Perfume: Part 2, Chapter 31 Summary & Analysis

The following day, Grenouille fakes a fainting spell and collapses. The marquis, entirely beside himself, calls for servants and fans Grenouille with a fan drenched in violet perfume. Grenouille thrashes and is finally able to say that the perfume will kill him. As he calms, he explains that violet perfume, while lovely, is made from violet roots and must have an effect on someone suffering from fluidum letale poisoning. He asks if he may concoct a perfume that's light and airy, saying that the new perfume would make him immune to future fainting spells.

The narrator notes for the reader that Grenouille's speech was recorded using proper speech, but in reality Grenouille's outburst was an eruption of blubbering, coughing, and gasping, accompanied by rolls of the eyes.

Taillade-Espinasse, impressed, thinks that he too is probably infected by the violet perfume. He feels great affection towards Grenouille for bringing it to his attention, and screams at the servants to remove all violet perfume from the manor and for Grenouille to be taken to a perfumer in the city, which the narrator notes is exactly what Grenouille's intent was.

In the local perfumer Runel's shop, which isn't well equipped by any means, Grenouille sets about creating the scent of a human being. Grenouille creates a disgusting base for his perfume of cat feces, old cheese, rotten egg, and civet, and then adds fresh scents such as peppermint and eucalyptus, which temper the awful smell. The floral and oily smells on top of the horrific base smell like life. Grenouille quickly creates a copy of the floral half of his perfume, puts it into bottles, and then applies his first perfume to himself.