PERFUME: THE STORY OF A
MURDERER
Novel by Patrick Sueskind
Powerpoint by Lorie Brown
PATRICK SUESKIND: THE LIFE AND STORY
The Man himself
Short Bio and facts
Born in Bavaria—or southern Germany—in 1949
in a town by Muenchen called Ambach an
Starnberger See.
His father, Wilhelm Emanuel Sueskind, also a
writer and journalist, was famous for his coauthoring of the essay collections called “From
the dictionary of the Inhuman”, a work on the
language of the Nazi era.
He is descended from the aristocracy of
Wuertemburg, his heritage extending back as far
as famous theologian and protestant reformer
Johannes Brenz in 15th century. He is also
related to Johan Albrecht Bengel a Greek
language scholar.
Coming from an educated family, Sueskind was
not only well-cultivated in writing but learned in
Latin, Greek, Spanish, English, Politics and
Theology—all courses he studied at the
University in Muenchen and then in France at
the Aix-en-Provence from 1968-1974.
He lived and studied in Paris using his parents’
as a financial crutch. There he spent his time
like any other artist in the flourishing artistic
Mecca, exploring the Urban atmosphere and
writing short stories and essays, as well as
gaining his inspiration for the novel.
OTHER WORKS AND MOTIVATIONS
His first work that helped him establish his breakthrough in 1981 was a play
called The Doublebass, a story of a man and his love hate relationship with his
musical instrument that portrays humanity’s own self-importance.
Other works of his that are popular in Germany are The Pigeon, and The story
of Mr. Sommer, all published in the late eighties and early nineties.
Although he stuck mainly to the writing of novels and short stories he also
wrote the screenplay for Rossini—for which he won the Screenplay prize of
German Culture—and other T.V productions.
However, his most famous work continues to be Das Parfum, or Perfume: the
story of a murderer, which has been translated into 46 languages and was
made into a film directed by Tom Tyker.
For this work he has been proclaimed the most well-known contemporary
German writer; Perfume was considered the bestselling novel in Germany by
Der Spiegel, a German newspaper, for nine years in a row.
There are no records of him being married or ever being in any serious
relationships; he has no known children and very little is known about his
personal life.
Today, he continues to live a reclusive life in his hometown, refusing any
interviews and keeping to himself. He has no recent works and keeps quietly to
himself.
PHOTOS OF OTHER WORKS
CONTEXT
The Cold War and separation between west and
east Germany.
Reunification, the fall of the Berlin wall.
Some Nazi perspective: Grenouille, the tick,
learning to take advantage of scent for his own
value, can be seen as a dictator.
PLOT SYNOPSIS
Jean Baptiste Grenouille is born into a pile of fish innards under the table of a fish sellers
stand where his mother leaves him to die.
Rejected by everyone at a young age—the nurse who dumps him, the priest who fears him,
and the children who try to kill him—Grenouille is sent to a tanner, where his job of mixing
poisonous tanning fluids proved to be very dangerous.
Grenouille is sent to Master Giuseppe Baldini to deliver hides, where he proves the worth
of his nose by recreating a rival perfumer’s scent, Amor and Psyche, before Baldini; he is
taken immediately as an apprentice.
Baldini uses Grenouille to make him terribly rich while Grenouille learns the art of
distillery; things however deteriorate as Grenouille finds that distilling cannot preserve the
scent of all objects. He falls fatally ill, only to recover when Baldini assures him that he can
learn other ways to preserve scent in Grasse.
Grenouille attempts to go to Grasse but finds himself taken where his nose goes, a place in
the mountains of olfactory peace, where he sleeps in a cave and eats moss and snakes for
seven years. He returns on his journey to Grasse when he finds that he, the emperor of
scent, has no scent of his own, A baffling and contradictory discovery.
He encounters a man by the name of Taillade-Espinasse, a reknowned scientist, with a
theory called Fluidium letale, that believes Grenouille to be under the infectious and killer
influence of earth’s gas after being trapped in a cave by thieves for so long. He reforms
Grenouille appearance by treating him for his illness, basically giving him a make-over.
Here he learns to master the scents of humans and begins his master perfume, a scent
made of the mixtures of virgins. A scent so potent, it could make him ruler of the world.
THEMES AND MOTIFS
Scent and Perfumes: Not only does it describe the very essence of objects and things but the
soul and personality of each individual. Although people without talents similar to
Grenouille are unaware of their scents power on others, it tells their intentions and
provides an effect or a hunch on others. Grenouille utilizes this to make scents of each
personality to help him commit his crimes. The scent of inconspicuous people, agreeable
people, charming people, he makes them all to get his way. However, he has no soul of his
own because he has no scent, which distances him from the rest of humanity—the reason
everyone finds him to be so repulsing.
“Nothing was found, not the bodies, not the safe, not the little books with their six hundred
formulas. Only one thing remained of Guiseppe Baldini, Europe’s greatest perfumer; a very
motley odor—of musk, cinnamon, vinegar,lavender, and a thousand others things—that
took several weeks to float high above the Seine from Paris to Le Havre.”
Virgins: They exude a scent completely dynamic and characteristic only of the young, pure,
blossoming woman and it infatuates all those who succumb to it; it is the literal smell of
innocence, like an angel. In a corrupt world, they are desired and those surrounding them
want to destroy whatever innocence they have. Grenouille, in an even more abominable
fashion, tries to preserve their innocence by destroying it in the most final of ways. Death.
Insects and Ticks: Constantly, Grenouille is compared to a lurking, dormant tick or bug of
some sort, giving him the imagery of a despicable being with no sense in appearing human.
He is the ultimate parasite, feeding on everyone about him he can get his grasp on until he
no longer has any use for them—each time he is finished with his host they expire.
RHETORICAL TECHNIQUES AND ANALYSIS
Extended Metaphor and Simile
Extensive Imagery
Little Dialogue
Third person Omniscient
Deep contrast between monstrosity and innocence.
““The young Grenouille was such a tick. He encapsulated in himself and waited for better times. He gave the
world nothing but his dung—no smile, no cry, no glimmer in the eye, not even his own scent. Every other
woman would have kicked this monstrous child out.”
Not only does Grenouille live a quite disturbing existence in the eyes of humanity by living off very little but
consuming for all it is worth whenever he is given a chance but unlike the others he lacks scent—in this
case any and all personality and human sociability. The boy is incapable of being snuffed out from this
world and it would be a better world if he could be as he has the power to look on the inside of every nook
and cranny of a person’s soul yet if that person could see inside his they would find nothing. Despite, their
inability to perceive the world of scent that he may, their human instincts do tell them that inside him there
is nothing to observe; he doesn’t show any emotions because he has none.
“The child seemed to be smelling right through his skin, into his innards. His most tender emotions, his
filthiest thoughts lay exposed to that greedy little nose, which wasn’t even a proper nose, but only a pug of a
nose, a tiny perforated organ, forever crinkling and puffing and quivering. Terrier shuddered. He felt sick to
his stomach.”
It is merely the beginning of the story and thus far we know the main character—a protagonist who is not
supported and more than slightly reviled by the audience—to be simply an infant, a baby that is helpless
and would normally deserve all the pity and chance in the world. Yet, Sueskind utilizes in this quote a word
choice appropriate for all the monstrosities present in the world to establish this child almost immediately
as an abomination. This portrayal of a baby, a commonly soft and precious soul, sniffing the innards of a
man and sucking the air for all its worth in a judgement not appropriate for a child, leaves the audience
with a very tainted and disgusted image of a monster; the contrast of baby and a sniffling beast being joined
together is ultimately repulsing and unwelcoming and the audience immediately starts off disliking the
character.
THE NOVEL IN COMPARISON TO THE FILM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES_rfgjeTuE
The film keeps the narration and follows the book
relatively well, leaving out some important scenes that add
to the magical realism aspects to the book, such as the
myth of Fluidum letale.
Grenouille is far more good looking than the book describes
him—not uncommon for Hollywood. He lacks a club foot,
and shows no serious scaring from his many diseases; he is
far more confident in the beginning of the book, and he is
not shown to be quite as big of an abomination as in the
novel rather a mere annoyance.
Brings out the Fairytale elements of the story but by
making it more gruesome makes it too sinister to be a
mere story—magical realism weaves into the film this way.
The director adds his own artistic finesse to the story by
adding his own plot elements with the legend of the ancient
Egyptian tombs, and turning the making of the perfume
into a craft of unimaginable feats for Grenouille.
