Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

“I only know one thing: this baby makes my flesh creep because it doesn’t smell the way children ought to smell.”

Grenouille’s extraordinary character is apparent right from birth due to the manner in which he is rejected by his wet nurse. Having been left to die by his mother was not due to his being strange, seeing as how she had abandoned multiple infants before, but now, he is being rejected because he is so unlike any other infant that the nurse can only accuse him of being possessed by the devil.

“The child with no smell was smelling at him shamelessly, that was it! It was establishing his scent! And all at once he felt as if he stank, of sweat and vinegar, of choucroute and unwashed clothes.”

Once taken in by the priest after being abandoned by the wet nurse, the infant Grenouille immediately spooks the cleric by seeming to be more beast than child. The fact that Grenouille seems to be devoid of other senses—specifically his sight—while simultaneously trying to interrogate his surroundings with his nose, seems so bestial and alien that the priest immediately decides to get rid of him. He worries the nurse’s accusation of the demonic might prove correct.

“Security, attention, tenderness, love—or whatever all those things are called that children are said to require—were totally dispensable for the young Grenouille.”

As Grenouille begins to age, the reader begins to understand that he is quite abnormal in his emotional intelligence as well. Completely lacking what could be called a heart, he comes across more like an animal or a mechanical creation than a human being, and no amount of schooling can inculcate normal feelings or reactions in him.