Role and representation of women in Perfume

Laura
she was still there, the incomparably beautiful ower, ... Another year, just one more year, just twelve more months, and that spring would gush over, and he could come to cap it and imprison the wild ow of its scent. pg 196

To compare her scent to a "sap" dehumanizes her completely. She is described only as a product of desires she incites in others. Grenouille, takes no notice of her humanity. She is represented more like an object.

People will be overwhelmed, disarmed, helpless before the magic of this girl, and they will not know why pg 177 they will elect her Queen of the Jasmine...in their sleep dream of looking as alluring as she for just one day. pg 177-178

Depicts her with lots of power, able to capture people against their will. A powerful weapon, a magician as she makes people helpless before the (her) magic Grenouilles mom
She only wanted the pain to stop, ... by evening the whole mess had been shoveled away and carted off to the graveyard or down to the river pg 5 hoped to live a while yet,... marry one day and as the honorable wife of a widower with a trade or some such to bear real children. pg5

She went through quite alot, preserved even though things are not working well for her. Yet also it hints that she is taken advantage of, due to the fact that she had 5 births already and is not even married. Also, it depicts she as a rather simple practical woman, wishing for simple practical stuffs. Mdm Gaillard
Madame Gaillards life already lay behind her though she was not yet thirty years old... Otherwise, this numbed women felt nothing. pg 20 Madam Gaillard had a merciless sense of order and justice... even when it was a matter of life and death. pg 20-21

Like Grenouilles mom, she went through alot, got abused and is practical person. Mdm Arnul After complaining at length about the bad times and her own precarious nancial situation ... was a woman of solid prosperity and sound business sense. pg 179-180 She wants to try and take advantage of the situation. Trying to give less to get more. Depicts as a person with no backbone and who loves to complain, the stero-typical view of (well to do) women.