In the book Perfume by Patrick Suskind, the main character Grenouille is introduced as “one of the most gifted and abominable personages in an era that knew no lack of gifted and abominable personages.” Suskind manages to make him a sympathetic character, in spite of his murders and obsessions. He managed to show that Grenouille was not evil just because he wanted to be but because he knew no other way.
Grenouille has had a difficult childhood, when he was born his mother was going to murder him, she had “confess, openly admitting that she would definitely have let the thing perish.” She was later decapitated for this attempt. No woman wanted to be his wet nurse, they said he drank too much of their milk. The one wet nurse who was paid by the church to keep him and keep him fed brought him back only after a few weeks saying “He’s possessed by the devil” because he had no smell, she wanted nothing more to do with him. Soon after he was moved to the Faubourg Saint-Antoine orphanage. The children tried to suffocate him multiple times, “They piled rags and blankets and straw over his face and weighed it all down with bricks...They did not want to touch him.” As he grew older “he was not aggressive, nor underhanded, nor furtive, he did not provoke people. He preferred to keep out of their way.” …show more content…
In reality that is all he wants. Disenchanted by his aimless quest and tired of his life, he returns to Paris. Grenouille returns to the fish market where he was born, to the place where his life was supposed to end and he dumps the perfume on his head. The people nearby believe he’s an angle and they devour him. Grenouille ended his life because his quest for the perfect scent was just his was of trying to find a way to be loved or to love someone, his way of looking for a maternal
Grenouille has had a difficult childhood, when he was born his mother was going to murder him, she had “confess, openly admitting that she would definitely have let the thing perish.” She was later decapitated for this attempt. No woman wanted to be his wet nurse, they said he drank too much of their milk. The one wet nurse who was paid by the church to keep him and keep him fed brought him back only after a few weeks saying “He’s possessed by the devil” because he had no smell, she wanted nothing more to do with him. Soon after he was moved to the Faubourg Saint-Antoine orphanage. The children tried to suffocate him multiple times, “They piled rags and blankets and straw over his face and weighed it all down with bricks...They did not want to touch him.” As he grew older “he was not aggressive, nor underhanded, nor furtive, he did not provoke people. He preferred to keep out of their way.” …show more content…
In reality that is all he wants. Disenchanted by his aimless quest and tired of his life, he returns to Paris. Grenouille returns to the fish market where he was born, to the place where his life was supposed to end and he dumps the perfume on his head. The people nearby believe he’s an angle and they devour him. Grenouille ended his life because his quest for the perfect scent was just his was of trying to find a way to be loved or to love someone, his way of looking for a maternal