Perfume remains a cult classic for its lush prose and unsettling atmosphere. It was famously adapted into a 2006 film by Tom Tykwer, starring Ben Whishaw and Alan Rickman, which attempted the "impossible" task of making a visual medium feel olfactory.
Süskind argues that scent is the "brother of breath." It enters into us and cannot be resisted. By controlling scent, Grenouille controls the very emotions and souls of those around him.
Grenouille spends seven years in total isolation. Here, he realizes he has no scent of his own, a revelation that drives him back into the world to create his artificial identity.