The main character is Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
is Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. He is the fifth child of a fishmonger and
like her previous children, was left to die. His crying drew attention
from the crowd and his mother was arrested and later executed for
multiple infanticide. Grenouille clings to life with an iron will. Where
others would have died, he doesn't. Grenouille is different than other
children. He possesses no scent. He also has an extremely heightened
sense of smell. He keeps hundreds of thousands of specific smells
clearly in his memory. He was not only able to recall them when he
smelled them again, but could also smell them simply upon recollection.
He can even arrange smells into new combinations to the point where he
created odors that did not even exist.
As
an infant he is passed around from several wet nurses because he was a
burden to them. One wet nurse was alarmed by his having no odour,
claiming he is possessed. Grenouille is sent to Faubourg Saint-Antoine,
an orphanage run by Madame Gaillard. Madame Gaillard is a dull,
emotionless woman. She felt no joy and no grief. As a young girl, she
had been hit across the forehead with a poker by her father. This caused
her to lose all sense of smell and therefore she is unaware that
Grenouille has no scent. As he’s able to find her hidden money using his
sense of smell, she believes that he has a second sight. She thinks
that this will bring her house bad luck so she sells Grenouille to a
tanner.
