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How does the author enable the reader to share the experience of the main character? Patrick Suskind's use of visual imagery captures the audiences's else of smell by dragging the reader into this world of hideous stench. Perfume is unique as it creates a reality by 'painting a picture' in the mind of the reader through the olfactory senses. Suskind does, on many occasions, manipulate the readers' basic instincts through the novel's protagonist, Jean Baptiste Grenouille.
Suskind is successful in the way that he takes the reader into his story through the use of very vivid detail in his description of the odours in this book in the way that other authors describe surroundings. Suskind's writing technique is also distinctive in the way that he uses phrases and imagery to make what initially seem to be violent and grotesque descriptions an erotic and sexual encounter. This is a prominent theme when the main character is murdering his young virgins and dissecting various 'smells. ' Through these various techniques of Suskind's, we are drawn into the world of Jean Baptiste Grenouille. It is to be analysed in this essay how we are able to experience what Grenouille feels. The reader is confronted with the issues of acceptance and finding love both of which are relevant to human nature thus the audience is able to sympathise with him.
He cannot achieve acceptance in society by being who he really is. He therefore strives to achieve this by killing in order to obtain the ultimate scent. It is with this scent that he will no longer be odour less and feared Another theme which is brought into play is exploitation. In Perfume anyone who exploits Grenouille either dies or suffers.
We are present at the birth of Grenouille, his admittance into the orphanage and consequent abuse, Baldini's discovery of Grenouille's gift, his self-imposed hibernation and his manipulation of the masses at his near execution. We are present It could be argued that this is made possible by the sympathy we feel for this man who is described as a beast whom everyone fears. Yet, at the same time we are faced with the conflicting emotions that we feel for Grenouille. We admire his intelligence and his amazing sense of smell which leads to his success in achieving acceptance from society. The reassuring issue that is repeated in the readers mind is that we understand why Grenouille has to kill but we do not excuse this behaviour.
This is the on going debate that the reader has while we are sharing the experience of Grenouille through his journey and his quest for acceptance and not to be feared of. With issues raised previously, Suskind is able to bring the reader into the world of Grenouille. He first introduces the reader in to an elaborate description of horrible, hideous stench of smells that the reader is instantly bombarded with at the beginning of the novel. Perfume is set in 18 th Century France and the stench described by Suskind is 'barely conceivable to use modern men and women. '; Patrick Suskind cleverly gives his audience a 'taste' of smells that the reader has been completely oblivious to and is made to become very aware. Various words are emphasised such as 'stank'; and 'stench'; which are used repetitively. Phrases such as 'the pungently sweet aroma'; , 'the stench of sulphur& # 8230; '; 'united parlours'; , 'congealed blood'; , 'manure'; and 'urine. '; This first introduction of smells being presented to the reader is used to 'paint a picture' for the reader of the atmosphere that is created by these smells and preparing the reader for what has yet to come.
Suskind enables the reader to share Grenouille's first encounter of debauchery and at this stage it is the first time he achieves true happiness. At the innocent age of fifteen it almost shocks the reader of the determination and longing for acceptance Grenouille feels towards 'capturing' the smell of a young virgin: 'His whole life would be bungled, if he, Grenouille, did not succeed in possessing it. He has to have it, not simply in order to possess it, but for his heart to be at peace. '; The reader is confronted with the desperation and the need for 'his heart to be at peace'; and that he will go at any lengths to achieve that. We are also shown how a grotesque act of murder is made to be both erotic and sexual, this is made evident in the encounter that Grenouille has with the young women and how he 'captures' her smell. This also shows Patrick Suskind's success in manipulating the reader. It is almost mesmerizing how we see Jean Baptiste Grenouille transcend from a human into a beast displaying animal like characteristics.
The reader is able to see this metamorphosis after he strangles the young women and begins to 'smell' her. 'When she was dead he laid her on the ground among the plum pits, tore off her dress, and the stream of scent became a flood that inundated him with its fragrance. He trusted his face to her skin and swept his flared nostrils across her, from belly to breast, to neck, over her face and hair, done to her genitals, to her thighs and white legs. '; Words such as 'tore off'; , 'trusted'; , 'flared nostrils'; creates this image of an animal in hunting, which is exactly what Grenouille does he 'hunts' the women for her scent. Suskind is able to use Grenouille to show the reader that he is still a human with human emotions. It is in this case that Suskind shows Grenouille achieving happiness for the first time: 'Never before in his life had he known what happiness was. He knew at most some very rare states of numbed contentment. But now he was quivering with happiness and could not sleep for pure bliss. '; It is in fact, the first stage in the book where we are brought to understand the transition for Grenouille.
This is where he is beginning to understand who he really is. It is hard to accept how he can achieve this revelation just after he has murdered a young woman all to 'capture' and 'savour' a woman's scent. 'It was if he has been born a second time; no not a second time, the first time, for until now he has merely existed like an animal with a most nebulous self-awareness. But after today, he felt as if he finally knew who he really was: nothing less than a genius. '; We are able to sympathise because he is an outcast in society for reasons that he omits no odour, it could be said that he is a victim. A victim of prejudice and that is many of the ways that the audience can 'feel' for Grenouille. Suskind grabs the audiences attention with the vilest descriptions of illness that falls over Grenouille. With these descriptions the audience is brought 'face on' with these gruesome descriptions to share Grenouille's unpleasant experience.
These grotesque visual images that Suskind creates are repulsive and effective. While the reader progresses through the various unpleasant smells, even though we are placed in environments which is extremely foul the most powerful vulgarity that he uses is 'shit'; . The element of surprise at the use of this profanity adds to the effectiveness. This is because he doesn't need to use vulgar, common words in order to create a foul atmosphere. As mentioned, an unpleasant experience that we share with Grenouille is through his illness which is made particularly graphic by Suskind: 'Grenouille's body was strewn with reddish blisters. Many of them popped open, releasing their watery contents, only to fill up again.
Others grew into true boils, swelling up thick and red and then erupting like craters, spewing vicious pus and blood streaked with yellow. In time, with his hundreds ulcerous wounds, Grenouille looked liked some martyr stoned inside out'; (Page 104) One of the most important event that Grenouille experiences is his self-imposed hibernation where he seeks to fin his own odour. The readers sense of smell goes 'off the scale'; when the idea of a man wearing the same clothes for seven years and the smells that is described. We are also confronted with the disappointment Grenouille feels when he realises that he has no odour even for seven years that he had the same clothes on he hopes that 'they had to be fully saturated with his own odour'; but when he comes to the conclusion that 'only one odour was not there-his own odour'; At this point he realises the insecurity that he feels towards himself. It is ironic that he is quick to analyse others by their smell and know everything about them by their odour. However Grenouille is struck with this fear that 'what he now felt was the fear of not knowing much of anything about himself. '; It is in fact, this insecurity that Grenouille possesses, readers can once again identify with him.
This self-imposed hibernation can be compared to Grenouille finding his identity so that he can understand who he really is. When that ideal of finding himself collapses, Grenouille becomes uncertain and he experiences fear. It is unknown to the reader for Grenouille to be portrayed as a character who feels fear for he has displayed characteristics of confidence in who is he by killing young virgins and showing his overwhelming desire to develop the 'ultimate scent' at any cost. We could describe Grenouille as cold, physically weak and out of the ordinary. It is understandable why he has grown up to be cold and withdrawn. From the time he is born, he is rejected by his Mother, aroused fear in both his wet nurse and father terrier who took him to care as a young child and ignored and shunned by children at the orphanage.
The reader is taken through these experiences and it is in these events that we form a relationship with Grenouille, even though his thoughts and feelings are conveyed through the third person, by Patrick Suskind. We create an opinion of Grenouille, it can be to the point where we can find his intelligence and determination almost admirable, but as mentioned previously, the contradicting attitude we feel for Grenouille is that we detest what he does in order to achieve his 'ultimate scent' in order to gain power and acceptance in society. Through this analysis of how Patrick Suskind enables the reader to share the experience of Grenouille is by the events that happen to Grenouille personally. Patrick Suskind's prepares the reader for grotesque descriptions of smells and murder at the beginning of the novel. Following this, is why Grenouille shows such a strong desire to obtain the perfect scent, how he yearns for acceptance and not to be an outcast in society. We sympathise with Grenouille and how society is ignorant of his gift yet he displays cold and ruthless behaviour.
We also are disgusted with the lengths that he goes to to direct these smells.
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Research essay sample on Sense Of Smell Enables The Reader
