Prodigious The Characteristics of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille
Grenouille does not like to be in crowd, he leaves the crowd and strolls around Paris. While he strolls around, he smells a brittle scent from the wind. He is
paralyzed by the scent, so he has to catch that odor and find out to whom that scent belongs to.
He backed up against the wall, closed his eyes, and flared his nostrils. The scent was so exceptionally delicate and fine that he could not hold on to it;
it continually eluded his perception, was masked by the powder smoke of the petards, blocked by the exudations of the crowd, fragmented and
crushed by the thousands of other city odors. But then, suddenly, it was there again, a mere shred, the whiff of a magnificent premonition for only
a second…and it vanished at once. Grenouille suffered agonies. For the first time, it was not just that his greedy nature was offended, but his very
heart ached Süskind, 2006: 38.
Süskind des
cribes Grenouille’s ambitious characteristic through Grenouille’s reaction towards an event. Moreover, this also strengthens by
Murphy that the author may describe the character in the story through the character’s reaction towards events Murphy, 1972: 168. The event is when
Grenouille encounters a delicate scent and it turns out that he loves it so much and has a further ambition to possess it. Once he catches this brittle scent, Grenouille
knows that this scent is the k ey of any finest odor so “he had to have it, not simply
in order to possess it, but for his heart to be at peace” Süskind, 2006: 38. Hence, for the sake of his peacefulness, he has to find out to whom that
scent belongs to. It turns out that the scent belongs to a beautiful red-headed plum seller. Because
of Grenouille’s ambition to own the scent of the girl, he murders her. Thereafter, he can enjoy sniffing the odor of the girl as much as he wants.
She was so frozen with terror at the sight of him that he had plenty of time to put his hands to her throat. She did not attempt to cry out, did not
budge, did not make the least motion to defend herself. He, in turn 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. When she was dead he laid her on the ground among the plum pits, tore
off her dress, and the stream of scent became a flood that inundated him with its fragrance. He thrust his face to her skin and swept his flared
nostrils across her, from belly to breast, to neck, over her face and hair, and back to her belly, down to her genitals, to her thighs and white legs.
He smelled her over from head to toe, he gathered up the last fragments of her scent under her chin, in her navel, and in the wrinkles inside her elbow
Süskind, 2006: 38.
Although Grenouille can enjoy his pleasure by catching the plum seller’s scent, this enjoyment is not eternal. After the plum seller died, her scent faded and
then Grenouill e left her away. This event becomes Grenouille’s starting point to
fulfill his ambition to explore so many odors and at the end, create the fines scent. In order to achieve his ambition, Grenouille travels to one place and
another. His journey is aimed to enrich his odor experience and to learn the best way to preserve odor. Hence, his ambition is developed. He travels to Paris,
Orleans, Plomb du Cantal, Montpellier, and Grasse. He becomes an apprentice in Grimal’s tannery, Baldini’s workshop, and a journeyman in a perfumer’s
workshop of Madame Arnulfi Süskind, 2006: 159, 173. He commits to do anything in order to achieve his ambitions, even if he has to attempt a murder.
B esides describing Grenouille’s characteristic to his reactions toward
events, the author also describes Grenouille’e characteristic through the speech Murphy, 1972: 167. It is described that within his ambition, it makes Grenouille
survive from any of circumstances such survive from anthrax disease, high fever and carbuncles, and survive living in a cave solitary Süskind, 2006: 132. The
following quotation pictures how Grenouille is very ambitious in achieving his goal that is finding the best method to preserve scent.
And then all at once the lips of the dying boy opened, and in voice whose clarity and firmness betrayed next to nothing of his immediate demise, he
spoke. “Tell me, maître, are there other ways to extract the scent from things besides pressing or distilling?”
Baldini, believing the voice had come either from his own imagination or from the next world, answered mechanically, “Yes, they are.”
“What are they?” came the question from the bed. And Baldini opened his tired eyes wide. Grenouille lay there motionless among his pillows. Had
the corpse spoken?
“What are they?” came the renewed question, and this time Baldini noticed Grenouille’s lips move. It’s over now, he thought. This is the end,
this is the madness of fever or the throes of death. And he stood up, went over to bed, and bent down to the sick man. His eyes were open and he
gazed up at Baldini with the same strange, lurking look that he had fixed on him at their first meeting.
“What are they?” he asked Süskind, 2006: 104-105. In the middle of Grenouille’s illness, Grenouille ambitiously asks Baldini
where he can learn the best method to preserve scent. Grenouille never satisfied until he gets the information from Baldini the best method to preserve scent and
where they are. Baldini felt a pang in his heart
—he could not deny a dying man his last wish
—and he answered, “There are three other ways, my son:
enfleurage à chaud, enfleurage à froid,
and enfleurage à l’huile. They are superior to
distillation in several ways, and they are used for extraction of the finest of all scents: jasmine, rose, and orange blossom.”
“Where?” asked Grenouille. “In the south,” answered Baldini. “Above all, in the town of Grasse.”
“Good,” said Grenouille Süskind, 2006: 105. At the end, he is able to find the best way to preserve scent and create a
particular perfume made of twenty five virgin women’s body odor. Later on, it
becomes his masterpiece although he has to murder those virgins in order to achieve his ambition. Furthermore, once his ambition and his goal are
accomplished, he has no business left. Then, he commits to disappear from the world by pouring his perfume masterpiece upon his body and let the crowd tears
him away and dismembers him Süskind, 2006: 254. From these points, the
writer concludes that Grenouille is described as an ambitious character according to his reactions toward events and according to the speech.