Metaphor in Perfume: Jean-Baptiste Grenouille's Character
The tick, a parasite, has only one function, the one of survival. Therefore, it is with Grenouille. From day one, his only instinct has been to survive and, like a tick, his desire causes death simply by being. Death follows Grenouille and Süskind writes that his mother’s death was preventable if his instinct to survive had been less dominant. He argues that, even as a newborn, he decided ‘against love’ and ‘for life’ and henceforth, learnt to live without the normal requirement of affection and security that most people need. He lived much like a tick; he also shared physical qualities with the creature. The unique qualities of his character and appearance become evident throughout the novel.
Süskind expands on Grenouille’s unique character constantly as Grenouille continues to survive despite the difficulties he faces. He shares the qualities of patience, resistance and toughness that one would not expect from such a young person. “He was as tough as a resistant bacterium…,” the metaphor likening him to a tick and describes a young Grenouille as being, “…like that tick in the tree … alien flesh. ” The technique has a major effect on how the readers perceive the novel as this is the first true symbolism of Grenouille’s character. The readers view on Grenouille as being something other than human cements even further in their minds. Grenouille survived those early years and then, “…the tick stirred again. He was seized with the urge to hunt. The greatest preserve for odours in the world stood before him: the city of Paris. ” It was in Paris after committing his first murder that he found, “…the compass for his future life,” and realised why, “…he had clung to life so tenaciously. ” He found that his true purpose was to revolutionize the world full of unpleasant scents.
A scent so powerful and beautiful captured Grenouille’s senses. The scent alone was enough to sustain Grenouille for a long period, but it would never be enough to sustain him for life until he could truly possess it for himself. The scent was like blood to Grenouille as, “…he was brimful of her. He did not want to spill a drop of her scent. ” His stay in a cave enforces the fact that the scent sustains him for seven years. The tick can survive on a drop of blood “… plundered years before. ” In reality, the scent alone should not have been able to sustain him as long as it did, but the supernatural element of the novel makes it seem plausible.
Grenouille’s physical appearance also relates to the small insect as it can instil a sense of uneasiness, and in some cases, fear, in others. “The ugly little tick […] surface to the world. ” The physical connection between the metaphorical tick and Grenouille’s physical self makes the reader’s feel strange by the unnatural comparison. The comparison makes the reader’s think of the novel in a deeper sense. The constant references of the tick and the uneasiness felt gives the readers an experience of what the other characters in the novel felt. “But she was uneasy, sensed a strange chill, the kind one feels when suddenly overcome with some long discarded fear. ” The Rue des Marais girl felt this fear like others before her before meeting her end. Father Terrier felt, “… naked and ugly, as if someone were gaping at him while revealing nothing of himself. ” The simile demonstrates that his physical attributes are not the only reason as to why others feel uneasy about him. The unsettling tone makes the readers feel uncomfortable as the novel makes the readers wonder how they would feel had they been in Father Terrier’s position.
A simple glance from him or his presence alone gave another being that same disturbed feeling. “It simply disturbed them that he was there. They could not smell him. They were afraid of him. ” The feeling of fear naturally came to those around him due to his being, much like a person when they spot a tick. The instinctual fear does not happen in every character Grenouille encounters, but he does lead them closer to their end in this world. The death that follows Grenouille, does so his entire life until his own, eventual death. When he was a newborn, his mother was sentenced to death, simply by giving birth to him. “… Confesses, openly admitting that she would definitely have let the thing perish […] few weeks later decapitated at the Place de Grève. ” He latches onto a ‘host’, as a tick would do, and once it has served their purpose, he leaves, with them always meeting death. The death of his caretaker, Madame Gaillard, occurred in, her opinion, a very tortuous way. The exact way she did not want and fear – that of indignity. “And only then – ten, twenty years too late – did death arrive […] and then of her voice, so that she could raise not one word of protest as they carted her off to the Hôtel-Dieu. ”
In each of their own way, death came to them in a way they had not hoped for, as most had dreams of their own before Grenouille stole their life. “Maître Baldini fell asleep and awoke no more in this life [. . . ] nothing was found, not the bodies…” In the cases of these people, he did not touch them at all; he did not directly cause their deaths. While, in the case of the Rue des Marais girl and the Grasse girls, he killed with intent. He experimented and found the best ways to extract the scent from the girls, for one purpose: his own sustenance. “But after today, he felt as if he finally knew who he really was: nothing less than a genius. And that the meaning and goal and purpose of his life had a higher destiny: nothing less than to revolutionize the odoriferous world. ” It follows then, that Grenouille became a notorious murderer who eventually was caught and although he was never punished, Suskind’s ending to this story leads the reader to suppose that his eventual death was something like that of a tick, crushed into dust leaving no trace.
Grenouille overcame the need to survive once he realised that no matter how much power he had, he would never be able to have a scent of his own. “…to hell with it, with the world, with himself, with his perfume. ” He felt as if he would never know who he truly was, as he could never find out whom he was. However, like the tick he is, “…the human body is tough and not easily dismembered, even horses have great difficulty accomplishing it. ” The unique comparisons between Grenouille and a tick, makes him seem otherworldly. Suskind incorporated the metaphor very efficiently as the readers would have gotten a good sense as to what Grenouille appears to be. The deaths all served a purpose to Grenouille; he got what he desired for, after so many years of work. “Now it let itself drop, for better or for worse, entirely without hope. And that was why Grenouille was so certain. ” Grenouille is quite confusing as it is not a common thing to see a character compared to a parasite in a novel. He has one function and purpose in his life. He only needs to survive while revolutionising the world. He was born with the instinctual need to survive, and in the end, he evolved from being the tick into being his own person but not truly.
