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DRAMA ANALYSIS ON PERFUME

P E R F U M E

A Story of a Murderer

PREFACE

What can be learnt from this life? What can be got? What can be felt? Everyone who lives can see their life better or not. They can feel when making something to be felt. When we do something to make good things, we can realize that it is good or bad, but sometimes when we do not care anything or do not want to be part of other people, when we just walk alone and think that our life is better than others, we really lose something in our daily life.

This is my mind in which it is used to think that others are useful and they are becoming a part of my life. I need them who accompany me, invite me, and care about me. I can feel what they are doing to me and I can see if they are caring about me. This is life which everyone can feel.

Why do I have to say and mention above in this writing? What we see in this life can make us better if we want to get a positive side and we want to learn many things positively. We never know something if someone does not tell us what we want to know. Sometimes, we do something where we do not know and realize that it may not be done. We don’t know that what we have done has made some disadvantages with others.

These inspirations are got by watching “PERFUME”. This film will tell us so many things about life. It will tell us about love, peace, power, and so on. This time, I will give you what I have to give. I will tell you what I have to tell. I will tell you some sides of the film that has been presented. My suggestion, watch the film if you want to know more about it and get many lessons what essences have been presented.

INTRODUCTION

Every movie must have the deep meaning that is presented to the people who watch it. It may be the meaning of life, story, history, and others. Sometimes, the meaning of the inside of the film can remind us from what we have done in the past or what we are doing right now. In this case, I will tell you some amazing things about “PERFUME”. PERFUME is one of the film which was set in 18^th century Paris. The film tells about a story of a murderer who is performed by Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw) who is also an orphan with an extraordinary sense of smell.

In this film, I want to write more about “imagery”. It is about imagery in every action, event, situation and character. It will be better if I give you the definition of “imagery”. I will try to mention the definition of imagery at least from two sources. According to wikipedia.org, imagery is any literary reference to the five senses (sight, touch, smell, hearing, and taste). Essentially, imagery is any series of words that create a picture in your head. Such images can be created by using figures of speech such as similes, metaphors, personification, and assonance. Imagery helps the reader picture what is going on. To the Oxford Dictionary, imagery is a language that produces pictures in the minds of people reading or listening.

To me, as I listened to my lecturer’s explanation or in my own knowledge that imagery is one of the situation that is described or the definition of something that is presented by someone that can not be seen by our own two eyes but can be understood by mind. The imagery can be seen in the following explanations and examples which can be seen in PERFUME.

I. The PERFUME Imagery

The perfume film can show many things included imagery. The imagery will be explained more. It can be seen through the actions, events, situations and characters as I have mentioned above. Let’s get started from the action. What imagery is that?

1. Actions

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille has a super-human ability to detect and distinguish scents. He is a special son if he is considered with his friends when he was a child. His special can be known from his scent. The first time in his performance in killing someone is when he smelt something which passed through his nose. What he smelt is a woman who brought some fruits in her basket but this is not the main what he looked for, what he smelt but the aroma of a woman. This shows us that a woman is more fragrant in using perfume than a man. This is fact in our daily life and every woman can feel this and they must do this in their daily life. When Jean came near by Jeanne who brought fruits in her basket, he smelt and closed to her but Jeanne was afraid with Jean and the last Jean suffocated her. Actually, if we want to see what Jean-Baptiste Grenouille really did to Jeanne, he does not mean to kill her. This is an imagery in which his heart is pure and he just wants to smell the aroma from Jeanne but the situation is not good and he wants to avoid the voice by closing her mouth until she was dead. This action shows us that there is a deed of someone which is not realized and not meant to do that. When Jean was no longer a child, he was sold to an old perfumer. He does not know anything why he is sold even does not know where he will be sent. Many people do this in their own life. They use other people to result advantages in their life without caring with other people condition. They don’t care anything. This is one of the lessons that we can get from PERFUME and this is one of the imagery in our mind, the meaning of the fact which is presented in the PERFUME. Further imagery can be seen when Jean-Baptiste Grenouille wants to make a good perfume even he will make a twelve-bottle perfume. He was sent to Italy by bringing a legal letter from his country, French. A letter shows that it can bring us to the other countries. It is like a passport which allows us staying and living in other countries. This is used by Jean-Baptiste Grenouille when he was sent to Italy to create and make the best perfume and also the beginning of his story as a murderer. He will go there through the forest. This makes him free, feel peaceful and fresh in the middle of the forest which he passed. His great scent guides him wherever he stays, whatever he does, even whoever he meets. It is his great modal when he will make some perfumes in Italy and also does his experiment there. He did experiment by killing women. Women show us that they have a beauty, love, full of love, peace where everyone comes to them, love them, save them, care them and everything will be done because of them, women. His last perfume making is through the woman who one of the most beautiful girl in Grasse, she is Laura. Love, beauty, loveliness can be felt from a woman and Laura who is one of the most beautiful girl wants to be made as a part of his twelve-bottle perfume. She is the last one to fulfill his purpose in making great perfume. After getting her, this is his last life and he can intoxicate many people around him by using dribble of the perfume. A great fragrance makes people to be intoxicated. This is a love fragrance which was made of “some beautiful girls”. Wow, what a horrible thing!

2. Events

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille can not just stay in his birth town, he has to move to the other place but this is not because of his willing. He can smell everything but he can not smell his own body. His scent always guides him whatever he does. He meets a perfumer, Baldini who created many perfumes in his country, French. He tries to convince him that he can make a better perfume than before. This imagery shows that there are many ways how to make a better one than the other which has been made but many often everyone always just looks their experiences when someone finds ways to make a better one. What Baldini says is Jean-Baptiste Grenouille does not know anything in making perfume. He has not known yet the scent of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille to detect anything around him. Why doesn’t Baldini trust Jean in making a better one? Because he always depends on his experiences of making perfumes because he has made many perfumes in his country. Jean tries to convince Baldini and the last, he can make other perfume and has Baldini to try it. Baldini smelt Jean’s creation and Baldini felt as though he stays in a beautiful garden, and a girl says “I love you”. What does this mean? This is a symbol of peace, love, beauty, safety, and loveliness. When Jean-Baptiste Grenouille made a better one, this shows that there must be the best from a better one. He asked for Baldini to teach Jean-Baptiste Grenouille how to make and how the process in making perfume. Because of his scent which always guides him, he smelt nothing when he tried to make perfume through the teaching of Baldini. He was very angry with Baldini. This shows us that a wonder of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is very high in making a true perfume. Laura who is the later experiment of Jean is very loved by his father, Antoine Richis who is the richest man in his country. His love allows Laura in making everything even when her birthday, Antoine allowed her playing game with her friends around the garden near by his house. This shows us that Laura is a beloved woman and she is free to run her life, his father love always protecst her from anywhere. Love of someone makes us happy, peaceful, glad, and dispassionate.

3. Situations

From Jean’s birthday until his dead, he never knows how to love and nobody loves him. He was born in the stinking fish market. This place is so dirty. This makes him to be what he will be. Where he was born will shows that his life is not far from “the dirty place”. A dirty place is a stinking fish market where his mother worked there and sold fishes. What did his mother do when he was born? She didn’t want his son to be born and she banished him. This thing is one of the situations where our life is not allowed to live. We are rejected and wherever we live, whatever we feel, we will feel naturally that we are rejected from everything and from the beginning because when we were born, we weren’t wanted to live in this world. I try to check the Perfume’s review that he was born in 17 July 1738 and his birth was fifth birth at the same place, it is in a stinking fish market, it is a dirty place and it is said that she always bore when she was working. I can say that his mother tends to make work is more important in order that she had no place to bear his son. Indeed, work is good but our child, our son is more important than everything that we get. The first voice that was heard by Jean is his mother tried to kill him, forsake him. That voice will guide his life that everything that he will face, he tends to do rudely because his mind has been set by the voice that he ever heard even when he was a one-day age. When he was found, he was nursed by Mandame Gaillard but she sold Jean-Baptiste Grenouille when he was 13 years old. From his birth, he was not wanted to be born and even he was sold. This will influence his life when someday he becomes an adult man. His great scent guides him to detect what are really around him. He can detect by smelling anything. It is said that Mandame did not have any place to keep Jean. This shows that someone does not want to be responsible of something that she runs.

4. Characters

Imagery can also be seen from the characters of the players in a film. The characters in this film show how they really are. How they present something to people, how they attract other people to stay and pay attention with them. How they can be interesting players in the film. In this film, I just write three main kinds of player characters. They are main character, society characters and supporting characters.

a. Main character

In Perfume, the main character is played by Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. He becomes a murderer when making great perfume which can intoxicate many people. He is a unique baby when he was born and he is so different with others. He always depends on his scent. Eventually, he develops the ability to speak but he is only able to associate words by his scent. His friends hated him not because they envy with him but they can see something strange with him. He does not realize that he is a murderer. He just wants to learn how to keep his scent and create something better and becomes a popular man. In his end, he can not love anybody and nobody can love him too. Why can this happen? Because of his birthday, he was not taught how to love others and feel better with other even he can not feel how the women felt when they were killed. The main point that can be got as an imagery from the character of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is about his beginning when he stepped his feet to the earth, when he was born.

b. The society

The society has a place as one of the most important place in keeping communication. In the first of his birthday place said that fish market is one of the places which are often invited by Parisians to keep communication with other people. This shows that a market is a crowded place and an effective place to speak to others and keep contacting with others and meet others. The Parisians remain keeping a good communication with other people even though that place is very dirty. It can be seen that many people are busy to run their daily business. The society in that film is the people who always work hard in their daily life. Let’s take a look in the last of the film. What imagery can be seen from the society? The society can not stand with their two feet but they can be intoxicated by the aroma of the perfume. They do not have the true meaning of their faith even they said that Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is an angel who is sent from the heaven. This shows that the people’s faith can be changed only by the aroma of the perfume, fragrance of love by saying “He is an angel, He has no fault”.

c. Supporting Characters

The imagery can be seen through the supporting characters which are presented in the film. The supporting characters can be seen through;

a. Grenouille’s Mother.

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille was her fifth baby who was born in the same place, Fish Market. When he was born, his mother did not want to nurse him even she banished him in the middle of the fishes. It can be seen from his mother’s behavior that she doesn’t love life. She doesn’t care about life. She just lives for herself without caring other people even her son, she doesn’t care about him and she is an egoistic woman. This is an imagery, a sign that his mother can not grow her own son because she does not think and she can not think that life is more important than work, life is more important than whatever she can do. She got what she had done. His mother was hanged for what was perceived as the attempted murder of her baby.

b. Jeanne Bussie

She was a young girl who was bringing the basket. She was killed when Jean-Baptiste Grenouille avoided her voice by closing her mouth until she died. She is a beautiful girl who becomes the first girl that is killed by Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. She does not know anything about Jean even she tries to give Jean two fruits when Jean came to smell her. Jeanne has a pure heart. She came to Jean by giving him two fruits because she knows that everything will be running well and there is no strange after knowing who Jean-Baptiste Grenouille really is.

c. Madame Gaillard

She had no sense of smell, so she didn’t know that Jean-Baptiste Grenouille had no scent. In charge of a boarding house, her goal in life was to save enough money to have a proper death and funeral. When Jean-Baptiste Grenouille was 13 years old, he was sold by Madame and she was given some money. This shows that what Madame did, she has no enough time if she just nurses him. I know that she cares about her life and tries looking for money but she did not want to grow Jean-Baptiste Grenouille because she just wants to fulfill her life to prepare her future funeral. Not only her future funeral can be seen but also she cared about baby and she had no any heart if she just let the baby stayed without a mother. She loved him when the other children tried to kill him when he was a baby, Madame was very angry with them who tried to kill him. But ironically, when she had money by selling Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, she lost all her money in old age, died a miserable death, and was not even buried, but rather, threw onto a heap with other bodies.

d. Giuseppe Baldini

He is an old perfumer. He merely knows the art of perfumery. He owns a perfume shop filled with a strong amalgam of scents. The shop is so intoxicating that it scares away potential customers; Baldini is too dense to realize this fact. The shop is located in the middle of a bridge, the Pont-au-Change. He takes on Jean-Baptiste Grenouille as an apprentice and becomes rich from the perfumes that Jean-Baptiste Grenouille creates for him. After giving a chance to Jean-Baptiste Grenouille to create a good perfume, he knows how to make a good perfume by using his great scent. What did Baldini say? He said that Jean-Baptiste Grenouille did not know anything about perfume. This case shows that Baldini underestimates what Jean wants to do, create to make a good perfume and also Baldini does not trust Jean-Baptiste Grenouille that he can create a good perfume. Baldini is also so proud because he depends on his experience of making or creating perfume. That’s why he said that Jean-Baptiste Grenouille did not know anything about perfume. When Jean-Baptiste Grenouille was successful to create a good perfume, Baldini sent him to Italy to create the best and after that Baldini gave him a legal letter to bring Jean-Baptiste Grenouille can be accepted in Italy. Baldini trusted him that he can do his best of making the best perfume.

e. Laura Richis

She is the most beautiful girl in Grasse. She is a peaceful woman and her father loved her so much. She also does not know about Jean but Laura was the last of Jean’s experiment of making perfume that will make people intoxicated. She asked her father when she was brought to the other place to save him from the murderer that happened in Grasse. Laura asked what really happened. Why did her father bring her out of Grasse? Her wonder shows that she wants to know the truth and the realization of life. She just feels that everything is well, but at last, Grenouille’s great scent can find where Laura is and her odor is the fragrance of Grenouille’s dreams and is central to his plans of creating the last perfume.

II. Comment on the effectiveness and attractiveness of the film

1. Effectiveness

The film of Perfume; A Story of a Murderer is presented effectively. The story which is played by protagonist as a murderer can be proved and the fact can be seen. His punishment as a murderer is given and seen by all people and the opening scene sees Jean-Baptiste Grenouille sentenced to a particularly brutal form of execution as a crowd cheers. Grenouille’s mother was hanged for what was perceived as the attempted murder of her baby and the ending of the Perfume film can be understandable although the major character hook that leads to it comes completely out of left field in the narrative just before the climax leading to a simple, pat attempt to sum up the main character’s plight.

2. Attractiveness

To me, the Perfume film is very attractive because from the first of Grenouille’s performance, as though he does not show that he is a murderer. When he was born or when he was a baby, I believe that everyone has a pity to him but when the story as a murderer has appeared, everyone who watches his performance must be angry, peevish. This is very attractive where the protagonist in the film shows that his murderer begins when he begins to create perfume and because his great scent that always guides him wherever he goes. Nobody knows if he is a murderer by creating perfume from his experiment by killing beautiful girls as the sign of love, fragrance of love.

III. Kind of Obsession of the PERFUME film

What kind of obsession can be seen or got from the Perfume film? To me, the meaning of Obsession is something that obsesses our mind when we see, know, feel something or someone. Obsession in Perfume can be seen from the scent of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. How can it be? That’s so strange, but on that film, that’s fact and his scent brings him wherever he wants to go and whatever he wants to do. This sometimes obsesses my mind when I try to remember the great scent of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. It can also be seen from his crazy behavior in killing some beautiful girls. I know that his main purpose not to kill them but he just wants to create the best perfume. By killing them, if I am as one of the girl who is killed, my mind is always obsessed and I can not be dispassionate. The last one is when the society can be intoxicated by the great aroma of his perfume. This also always obsesses my mind. How can they be intoxicated? But, that’s fact because it is the sign of love fragrance which can intoxicate everybody, love and love.

IV. The Essence of the PERFUME film

The essence is how someone can be a famous person. How the power of love can be felt by everyone. The fragrance of beautiful girl by creating it on perfume can be felt by everyone peacefully, full of love. The story says that the protagonist is as a murderer but he actually does not have a purpose to kill but his main purpose and his goal is how he can create the best perfume which has the power of love and also which can intoxicate everybody because it has a power of love fragrance.