A few months ago, I read a book called Perfume by Patrick Süskind. Although I have read other books since then, I keep thinking about that one. For instance, say I find a person pretty. Do they really have physical attributes I am attracted to, or do they have a scent that captivates me? Today, a new thought occurred to me, though I later realized it wasn't entirely original. What if Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, the novel's protagonist, was another type of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein's creature?
Upon opening the book, I was introduced to miserable 18th-century Paris, specifically to a fishmonger giving birth to a child, whom she leaves to die as soon as he draws his first breath. This newborn is Grenouille, the main character of the novel. A protagonist, or rather antagonist, that I pitied at first. Grenouille grows up in different institutions for orphans, rejected by everyone around him. The boy scares people with seemingly no reason at all. An infant cannot represent a threat when it is one of the most vulnerable creatures! But Grenouille is different. He does not possess any smell. Imagine entering your friend’s house and it doesn’t smell like anything, except maybe the furniture, but no personal smell. That would throw you off, wouldn’t it? Anyway, there is no smell to Grenouille, yet he can smell everything, from the meal cooked in the orphanage to the ant crawling miles away. He discovers the world through his olfactive sense, making him a prodigy in perfumery. The boy-turned-teenager gets employed by one of the best perfumers in Paris and creates the most ethereal smells. Although his creations are worn everywhere in the capital and soon all over Europe, Grenouille is still seen as a vermin, either invisible or rejected in disgust. Eventually, he goes into hiding for years in a cave. When he comes back, he commits a series of murders on young maidens to create the best perfumes of all time. A perfume that makes him godlike and able to control people's emotions. I told you, my sympathy turned into horror.
Now, how is this story similar to Frankenstein's? Shelley's book focuses on a creature that an over-ambitious doctor assembled piece by piece. It is obviously very different than an odorless man conceived by two human beings. However, like Grenouille, the fiend was born pure and innocent and ended up killing people. The creature is also immediately rejected by its creator and the rest of the world because of his horrific appearance. Lonely and bitter, the creature turns into a monster, avid for revenge on Victor Frankenstein. Süskind's character does not seek revenge, but his alienation from the world fuels his desire to control people through what he knows best: scent. Both characters need to take the lead in their miserable lives, and they do so by murdering people. I personally would go to a therapist, but everyone has their own way of coping, right? They turn into murderers and eventually commit suicide.
Another aspect shared by both books is the re-discovery of the world through new lenses, which is what made me fall in love with both novels. The depiction of the physical world in Frankenstein is so vivid that I felt like I could see the world for the first time. I thought of myself as a fully conscious newborn. I followed the creature when it touched grass for the first time and when it spied on the farmhouse inhabitants and fell in love with a girl. I appreciated the world's beauty in its purest form. In Perfume, I navigated the universe of fragrances and odors so perfectly described that I could smell them through the pages. When reading it, I dived into a disgusting, humid, and fetid Paris before being intoxicated by the intensity of the perfumery's fragrances. I was captive in a cave for a few chapters, barely able to smell anything but the cold stones. Eventually, I accompanied Grenouille to Grasse for the final step of his project. There is one thing that I was unable to smell: the ultimate and divine perfume enclosing the scent of 25 virgin girls. I have to say that I am glad I could not, or it would have driven me crazy like it did the others. What happened with the others? Spoiler alert. Grenouille, arrested and imprisoned for his crimes, wore the perfume on his execution day and bewitched the crowd. Thousands of people in love with the divine creature, crazy really, ended up engaging in an extraordinary orgy. As if it was not enough, the villain dies, eaten alive, because of his angelic scent. Now, you may understand why I do not want to smell this perfume.
However, I would like to make an important distinction between the two characters. Frankenstein's creature is filled with emotions, which overwhelm him as it evolves in the world. It starts killing because of the unbearable feeling of being rejected and denied by everyone it meets. When it kills, the creature regrets it and wishes to die. On the other hand, Grenouille seems emotionless. He greatly lacks empathy and is driven by his desire to create the best perfume in the world to control humanity. He murders more than 20 teenage girls in an expeditious and organized way, without feeling anything - no regrets or satisfaction. He starts by stalking his victims after having chosen them carefully and strikes effectively when they are isolated. He then goes to his atelier where everything is ready for the extraction of the virgin’s scent. The making of the perfume follows the scientific methods of perfumery: distillation and enfleurage. After his work is done, Grenouille disposes of the bodies in the same way he captured the girls: quickly, efficiently, and discretely. When he finally manages to craft such a perfume, despite a brief moment of satisfaction, he ends up not feeling anything more than what he felt before. He eventually lets himself die, eaten by outcasts. Therefore, both characters go back to where they come from. Frankenstein's creature, made of parts of dead people, gives itself back to the earth. Grenouille is killed by its own kind: outcasts of society.
Perfume and Frankenstein show that no one is born a monster but is made into one.
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