Grenouille's Tick-Like Nature in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Perfume, written by Patrick Suskind, explores the effect of a loveless life on the main character, Grenouille. From the first breath he draws, Grenouille must fight for himself. Through his tick-like nature, Grenouille absorbs power from his authority figures, leaving them lifeless while simultaneously achieving his goal. As his goals shift Grenouille moves from submission to dominance, and ultimately achieves total control over humanity. Suskind uses Grenouille’s journey to comment on the universal struggle of mankind to find his place in the world.

Grenouille dominates the authoritative figures in his life from a submissive position. At his birth Grenouille recognizes the necessity of bowing to those above him in order to survive. As his mother gives birth and “wishes only for the pain to stop” so she could “live for a while yet and perhaps even marry,” Grenouille lays silent under the fish stand (Suskind 5). This pattern continues as Grenouille fights to find his identity among the rest of the world. Moving on from his mother, Grenouille quietly observes all the rules set by Madame Gaillard, meekly allows Grimal to treat him as a slave, and willingly grants Baldini’s life goal of becoming the best perfumer in all of France. By allowing himself to act submissively, Grenouille earns the trust of the authorities, which gives him the freedom to become a tick. For instance, Grimal sees only the profit in Grenouille whose “Life was worth precisely as much as the work he could accomplish” (Suskind 31). Once Grenouille overcomes his bout of anthrax, Grimal allows Grenouille more freedom. Grenouille maintains his submissiveness, waiting for the right time to strike, just as a tick waits for the right moment to bite.

As Grenouille gain...

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...uggle of finding his place among humankind, he achieves total control through a systematic system of feeding off of his authorities. He begins with small goals to overtly dominate these authorities until he becomes strong enough to face and defeat them head on. Once Grenouille becomes the curator of total control and all his goals met, he sees no reason to continue living. In his tick-like nature Grenouille moves from submissiveness to dominance to total control by absorbing the powers from his former authority figures. Suskind uses this representation to demonstrate the brutal nature of society as an ‘every man for them self’ organization. Much like Grenouille, social climbers use their positions to better themselves and achieve their goals.

Works Cited

Süskind, Patrick. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. Tr. John E. Woods. New York: Vintage

International, 2001.