Grenouille’s association to the Devil is a biblical allusion intended by Süskind as it highlights his defiance of religion and his transcendence of God. In reference to the Bible, Lucifer began as God’s right-hand angel, yet chose a path of defiance in order to surpass God – this is directly likened to Grenouille as he also chooses a path of defiance in a society that so greatly abides to Christianity. This relates to the theme of existentialism; Grenouille constantly alters his life path. He accomplishes this by controlling others with the sovereignty of his olfactory senses. Jeanne Bussie’s claims foreshadow Grenouille’s future years of insubordination, and his development of a God complex, considering himself greater than God. His God complex is foremost when Grenouille successfully mimics the human scent that he lacks, ‘How miserable this God smelled! How ridiculously bad the scent that this God let spill from Him. God Stank. God was a poor little stinker. He had been swindles, this God had, or was Himself a swindler, no different from Grenouille – only a considerably worse one!’ Süskind not only capitalizes the pronouns referring to God, but the ones referring to Grenouille. This emphasises his inflated ego, depicting him as worthy, if not worthier, than God, as he goes so far as to insult and patronize him. Grenouille’s sense of superiority exists so wholly that not only does he apply inferiority to humanity, he applies it to what is consider to be the ultimate force, God.
The insignificance of surrounding characters and their ephemeral existence in the novel further reinforces Grenouille’s egoism and grandeur, and in turn draws the theme of isolation. Through out the novel, Süskind creates the length of the chapters particularly short, especially when they are in relation to people Grenouille encounters. This is so to emphasise insignificance of external characters and draws the reader closer to Grenouille. Süskind manipulates the reader by doing this, allowing the reader detachment from humanity in the novel, so they experience Grenouille’s exclusivity and importance. By adopting this technique, Süskind centralises the theme of isolation. Grenouille is not rejected from society so much so as it is self-inflicted – he prefers solitude with out interaction “And then, left alone, at last – once again”, this reiterates the theme of existentialism as he chooses isolation, rather than obliging to it. Superiority is apparent in this decision as he indulges himself in what he wants, not what he must do, contrasting with surrounding society.
In relation to other characters, Grenouille acts as an agent of death. The few characters he interacts with either die undignified deaths upon their disassociation from Grenouille, or are not referred to again through out the novel. This reoccurring motif of death symbolizes him as an instigator of destruction, and also links to biblical allusions that denote him as demonic. This is supported by the metaphor likening him to a tick, ‘the tick, stubborn, sullen, and loathsome, huddles there and lives and waits. Waits, for the most improbable of chances that will bring blood, in animal form, directly beneath its tree. And only then does it abandon caution and drop, and scratch and bore and bite into that alien flesh’, the repetition of ‘and’ highlights his gluttonous nature – taking with out limit. The use of diction symbolizes his disparaging manner in his greed. Grenouille takes limitlessly, and only leaves when the victim is drained or dead. Furthermore, this also relates back to him being an agent of death, yet is almost invincible to death itself. The control that Grenouille possesses and utilizes highlights his sense of superiority, as he imposes it with out bound.
Not only does Grenouille possess control over humanity, but over prevailing forces such as life and death, giving him a prime sense of ascendancy. Grenouille begins fighting, tenaciously, for life; he evades his own demise just as successfully, ‘as tough as a resistant bacterium and as content as a tick’, with this additional comparison to a bacterium, the reader registers the full extent of Grenouille’s invulnerable nature. This defiance of death began from the moment he was born, willing to survive at the expense of his mother being executed for infanticide, ‘That cry, emitted upon careful consideration, one might almost say upon mature consideration, was the newborn's decision against love and nevertheless for life’. Through the use of irony we can see Grenouille’s distinction from the typical newborn; he made the mature decision to take a life with out love – a mature acceptance. This presentation of mature decision-making further emphasises his sense of superiority as he entitles himself to life. This decision to maintain life is recurrent through out the novel, as like a ‘resistant bacterium’, he represses death.
His greatest avoidance of death came at his execution, where using the ultimate perfume as his control, he maneuvered the crowd to revere him. ‘He, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille...an abomination within and without –he had managed to make the world admire him. To hell with admire! Love him! Desire him! Idolise him! He was Grenouille the Great!’ Süskind contrasts Grenouille’s life prior to concocting the perfume and post utilising it on humankind – this permits the reader to catalogue the full of extent of his power; not only did he elude his own execution, but managed to become the prime entity of infatuation and love. He’s bestowed ‘Grenouille the Great’ this highlights his narcissism and pride as a result of his accomplishment. This quote also relates to his God complex, as the narrator uses the diction of ‘idolise’. Süskind uses the hyperbole of ‘the world’ to emphasise the sheer potential of Grenouille’s creation. Ironically, the sovereignty of his perfume guides him to instigate his own suicide, ‘He had sprinkled himself all over with the contents of the bottle and all at once he had been bathed in beauty like blazing fire.’ The simile comparing his beauty to a fire expresses the grandeur of his suicide – being the only character that ended their life in a dignified manner. This stresses the fact that his end came at his own command due to ‘his whole disgust for humankind’. Grenouille’s entitlement to life and death differentiates him from the rest of humanity, heightening his sense of superiority to proud peaks, so much so that he chooses to depart from a dimension not worthy of him or his power.
‘Perfume: The Story of a Murder’, is a novel by Patrick Süskind that conveys the importance of olfactory aptitude; Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is depicted as the prime character, possessing extreme feelings of self-importance and superiority. Süskind conveys these feelings through biblical allusions, comparing Grenouille to the Devil, highlighting his defiance, and furthermore, transcendence of God, and in this, his control over humankind and his entitlement to decide his own life and death. What might just be considered to be a hyper sense of scent is depicted as the utmost quality in this novel, conferring primacy and dominance through the sheer control.
by
lotslova1 (student)
