Symbols from Perfume

Perfume-

·      Perfume acts as a disguise for the sins of humanity as perfume makes you smells good, masking the bad scent of humans

·      Perfume can change how people perceive one another, for example when Grenouille wanted sympathy from others he put on a perfume that “smelled of watery milk and fresh soft wood…Once they caught a whiff of him the market women filled his pockets with nuts and dried pears because he seemed to them so hungry and helpless. “ (Page 190)

·      Grenouille understands the power of scents and perfumes, “Odors have a power of persuasion stronger than that of words, appearances, emotions, or will. The persuasive power of an odor cannot be fended off, it enters into us like breath into our lungs, it fills us up, imbues us totally.” (Page 82) That’s why he can make the most pure and engulfing perfume by joining the scents of young, beautiful virgins. The scents of all the girls combined make people view Grenouille as this wonderful, innocent person. He wanted to create this perfume to make himself appear virtuous and angelic and thus make people love him.

·      Perfume is an important symbol as it is subtle and over looked but has enormous effects; perfume can act as a mask of perfection. This is what Grenouille makes himself to be by creating the perfume from the odors of all the young girls.

Human Odor-

·      Susking portrays the human odor to smell like “a sweaty-oily, sour cheesy, quite richly repulsive mixture”. The bad scent of humans can represent the sinful nature of humanity.

·      The scent of humans could symbolize the true nature of humans, and as scent of humans is horrible and disgusting it depicts the true nature of humans, sinful and imperfect.

·      Also by humans not being able to smell their own and each others disgusting scents, shows how they are so engulfed in sin that they cannot even recognize it.

Red-haired girl-

·      The red haired girl and the other girls Grenouille murders symbolize innocence and purity

·      They were all young, beautiful virgins, they were not yet tainted by the destructive and sinful nature of humanity

·      They have the most wonderful and indescribable odors that Grenoille has ever smelled, as they are so pure.

Cave-

·      The cave symbolizes Grenouille’s departure from society, he goes there to escape the stench of humanity

·      It is also a place where Grenouille’s olfactory senses are in concord, and for Grenouille because his olfactory senses are at peace, he feels as though he has been reborn.