Satire In Perfume

In order to cope with grief, shock or discomfort, human beings are naturally drawn to element of humour, even if the only comedic element of a situation to be found is extremely dark. Patrick Süskind’s novel, Perfume, is a cross-genre novel set in eighteenth century France that explores scent and its connection to identity and human morality through the life story of an orphan named Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. To counteract the visceral descriptions and gruesome plot, Süskind lightens the atmosphere of the novel with a darkly comedic element of satire. Due to the dark nature of the novel, the author creates an atmosphere of detachment between the story and himself and the reader by satirizing the minds and intelligence of the novel’s characters.

Through the tone and point of view of the novel, the author combines both obvious hyperbolic irony with more sophisticated elements hidden in the text. As Grenouille embarks on a mission to find the source of a gorgeous scent he smelled, Süskind paints the picture of the public all staring up at the firework display for the anniversary of the king’s coronation. Described as not as “spectacular” or “legendary” as either those in honour of the king’s marriage or the dauphin’s birth, the fireworks are finally excepted as “impressive nevertheless” (37). The disinterested tone of the narration shows through the structure of the line, starting with examples of better fireworks displays then grudgingly agreeing that they were “impressive nevertheless”. Following the unimpressed description of the mediocre fireworks, Süskind describes the response of the people as filled with “ah’s and oh’s and even some “long live” ’s” although “the high point of [the King’s] popularity was long since behind him” (38). The satire of the people’s stupidity in saying “long live” when the King is no longer very popular shows very clearly in the line and is wittily summed up by a more personal address: “fireworks can do that” (38). The structure of this last line makes it seem as if it is a private joke shared between

In a time with a low life expectancy and very high mortality rates compared to modern day, Süskind’s satire of illness and death is crude and very black. With both illnesses Grenouille contracts, and is expected to die from, he magically recovers. Before his recovery from anthrax at the tannery “Grimal had already written him off and was looking around for a replacement” (32) because there was such a slim chance for him to recover. Süskind’s use of satire in the scene shows in the fact that not only does Grenouille make a full recovery but he becomes much more valuable due to his immunity to the disease and is treated as “a useful house pet” (32). Süskind also continues the satire into Grimal’s own death from falling off a pier: a death quickly and unemotionally described as him falling “lengthwise and face first into the water like a soft mattress” (87). The scene is extremely ironic as well since it is described that the river “needed considerable time to drag him out of the shallows” as if it is a burden for the river to have to dispose of the “soaked carcass” and that as this is happening “sixty feet directly overhead Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is going to bed”. The irony of the fact that Grimal, a tanner,