Jacqueline Simon GunnShe averted his eyes, but not before he recognized the pain in them, a tormented and languished gaze, a stare preserved for people who were able to love deeply enough that they could be destroyed by it.
About This Quote
In this quote, the author captures the intense connection between a couple who have been through a great deal together. The woman in the story is a beautiful and talented young woman who was raised in a very wealthy family. After being forced into an arranged marriage to her husband, she was scandalized due to her wealth and beauty. In order to escape her arranged marriage, she ran away from her husband and changed her identity.
Once she was able to trade places with another woman, she traveled all over Europe and eventually ended up in Paris. In Paris, she met a man named Jean-Baptiste Grenouille who had been orphaned at a young age and raised by a single mother who had died many years earlier. He was a gifted artist but his mother had forbidden him from using any of his talent for any reason.
For years, he had been searching for a way to express himself but had been unable to reach that level of expression. Upon meeting the beautiful young woman, he fell in love with her instantly and determined that he must have her as his muse. As they were married, the man chose to use his wife’s own skin as material for his art pieces.
He considered it to be the purest form of expression because it was the closest thing he could get to what he wanted. When people first meet Jean-Baptiste Grenouille their first reaction is one of disgust due to his unearthly odors and unique appearance. They don’t take time to consider that without Grenouille, there would be no beauty in the world because his art is designed solely for beauty; it is not accomplished through any means other than what is necessary for its creation.
Once they see that Grenouille can create things like perfume, they begin to admire him more because he has shown them something they didn’t know existed before; everything can be artistic if you are willing to make it so; you don’t need any special skill or talent; you don’t need people to tell you what’s beautiful; beauty will come out naturally if you are willing to make it so.
Source: Noahs Story
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