Patrick Süskinds Roman ”Das Parfum”als kapitalismuskritische Darstellung

Sammanfattning

The main purpose of this essay has been to investigate whether Patrick Süskinds novel “The Perfume” contains capitalism-critical elements.Although this has never been stated by the author publicly, it does not escape most readers, that the novel does indeed contain several socially criticalpoints, among them a critique on capitalism and capitalist behaviour.The study shows that the novel exhibits several features that are consistent with critics of capitalism, such as the theories of Marx and Weber among others. Four areas have been selected for analysis of the novel. These areas are exploitation, greed and ambition, competition, and accumulation. The result of the study shows that the novel contains several signs of capitalismcriticism, and that many descriptions of the figures and events in the novel can be linked to it.