Scent and Self

My favourite summer read was, without a doubt, Perfume by Patrick Süskind. With its haunting plot and tortured, unsettling protagonist, not only is the book a real page-turner, but it also offers the opportunity to reflect on human nature. The plot is centred around Grenouille, the murderous main character, and his quest to craft the perfect fragrance. The protagonist is drawn to beautiful girls, seeking to murder them and steal their scents. With the girls’ fragrances, Grenouille hopes to create a perfume which he will be able to wear and which will give him the magnetism and force of attraction that the women naturally possess. The protagonist’s belief is that fragrances control human interactions. Those who we adore, we adore because of their auras, which, according to Grenouille, ultimately correspond to their scents. Reading Perfume drove me to reflect on the importance of sense of smell in our lives and relationships. Grenouille’s thesis might be a little extreme, but the role that fragrances play in everyday existence is more relevant than one might think.

Scent can affect our actions or thoughts. Professors Rob W. Holland, Merel Hendriks, and Henk Aarts investigated the extent to which this is true. In two studies, they unobtrusively exposed certain participants to a citrusy scent reminiscent of multi-use detergents. All participants were then asked what they would do during the rest of the day. The participants who had been exposed to the citrus smell listed cleaning-related activities in their to-do lists much more frequently than the others did. There was a positive correlation between the citrusy fragrance and a desire to clean.

Fragrances are also often used to create different sensations in consumers and to make products more marketable. Everyone who was a teen or a tween in the 2010s can probably remember the famous Abercrombie and Fitch perfume which was sprayed all over the brand’s clothing and became especially strong when one got closer to its dark, spacious stores. Through this characteristic fragrance, the brand was able to attract customers by establishing a personality and becoming memorable.

Fragrance is a part of everyday life, but it also reaches the most profound parts of human nature. Scent is seen as related to the soul and the more spiritual side of a person. For centuries, across different cultures, fragrances have been seen to signify the divine and the immaterial. Inhabitants of East African Coastal littoral, as Oxford professor David Parkin writes, believe smell to be one of the ways in which spirits gain substance and become concrete. Through the diffusion of incense, it is possible to invoke spirits, to make them perceptible. Saint Ephrem the Syrian, a Christian theologian born in 306 AD, made references in his hymns to the “Fragrance of Life.” As scholar Ashbrook Harvey explains, Ephrem was referring to the importance of scent in gaining a sensory, not just intellectual, grasp of the divine. According to the theologian, getting to know God involves not only the mind but also the body. Fragrance is perceptible through the senses, yet impossible to contain or grasp. It is diffused in the air surrounding us, but we can never get a hold of it. Fragrance represents, in this sense, a fitting metaphor for divinity, which is revealed to and perceived by us but also ungraspable. 

Since fragrances have such a strong effect on our actions and are so inextricably linked to the spiritual sphere of life, it is not difficult to imagine how personal and impactful the choice of signature scent can be. A vanilla perfume can make us seem warmer and create a cosy bubble around us. Citrus scents give the impression that we are polished, tidy, and clean. By choosing a scent, we can tell the world who we want to be, and by wearing it long enough, we can transform it into part of our identity. While I would not agree with Grenouille on the fact that aura is exclusively tied to scent, it is certainly true that scents can influence the way we are seen and the way people act towards us.

Image from Wikimedia Commons