Ryunosuke Akutagawa And Patrick SДјSkind’S Depiction Of Evil Unveils Human Depravity In Perfume And “Rashomon”
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Akutagawa’s “Rashomon” and SДјskind’s Perfume introduce the audience to their own portrayal of evil that contrasts the clichД©d literary concept of bad always being triumphed over by good. Evil is particularly developed in their works to achieve a similar purpose: to reveal the social stigma and corruption of human society. Notwithstanding the similar surrounding—Akutagawa’s crumbling Rashomon gate and SДјskind’s degrading depiction of Paris—that reflects the equally declining state of the society, they employ different approaches in portraying evil. Akutagawa establishes evil as having an ambiguous nature while SДјskind relates evil through the sense of smell, with both treatments effectively disclosing the human depravity residing within their work. Both use different literary techniques to achieve their motive; Akutagawa hints at the ominous presence of evil through contrasts and imagery; while SДјskind incorporates evil with his first sentence introducing Grenouille as вЂ?one of the most gifted and abominable personages’ (p. 3) of his era.
Both authors use different treatment of evil to achieve their similar revelation of human corruption. Despite “Rashomon” being a short story, Akutagawa does not introduce evil at the very beginning but foreshadows evil slowly, obscurely as it establishes throughout the story, contrasting SДјskind’s plausibly opposite method of implementing evil from the beginning in spite of Perfume as a novel. Relating to the modernism brought to traditional Japan, Akutagawa first uses colours—using their significance in Japanese culture—in representing evil thus revealing the society’s condition. His first subtle hint of evil is through the gate’s вЂ?crimson lacquer’ (p. 31) that has вЂ?rubbed off here and there’ (p. 31), signifying that the once great construction no longer radiates with vitality and spirit; it is now a вЂ?hide-out … place for abandoning unclaimed corpses’ (p. 31). Akutagawa tarnishes the religious belief of the corrupted society with вЂ?broken pieces of Buddhist images’ (p. 32), their lacquer, вЂ?gold … worn off’ (p. 32); implying that the society’s withering faith in religion is associated with their current dishonorable state. The society no longer respects the heavens as the pieces are simply вЂ?heaped up … as firewood’ (p. 32). A few other colours, such as вЂ?white droppings’ (p. 32) symbolising humility instead of cleanliness and, вЂ?worn blue’ (p. 32) indicating depression, develops the ambiguity of evil lurking behind the veil of words. Evil is then ominously intensified when the servant observes the вЂ?fat black cloud … jutting out вЂ¦Ð²Ð‚™ (p. 34) before Akutagawa abruptly brings evil to light by striking the fear of evil upon the servant as вЂ?The unknown, the evil terrified him’ (p. 35). Akutagawa then emphasises the ambiguous nature of evil through the characters’ actions that flicker between being bad or good. By manipulating the horrendous act of the old woman вЂ?who makes wigs from the hair of the dead’ (p. 38) with the harmless intention вЂ?to sell, for scraps of food’ (p. 38)—a necessary requirement to survival—the author makes the reader question whether it is wrong to do so since she is not harming anyone and вЂ?if she hadn’t she would have starved to death’ (p. 39). It reveals the desperate condition of society to commit immoral acts in order to survive, such as the dead woman with the hair the hag was pulling, who sold snake flesh to the guards but claimed it to be dried fish. When the servant echoes the old woman’s concept by robbing her of her clothes, Akutagawa is not implying that he eventually chooses to walk down the path of evil. It brings the reader to discern evil as ambiguous and correlative with good since the servant’s evil deed is justified just like the hag’s actions, by robbing the hag to demonstrate the flaw in her perception.
In Perfume, Sļskind relates evil through stench to reveal the ugly facets of humanity. He underlines this relation through Father Terrier’s description of how human odour is �always a fleshly … sinful odour’ (p. 16), correlating evil and odours together to satirise the conventional assumption of the olfaction being the basest of sense. He proves the belief wrong by demonstrating the olfaction’s capability of revealing human depravity, successfully creating a putrid realm as stench �reigned in the cities’ (p. 3); giving the reader insight of how these places are foully filled with transgression through his array of olfactory diction. From the streets that �stank of manure … stench of congealed blood’ (p. 3), to the stench of �sweat … tumorous disease’ (p. 3) of people, everything is assigned with at least an unsettling odour to further emphasise the evil embodied in the novel. �The stench was foulest in Paris’ (p. 4) where Grenouille is born, which is interestingly �the most putrid spot’ (p. 4) as it correlates highly with him as a being of great evil. Jean Bussie’s �hysterical, hot maternal sweat’ (p. 128) reflects her delirious superstitious beliefs that overrides her motherly instinct as she believes him being �possessed by the devil’ (p. 10) when he is still an infant because he �doesn’t smell at all’ (p. 10), refusing to see him like the other babies she has taken care of. His unsettling lack of odour here is not a sign of purity nor does it indicate that he is not sinful. Sļskind makes an exception of relating evil to odour in Grenouille’s case — he in fact mocks the relation between purity and odourlessness of a being by making Grenouille’s lack of odour signify his amorality, or worse, his incomprehensible evil. The fact that he does not smell instills fear to those around him instead and his discerning nose makes even Father Terrier, supposedly holy and virtuous, feel �naked and ugly’ (p. 18) with the smell of the latter’s �vinegary breath’ (p. 128) causing his �filthiest thoughts … exposed to the greedy little nose’