The Importance of Hygiene in Perfume: Patrick Süskind’s novel Perfume

To begin her portrayal, Graulich uses an intimate description of her grandfather. She spent most of her youth listening to the stories of her grandfather

The reader is first introduced to Miss Brill while she is at the “Jardins Publiques” for her Sunday routine. While at the park, she reminisces about her fur, “[taking] it out of its box that afternoon…and [rubbing] the life back into the dim little eyes.” One might initially perceive Miss Brill as a quirky, yet cheery, woman. However, by having Miss Brill address the fur as “Dear little thing” and emphasizing her recurring need to “touch” and “stroke” it, Mansfield reveals a deeper, more genuine layer to Miss Brill’s character. By observing Miss Brill’s character indirectly, the reader notices the more obscure details, such as the absence of an intimate relation in Miss Brill’s life, and concludes that she is incredibly lonesome. Her solitude provokes a constant need to make her life more

It is evident in today’s society, people tend to judges others by their appearances. Orczy is sure to show that there is so much more to people than that meets the eye. Blakeney never looked like the man that would be constantly putting his life on the line so that innocent people would be spared; but, he was that man. Marguerite did not appear to love Blakeney; but, she did. Chauvelin was a family friend to Marguerite that was always trusted and suggested he was good, but he was not. This is one of The Scarlet Pimpernel’s strengths. However, one weakness in The Scarlet Pimpernel is having some French words and phases in the writing. With this, it can be confusing to the readers who do not have a French background. As a Christian, one must not judges other merely on appearance. There is so much more to people than that which is skin deep. Baroness Emma Orczy completely understood this concept and aruticuly placed it in The Scarlet Pimpernel. This book affirms my views about making judgements before you truly know

In his 1984 novel Jitterbug Perfume, Tom Robbins presents a narrative that rivals the often fantastical tales told in myth. Using classical mythology as a foundation, and, in particular, providing a loose adaptation of The Odyssey by Homer, Robbins updates and modifies characters and concepts in an effort to reinforce the importance of the journey of life and the discovery of self. Like the ancient myth-makers, Robbins commands the reader’s attention with outrageous situations and events while at the same time providing characters that the reader can relate to and learn from.

Nathanial Hawthorne writes a compelling story about a recently married scientist whose wife has a blemish on her cheek. “The Birthmark” written in 1843 is a critique of domesticity, feminine sexuality, and perfectionism. Cindy Weinstein takes the stance that “The Birthmark” is a critique of feminine sexuality. Weinstein suggests, “A key reason, then, that Aylmer wants to erase the birthmark is that it signifies a sexuality with which he is deeply uncomfortable” (123). This argument is seen throughout Hawthorne’s story, but Weinstein’s argument can be taken a step further to deal with the root cause, control. Aylmer is disturbed with Georgiana’s birthmark due to the fact that it signifies her sexual desires that he is unable to control.

Throughout the story “Perfume” by Patrick Suskind, Grenouille is presented as an outsider who is a product of both social and moral decay shown through his birth, description of the setting and description of Grenouille’s characteristics.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne 's “The Birthmark”, we find the tragic story of a woman named Georgiana who sacrificed her life for the sake of appeasing her husband, Aylmer. What did Georgiana do that it was more favorable for her to die than to continuing to displease her husband? Georgiana, who was otherwise hailed as incomparably beautiful, had a birthmark on her face. Aylmer desired this to remove this birthmark, which he considered the one thing keeping her from being “perfect”, from her face. In an attempt to remedy his wife’s “imperfection”, Aylmer makes an elixir for her to drink. While this elixir successfully removes the birthmark, the same elixir also causes Georgiana to die soon after. This story brings to light several examples of how society belittles women and puts their desires below the desires of men.

As the story continues, we begin see and smell the world through Grenouille and somewhat adapt to his unnatural personality. Whatever attachment the reader has with Grenouille at this point is suddenly crippled when he commits his first murder. Although a point of view is given through the victim’s senses as well as Grenouille’s, there is a sudden shock to the discovery his deadly intentions, which up until now no one, not even himself, thought he was capable of: “he did not look at her, did not see her delicate, freckled face, her red lips, her large sparkling green eyes, keeping his eyes closed tight as he strangled her, for he had only one concern—not to lose the least trace of her scent” (42, Ch. 8). By painting a vivid picture of a beautiful innocent girl that Grenouille could not see (as he was closing his eyes), the narrator leaves readers with only feelings of disgust towards Grenouille and his selfish, cold-blooded thirst for scent. This situation could only been sufficiently told through the narrative mode used, and now readers begin to lose all sympathy towards

In Charles Dickens’s historical fiction, A Tale of Two Cities, set prior to and during the French Revolution, Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay look almost identical and even share a few characteristics, such as their love for one Lucie Manette and their being orphans, but overall they are opposites of each other. The former is an alcoholic, aimless man, while the latter is more ambitious. Despite these similarities and obvious differences, Sydney Carton’s foil is not Charles Darnay, but rather Madame Defarge, the wife of a wine-shop owner in Saint Antoine, a suburb outside of Paris. Like Carton and Darnay, the two share similarities and differences. While Sydney Carton and Madame Defarge share the ability to go unnoticed while taking charge

Looking at how all babies cry at the time of birth does make this point unlawful but it was the timing that Grenouille had started to cry that makes him a true monster. He cried out loud as soon as his mother had left, tossing the knife on the ground, which alerted the village that something was going on. Most caretakers usually take a liking to the one they care for; however Suskind chose not to display that loving relationship. In the quote," They put her in a ward populated with hundreds [...] of total strangers, pressing body upon body with five other women, and for three long weeks let her die in public view"(Suskind Part I, 5), Suskind furthers the concept of black humor. Every character that Grenouille had a relationship with died.

In recent discussions of Catherine’s mental hygiene, a controversial issue has been whether she can fend for herself as a productive member in society. On the one hand, the prosecution agrees Catherine cannot safely fend for herself. In the words of the prosecution, one of this view’s main proponents is Catherine admits “that she’s afraid she’ll be like her dad (Auburn, 82). The issue is important because Catherine states that her sister “wants me in New York she wants to look after me. Being taking care of, it doesn’t sound so bad I’m tired (Auburn, 81).

“But the curtains hid his vile habits, the smell of the perfume made her gag, and the clean sheets stank of his sweat by the time he was done with her. Oh, how she hated the smells of that bed!” She felt disgusted by the smell of Clay’s bed and its perfume because the bed was where she was forced to endure

Grenouille's birth is the start of his first ordeal. In order to survive, his first, primal instinct tells him to make a cry, not for sympathy and love, but cry for a life. Suskind uses a contrast to show how the neatly born baby brings “himself to people’s attention and his mother to the gallow” (21). The miserable birth or the option of a “modest exit” do not affected the nearly mature decision of Grenouille to grab the opportunity of existing, “sparing the world a great deal of mischief” (21). His tenacious character is shown from his ability to take all of the power of his nurturer. He

As a German writer, the reason for which Patrick Suskind wrote his critically-acclaimed novel, Perfume, in a French setting, about the French, is questionable. However, candidate answers lie in the setting of the novel itself. Mid-18th century France, which is adjacent to Suskind’s Germany, harboured not only a national, but global revolution of politics, economics, and social norms through the French reforms. This had plentiful influence on all aspects of Prussia since the late 17th century (when Germany was known as Prussia) to the present. This stepping stone to a change in practicality lied in the French Revolution and the change of identity that it instilled upon the populace. An exploration of Grenouille and perfume in Perfume reveals their symbolism of the critical transition from religious prominence, to humanistic considerations, to nihilistic extremes that ensued national and global chaos after the French Revolution to represents its influence on Germany and its constituent populace.

With each letter in Les Liaisons dangereuses, Choderlos de Laclos advances a great many games of chess being played simultaneously. In each, the pieces—women of the eighteenth-century Parisian aristocracy—are tossed about mercilessly but with great precision on the part of the author. One is a pawn: a convent girl pulled out of a world of simplicity and offered as an entree to a public impossible to sate; another is a queen: a calculating monument to debauchery with fissures from a struggle with true love. By examining their similarities and differences, Laclos explores women’s constitutions in a world that promises ruin for even the most formidable among them. Presenting the reader glimpses of femininity from a young innocent’s daunting debut to a faithful woman’s conflicted quest for heavenly virtue to another’s ruthless pursuit of vengeance and earthly pleasures, he insinuates the harrowing journey undertaken by every girl as she is forced to make a name for herself as a woman amongst the tumult of a community that machinates at every turn her downfall at the hands of the opposite sex. In his careful presentation of the novel’s female characters, Laclos condemns this unrelenting subjugation of women by making clear that every woman’s fate in such a society is a definitive and resounding checkmate.