A Psychological Analysis of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

In this movie review, the

psychological aspects of the story will
be analyzed, particularly the
psychology of the main protagonist
(Jean Baptiste Grenouille) and other
individuals involved in his life. The film,
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer,
demonstrated issues that mankind faces
such as the need for love and regard.
As denoted by the movies title,
the story depicted in the film is about
how a young man became a murderer
in his efforts to create the perfume with
the best scent in the entire world. Right
from the start, I saw that Jean is not like
any other man. His face was not that of
a guilty murderer but of someone who
got lost along the way. It seems like he
was incapable of feeling emotions. As I
go along in the movie, I learned how his
life right from his infancy up to his
adolescent stage was not normal. It is
not normal in a way that from the start
he wasnt fortunate enough to
experience a good childhood since his
Mother, who, just after giving birth to
him, left him to die surrounded by rancid
and decaying fish flesh and other
garbage under the fish stand she was
working on since she was destitute and
unable to take care of him. She was an
unfit and bad mother and her rejection
of the baby Jean has led to Jeans
placement into an orphanage which
was also full of abused and neglected
children. Although Jean was gifted with
the unique ability of smelling and
identifying different kinds of smell, his

gift instead, has scared other orphans

away from him and has made it more
difficult for him to communicate and
interact with the other children them.
No adult was present during his early
childhood, the formative years of any
persons life, who might have been able
to guide, teach and help him with the
rules of society and in socializing with
other people and this was evident in the
part where he was shown to focus on
every smell but unable to talk for the first
five years of life. In the hands of an
abusive and brash orphanage mistress,
Jean never learned to act normally in
terms of social conduct and understand
what is morally right or wrong. Moreover,
he never experienced love, care and
support from all adult models in his life
thus, he never learned how to think and
feel the same way as others.
As he grew older, he became
more ambitious and goal-driven to
acquire the scents of all things. He was
beginning to show signs of sociopathic
disorder, unable to feel emotions and
capable of doing immoral acts without
feeling remorse and guilt. It became
ingrained into his mind that only through
the creation of the best perfume he will
be able to obtain love and admiration
from the people, thus; he started
obsessing on capturing and preserving
the scent of women whom he regard as
having the most alluring and
intoxicating scents. His actions can be
explained by the Drive-Reduction
Theory which proposes that people

strive to lessen their drives as much as

possible. In this case, his drive was to
fulfill his need for belongingness and
love. Hence, it was not shocking, when
his first great despair was when he
realized he didnt have a scent of his
own and in his mind, it was a depressing
thought because that would mean he
was nobody to everyone. Therefore, he
set out a goal to capture the best
scents, regardless of the consequences
of his actions, in order to prove to the
world that he was someone and that he
was exceptional. This goal of his proved
that his childhood affected by parental
neglect has formed him into a man with
an inferiority complex and no sense of
self-worth. Although he was already
aware that killing was not morally right
and socially accepted he continued to
do so because of his obsession with
achieving his goal.
Through the death of thirteen
women, he was able to create a
masterpiece in the form of the perfume.
On the day of his execution, he
exposed the scent of the perfume to
the mob that were immediately
affected by the intoxicating scent and
were made subjects to his command.
At first he thought that he was finally
successful in getting the love and
admiration of the people but he realizes
soon after that the people only wanted
him for the perfume and not him
exactly. It was then he realized that
everything he did was all for nothing
because it wasnt able to satisfy his
needs to belong and to love and be
loved. Moreover, he began to see the
error of his ways for it became clear in

his mind that the scent and person he

wanted the most was that of the plum
girl to whom he first felt intense feelings
for but was no longer able to get her
love and affection because he killed
her. Meanwhile, the people who were in
the plaza where his execution was held
fell into a deep spell and began to
indulge in their explicit desires forgetting
all morality issues they had to face. After
which, they woke up from a terrible
hangover, shaken and disgusted by
their actions hence, they erased the
memory of the experience from their
minds through suppression. In the end,
even though he already had the power
to command the love of mankind, Jean
decided to give up his life because he
finally understood that the perfume
wouldnt be able to turn him into a
person who could love or be loved.
The story of the movie
emphasized the importance childhood
in the life of an adult, as proposed by
Freud and Adler. A poor childhood
experience can create a man who
doesnt know his own worth and unable
to recognize emotions because in the
absence of a good role model, a child
will never learn basic concepts such as
love and remorse. Moreover, it supports
the concept that man is a social being
hence; man needs to feel accepted
and loved. Overall, the movie was
successful in demonstrating pertinent
psychological concepts.

Sarah Aurora W. Tabada

12/15/14