Perfume Characters: Full List & Analysis

Who drives the story

Main characters

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille

A fish-market foundling with no body odor and the greatest nose in France, who wants to be the god of a world of smells. He murders twenty-five girls to bottle adoration, is worshipped by ten thousand, and ends up eaten by Paris outcasts who feel pure love as they devour him.

Appears in:: Part 2: The Craft, the Cave, and the Empty Self; Part 3: Twenty-Five Virgins for One Bottle; Part 4: The Execution That Became an Orgy
Themes:: Genius without humanity; Scent as identity; The crowd's adoration; Possession and murder; The putrid and the sublime

Grenouille's mother

A fishwife who gives birth under her gutting table and tries to abandon the baby among the offal. His cry exposes her, and she is beheaded for infanticide.

Appears in:: Part 2: The Craft, the Cave, and the Empty Self
Themes:: Possession and murder

Madame Gaillard

The foundling keeper who lost her sense of smell to a childhood blow to the nose, so the odorless baby never bothers her. She is indifferent to all the children and dies in the Hôtel-Dieu.

Appears in:: Part 1: Born Among Fish Guts, Smelling Everything

Giuseppe Baldini

A failing perfumer on the Pont au Change whose rival Pélissier is thriving, until Grenouille recreates 'Amor and Psyche' from memory and revives his fame. He teaches Grenouille distillation, then dies when his house collapses into the Seine the night the apprentice leaves.

Appears in:: Part 1: Born Among Fish Guts, Smelling Everything; Part 2: The Craft, the Cave, and the Empty Self

Antoine Richis

Grasse's second consul, the only man thinking logically about the murders, who deduces his red-haired daughter Laure is the most beautiful and flees with her. Grenouille tracks them and kills Laure; later, under the perfume, Richis kneels and begs to be Grenouille's father.

Appears in:: Part 3: Twenty-Five Virgins for One Bottle; Part 4: The Execution That Became an Orgy
Themes:: The crowd's adoration

Also in the story

Supporting characters

Marquis de La Taillade-Espinasse

A Montpellier scientist with a theory of 'fluidum letale,' the earth's deadly vapor, who uses Grenouille as living proof. He presents the newly scented Grenouille to society as a marvel before Grenouille slips away toward Grasse.

Appears in:: Part 2: The Craft, the Cave, and the Empty Self

Madame Arnulfi and Druot

The widowed master perfumer of Grasse and her journeyman lover, Grenouille's employers. He perfects enfleurage under their roof and becomes indispensable to the business.

Appears in:: Part 3: Twenty-Five Virgins for One Bottle

Laure Richis

The red-gold-haired most beautiful girl in Grasse, chosen as the heart of the perfume. She dies in her sleep at a roadside inn, her scent completing the twenty-fifth essence.

Appears in:: Part 3: Twenty-Five Virgins for One Bottle

How they are connected

Key relationships

Giuseppe Baldini Jean-Baptiste Grenouille
A failing perfumer on the Pont au Change whose rival Pélissier is thriving, until Grenouille recreates 'Amor and Psyche' from memory and revives his fame.
Marquis de La Taillade-Espinasse Jean-Baptiste Grenouille
A Montpellier scientist with a theory of 'fluidum letale,' the earth's deadly vapor, who uses Grenouille as living proof.
Madame Arnulfi and Druot Jean-Baptiste Grenouille
The widowed master perfumer of Grasse and her journeyman lover, Grenouille's employers.
Madame Arnulfi and Druot Grenouille's mother
The widowed master perfumer of Grasse and her journeyman lover, Grenouille's employers.
Antoine Richis Laure Richis
Grasse's second consul, the only man thinking logically about the murders, who deduces his red-haired daughter Laure is the most beautiful and flees with her.
Antoine Richis Jean-Baptiste Grenouille
Grenouille tracks them and kills Laure; later, under the perfume, Richis kneels and begs to be Grenouille's father.
Antoine Richis Grenouille's mother
Grenouille tracks them and kills Laure; later, under the perfume, Richis kneels and begs to be Grenouille's father.

Go deeper

Perfume themes & symbols

Genius without humanity · Scent as identity · The crowd's adoration · Possession and murder

Themes explained

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