sexual difference, determined both what and how men and women painted. Therefore, in order to analyze female Impressionist, we must take into consideration that they share the same social system produced by a sexual differentiation, hence,
Why is this picture used to sell perfume? The action in the picture is meant to be something that we all desire. To get the perfume would mean that our wildest fantasies could come true. However, the Greek statue is needed to remind us that this in not always good. The beauty, passion, and classicism are all features of the overall image that are brought on by the clothes and lack of clothes, the idealness of the model's body, and the classic aura of the statue, all aspects of ancient Greece.
The reason I think suskind chose this analogy of a tick is because , Grenouille character lives and breathes off the satisfaction of stealing other women scent to quench his mental thirst to have any specific scent he likes through any means necessary, just like a tick which literally lives and breathes off stealing other animals and humans blood to survive. This analogy reveals how deep Grenouille passion is for the scent and perfume he smells.
In the short story “An Adventure in Paris” by Guy De Maupassant an unnamed woman seeks for adventure, love, and excitement. An unnamed narrator starts to explain the inner nature and curiosity of a woman. The story transitions to the point of view of an unnamed lawyer’s wife which allows us to see her deepest desire to travel to Paris and be part of the lavishing life she has seen in the magazines. To escape her regular routine she makes a plan to go to Paris; however, her family members are only middle class and cannot help her fulfill her desire to live the life of a celebrity, fame, and fashion. Just when her trip seems to be monotonous she comes across the chance to live the life of an extravagant person. This chance happens when she meets Jean Varin, a wealthy author, in a store wanting to purchase a Japanese figurine. When Varin decides that the figurine is too expensive the lawyer’s wife steps up to buy the figurine which causes Varin to notice her. She flirtatiously invites herself into Varin’s daily activities which intrigue Varin. As the day closes she invites herself to Varin’s house and has an affair with Varin; however, she doesn’t feel she is satisfied because of his many needs. She anxiously waits till morning to come so that she can leave which only confuses Varin. When Varin asks her why she is leaving after all they have been through she states that she wanted to know what depravity felt like; however, it was not what she expected. The central idea of the story is about a woman’s psychological desire for romance, adventure, and an opulent lifestyle that leads to curiosity and the immoral act of adultery.
Since the story was written in the third person objective, it is easier for the reader to remain objective while analyzing the story. If we one were to hear the story from on of the character’s point of view, the retelling of the story would be clouded with various em...
...had identified him as evil and emotionless can no longer accept the fact that someone as plain and seemingly ordinary as Grenouille could have committed these violent crimes. On the execution field though, Grenouille shows that he is an alien being capable of more than humans. His intoxicating perfume made from the scent of adolescent girls is enough to overpower the minds of the people present. His alienation from birth onward into his self imposed alienation from the world lead him to become Grenouille the Great, swindling the public into thinking he was akin to other humans, in order to ultimately captivate the people of Grasse with his sublime concoction of scent. Grenouille however, discovers that captivation of human sentiment and love through his perfume is not what he wants, and decides that he has no other purpose for living in the world and ends his life.
The protagonists, The Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, consider it their life’s ambition to sadistically control and dominate those around them through sexual intrigue. These two villains are indeed locked in psychological combat to see who can actually ‘out-do’ the other in stalking, capturing and destroying the souls of others. Taking absolute pleasure in ripping any virtue from the hearts of their prey, Merteuil and Valmont wave their accomplishments in front of each other like spoils of war. The less the chance of surrender, the more relentless is the pursuit.
It’s the most iconic perfume that changed the world of fragrance. Chanel wanted to create a scent that was modern, classy and represented women. “Perfumer Ernest Beaux produced a portfolio of samples for Mademoiselle to try- and she chose the fifth proposal” (“Chanel”, n.d). It was composed of eight different ingredients making her perfume more complex than any in the market. She was the first designer to put her name on a fragrance and replaced the typical perfume packaging for a more sleek, simple look. This was an extraordinary scent and it is still around
This essay will analyze and critique Michel Foucault’s (1984) essay The Use of Pleasure in order to reveal certain internal weaknesses it contains and propose modifications that would strengthen his reading of sexuality as a domain of moral self-formation. In order to do so, it will present a threefold critique of his work. Firstly, it will argue that that his focus on solely the metric of pleasure divorced from its political manifestations underemphasizes state power as a structuring principle of sexuality. Secondly, it will posit that his attention to classical morality privileges written works by male elites and fails to account for the subtexts that would demonstrate other forms of morality. Finally, it will argue that the nature of actors’ resistance to moral codes, explicated through Butler’s concept of iterability and signification, is an important factor that should also be considered. As a result of this critique, this essay
Süskind uses the element of innocence as a means to juxtapose the positive elements of humanity to the negative elements. Innocence is showcased throughout the novel, most notably the plum girl. The author portrays the innocence of the young girl through her physical characteristics, such as “her delicate, freckled face, her red lips, her large sparkling green eyes”(Süskind 42). When Süskind describes the young girl, he creates a foil between her and Grenouille. Süskind emphasizes her youthful beauty when Grenouille describes it as “inconceivable, indescribable”(Süskind 40). Frog is the direct translation of grenouille stressing his grotesque nature and shape, because of the essential difference that Grenouille has no smell. Furthermore this innocence is repeatedly seen with Grenouille, the first when he was searching for the scent of the plum girl, “he had to understand its smallest detail, to follow it to its last delicate tendril; the mere memory however complex, was not enough”(Süskind 42).Grenouille’s complete fascination with this smell can be compared to the fascination seen within a child in respect to its surrounding. The second time Grenouille e...
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
The narrator in Suskind’s Perfume has many different personas, similar to a kaleidoscopic view. The narrator transforms from a friend, to gossiper, to reader’s friend, to historian, journalist, an accomplice and eventually the reader learns that the narrator fundamentally is Grenouille. These changes are made progressively throughout the novel, which causes the reader to be too distracted with the storyline to realize that the narrator in Perfume is very untrustworthy.