An examination of the techniques used in the morgue scene in Therese Raquin and the fish market in Perfume will be carried out to see the purpose and effect these settings have on the readers.

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Fabio Faltoni

An examination of the techniques used in the morgue scene in Therese Raquin and the fish market in Perfume will be carried out to see the purpose and effect these settings have on the readers.

Both in Therese Raquin, written by Emile Zola, and Perfume, by Patrcik Suskind, the morgue and the fish market are presented as grotesque and really unpleasant environments. In both settings, the authors help reinforce this atmosphere by emphasizing and focusing their descriptions by using sensorial imagery. Smell and sight are the two main senses that make these narrations more realistic. In this essay, I will analyze how the use of sensorial imagery and the choice of words help to portray the grotesqueness of both scenes.

The novel Perfume by Patrick Suskind, heavily relies on the use of sensorial imagery, especially smell, to make Paris, but more specifically the fish market a grotesque place. "The stench was barely conceivable... the streets stank of manure and the courtyards of urine." (pg 3). Suskind goes on describing how practically every corner of the city smelled of putrid things, including moldering wood, rat droppings, stale dust, congealed blood. Not only the