Jeanne Bussie

• Another person who pays attention to the sense of smell. She is the first to realise Grenouille's lack of smell and that he is evil. “This baby makes my flesh creep because it doesn't smell the way children ought to smell.”
• Unlike Father Terrier, Jeanne Bussie does understand how things smell and what they smell like, but even she fears Grenouille. Not because of his fascination with scent, like Father Terrier does, but his lack of it.
• Foreshadows the things Grenouille will do in the future by labling him as evil.

Father Terrier

• Initially he's the kindest to Grenouille. He also pays attention to the sense of smell. “He breathed the scent of milk and cheesy wool... it was a pleasant aroma.” “He's used to the smell of your breast.” He's also described with smells, said to have a “light odor of vinegar”.
• However, Grenouille's fascination with scent, even as a baby, terrifies him and he begins the pattern of people discarding Grenouille after they begin to fear him. Even people who also rely on scent are repulsed by Grenouille, since they don't understand it.

Grenouille's Mother

• Grenouille's mother's treatment of him sets up Grenouille for being repulsive throughout the novel. “revolting birth”.
• She creates sympathy for Grenouille, since she obviously doesn't care about him or even see him as human.
• While Grenouille has a very strong scent of smell and relies on it, his mother is different in that “her sense of smell had been utterly dulled” since she's used to the horrible smell of the fish markets. The smell is just an “unbearable, numbing something”. This is juxtaposed with how disgusting it has been described already by the phrase “like a field of lillies or a small room filled with too many daffodils”.

LAURE the..girl.

*The book I'm using is the one with the cover of orange colour and a picture of a..woman.

Name: Laure Richis

Chapters with her appearance: 35 (p165-172), 41 (p199-202), 46 (p219-221)

Very short summaries of each chapter:
Chapter 35 = Grenouille first smells her and her "fatally wonderful scent (p169)" gives him a specific purpose/goal, which is to make an "ultimate" perfume.

Chapter 41 = Depicts Antoine Richis's strong (and sexual) love towards his own daughter; describes her from his perspectives (building on the description from Grenouille's viewpoint).

Chapter 46 = She dies.

Laure's functionality + significance to Grenouille and to the novel:
- She gives Grenouille, the main character, a clear goal which moves on the pace of the story, because it is that goal making Grenouille to carry out "no fewer than twenty-four (p198)" murders

- In order to perfectly acquire this scent, Grenouille then begins to master his skills as both a perfumer and a murderer

- Hence because of her - or specifically her scents - makes Grenouille to kill other young women to supplement the scent of Laure in his "ultimate" perfume = this causes a "sense of horror (p197)" all over Grasse, as well as in "countryside (p196)"

- The murders of these "lovely, young girls (p195)" spread fear and horror over the place. The town council with a "committee of thirty of the richest and most influential commoners and nobles in Grasse (p197)" at first did not pay the "least attention to the bishop (p197)" because the majority of them were "enlightened and anticlerical (p197)". However, "in their distress (p197)", they write an "abject petition begging (p197)" the bishop to "curse...this monster (p197)" = conveys the ridiculousness of Enlightment and the power & effect of religion during that period

- Therefore shows the theme of Enlightment and Religion

- (not directly related to her functionality/significance) The reaction of Grenouille after smelling her scents or the way Monsieur Richis (her father) loves and looks at her clearly portrays her beauty and the power of it [quotes at the end of this post]

Some useful quotes:
Chapter 35

• "And yet he stood there. Something else was holding him fast" (p168)
• "Fatally wonderful scent" (p169)
• "A scent so exquisite that... his nose had never before encountered one like it" (p169)
• "Grenouille turned hot with rapture and cold with fear" (169)
• "Blood rushed to his head as if he were a little boy caught red-handed" (p170)
• "Brought tears of bliss to his eyes" (p170)
• "He was dizzy, he tottered a little... sinking slowly down" (p170)
• "She had dazzlingly white skin. She had green eyes" (p170)
• "Green buds of flowers before they blossom" (p171)
• (Comparing with the plumb girl) "not as robust, not as voluminous, but more refined, more richly nuanced... more natural" (p171)
• "Her incomparable, splendid scent!" (p172)
• "Rare flower" (p172)
• "It excited him too much" (p172)

Chapter 41

• "The most precious thing that Richis possessed... was his daughter" (p200)
• "She had a face so charming that visitors... would stand stock-still at the sight of her" (p200)
• "Licking that face with their eyes... that typically stupid, single-minded expression on their faces" (p200)
• "Richis would catch himself looking at his daughter... forgetting the rest of the world" (p200)
• "Magnificent girl" (p200)
• "Her hips and breasts were molded... contoured shoulder, elbow, and smooth forearm" (p200)
• "He would feel an awful cramping in his stomach" (p200)
• "Curse himself for being this woman's father and not some stranger" (p200)
• "Full of desire could lie down next to her, on her, in her" (p200)

Chapter 46

• "Oil in her own pores pearled from her skin" (p220)
• "She was dead for him, withered away, pale and limp as a fallen petal" (p220)

The end.
JY

Madame Arnulfi

• Grenouille was employed by Madame Arnulfi whom provided him with a temporary shelter and gave him food and other materialistic provisions.
• Witnessing to how Druot dissolves and mixes within the perfume oil, Grenouille was inspired and fascinated by the scent. He hopes to produce something sweeter than the absolute essence of Madame Arnulfi’s perfume, and knew he longed for nothing more but to reach his ultimate goal in creating one himself.
• Madame Arnulfi somewhat seems to be the surrogate mother of Grenouille, who inspired him in achieving his goal of extract by the sweetest scent that anyone could ever imagine. She is a loving woman towards her husband as well as being seen as an ambiguous figure within the novel.
• She has a good sense in business and developed outstanding skills in making business negotiation. Her appearance simply serves as a catalyst for the final murder that Grenouille has to commit to satisfy his obsession with smell. Arnulfi is also regarded as a female shadow of Grenouille because she's both materialistic and intelligent in terms of money making. Moreover, she has sexual desire in which can be fulfilled by her journeyman Druot. However, there was not much of a difference towards Grenouille who are both soulless and only wants to achieve one single goal with fixation.
• Madame Arnulfi represents the psychological mania of Grenouille, who lives only to extract an intangible scent, which cannot be kept forever. The transient appearance of Madame Arnulfi symbolizes the smell and the excitement in which involves Grenouille. Because of that, Grenouille is bound to be disappointed because of pursuing an elusive goal just like the essence sold by Madame Arnulfi.
• Arnulfi soon encapsulates the half-materialistic, half-intangible pedestal, which Grenouille is obsessed with and worships it. Her materialistic character and instinctive sexual desires is similar to the lust for scent Grenouille has.
• Further more, she is seen as a motherly figure who is rather protective and caring. Though due to business terms, the relationship between Arnulfi and Grenouille was nothing more than just a boss and apprentice.
• Hence, the creation of Madame Arnulfi is the physical manifestation of Grenouille’s impossible dream. As an elusive figure, she is like a bottle of perfume that he can never get hold of. Her provisions enable Grenouille to stay focused on his impulsive pursuit.
• After all, Grenouille is futile because he was destined to be lonely and loveless just like the treatment he receives in the house of Madame Arnulfi. Arnulfi symbolizes the illusory nature of love and a man’s pursuit. The disappointment faced by Grenouille is poignantly predicted in which the moral of the story is expressing how love is somewhat illusory.

Baldini Chapter 15-22

In terms of plot:

• Baldini introduces Grenouille to the art of perfumery, and teaches him how to measure out ingredients and recognise the various names of scents. This is important, as Grenouille was able to learn the basics of what will become his final goal- to create the ultimate perfume.

Consequently, Grenouille also learns to write down the various formulae for his scents, thus taming his way of creating perfume, which may be seen as progress towards becoming more ‘human’.

‘in the world’s eyes- that is, in Baldini’s- it was progress’

‘he learned the language of perfumery’

‘he had learned to extend the journey from his mental notion of a scent to the finished perfume by way of writing down the formula’

• Perhaps the most important thing that Baldini teaches Grenouille is the method of distillation. Because Grenouille masters this method, and fails when using it to obtain the scents of living animals, his failure drives him to find other methods of robbing scent, which Baldini informs him of.

In this instance, Baldini provides the next progression in Grenouille’s journey to creating the ultimate perfume by pointing him towards his next destination- Grasse.

‘Are there other ways to extract the scent from things besides pressing or distilling?’

In terms of Ideas and Themes:

• Baldini presents the theme of Genius vs. Convention. Baldini represents the idea of tradition and reluctance to change, this is shown by his disgust at the way Grenouille first displays his talent by mixing Amor and Psyche. In the book, genius is greater than convention and tradition, as Grenouille, who is naturally talented in smell, overpowers Baldini, who have had years of experience and training, in the art of perfumery.

This is further displayed in an example of irony in Chapter 15, where Baldini describes Grenouille as having ‘primitive lack of judgement’ even though Grenouille had just triumphed in creating the Amor and Psyche.

‘Baldini could smell fast enough to keep up with him’

• Baldini also presents the theme of Enlightenment, as a character who was never truly ‘enlightened’ with his encounter with Grenouille. Even though Baldini is initially awed by Grenouille’s talents at perfumery- to the point where he doubts his apprentice’s humanity- Baldini soon comforts himself as he was able record Grenouille’s ‘miracles’ in formulae. Baldini never truly recognises Grenouille’s talents.

‘he even came to believe that he made a not insignificant contribution to the success of these sublime scents’

‘he believes that by collecting these written formulas, he could exorcise the terrible creative chaos erupting from his apprentice.’

• Baldini continues the idea that death will follow in Grenouille's footsteps, and that whoever uses Grenouille for his gain will eventually die. Baldini dies soon after Grenouille leaves, thus emphasizing the amount of influence and destructive evil power Grenouille possessed.

Diana

Plum Girl

* The murder of the plum girl is in chapter 8

Why he is so taken in by her scent:
- her innocence
- he finds it difficult to grasp and is something that he has never smelt before
- the 'beauty' of the smell ('exceptionally delicate and fine' - page 38)
- she's on the edge of womanhood
- 'this scent was the key for ordering all odors'

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- the murder of the plum girl makes Grenouille certain that he wants to be the world's greatest perfumer which moves the plot on as it leads to the later killings

- the girl is metaphorical for a purpose in his life. He is filled with a sense of duty, that he will bring out no matter what is right and wrong.

- Grenouille is so taken in by the newly found scent that he 'had to discard all comparisons' - page 39. The use of asyndeton amplifies his anxiousness to describe the scent, 'not the freshness of limes or pomegranates, not the freshness of myrrh or cinnamon bark or curly mint or birch or camphor...'

- For once, Grenouille did not trust his nose, he had to use his other senses to help him believe what he smelt

- His sense of possession over the smell of the girl led him to kill her. There is no shock, because he is built up to be a predatory person.

- Lots of use of colour, which creates a beauty of an image. If you read it in isolation, it appears the Grenouille is attracted to the girl.

- The text is almost romantic. The sense of judgment to make the reader feel as though the death isn’t as morally bad as it should be. Süskind is luring the reader into the existentialism of life.

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Realisation:
- when Grenouille kills the plum girl, he realizes that he has eliminated the source of the beautiful and is no longer able to smell it
- this realization allows Grenouille to become conscious of the fact that he needs to preserve the scent which moves him on to his journey ('he had to have it, not simply in order to possess it, but for his heart to be at peace' - page 38)
- also Grenouille's realization of what his purpose in life is ('he had found the compass for his future life) This sums up the whole purpose of the plum girl.