The Hunchback of Notre Dame

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This article is about the Victor Hugo novel. For other uses, see The Hunchback of Notre Dame (disambiguation).
The Hunchback of Notre Dame

1831 illustration from the
first edition of Hunchback
Author Victor Hugo
Original title Notre-Dame de Paris
Illustrator Alfred Barbou (original)
Country France
Language French
Genre(s) Romanticism
Publisher Gosselin
Publication date January 14, 1831

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (French: Notre-Dame de Paris) is an 1831 French novel written by Victor Hugo. It is set in 1482 in Paris, in and around the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris. The book tells the story of a poor Gypsy girl (La Esmeralda) and a misshapen bell-ringer (Quasimodo) who was raised by the archdeacon (Claude Frollo). The book was written as a statement to preserve the Notre Dame cathedral and not to 'modernize' it, as Hugo was thoroughly against.


Contents

[edit] Plot introduction

Hugo began to write Hunchback in 1829. The agreement with his original publisher, Gosselin, was that the book would be finished that same year. However, Hugo was constantly forced to delay due to other projects. By the summer of 1830, Gosselin demanded the book to be completed by February 1831. And so beginning in September of 1830, Hugo worked non-stop on the project; he bought a new bottle of ink, a woolen cloak, and cloistered himself in his room refusing to be bothered or to leave his house (except for nightly visits to the cathedral). The book was finished six months later.

[edit] Explanation of the novel's title

Hugo finished the book just as he was running out of ink. This tempted him to title the work What There Is in a Bottle of Ink.[1] He eventually decided against it and called the book Notre-Dame de Paris. English translations of the book are often titled The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which have led some to believe that Quasimodo is the main character. Hugo never liked this title, preferring the original Notre-Dame de Paris. He gave this title because he considered the cathedral itself to be the main "character" of the story. The story takes place around and inside the church, and Hugo spent much time describing the building as well as decrying its abandonment after the abuse it suffered during the French Revolution; during the Revolution, the church had been viewed as a symbol of the old regime and was pillaged and vandalized by angry mobs.

[edit] Plot summary

During the 1482 Festival of Fools in Paris, Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre Dame, is elected the Pope of Fools for being the ugliest person in Paris. He is hoisted on a throne and paraded around Paris by the jeering mob. Pierre Gringoire, a struggling poet and philosopher, tries unsuccessfully to get the crowd to watch his play instead of the parade. Looking for something to eat, Gringoire admires the graceful beauty of La Esmerelda, a gypsy street dancer, and decides to follow her home. After rounding a corner, she is suddenly attacked by Quasimodo and Frollo. Gringoire rushes to help her but is knocked out by Quasimodo as Frollo runs away. The King's Archers, led by Phoebus de Chateaupers arrive just in time and capture the hunchback. Later that night, a group of beggars and thieves are about to hang Gringoire when Esmerelda comes forward and offers to save his life by "marrying" him for four years only.

The next day, Quasimodo is put on trial and sentenced to two hours of torture in the Place de Grève. He suffers both the pain of being stretched and pulled apart as well as being publicly humiliated by the crowd of people, who hate him for his ugliness. He begs for water, but no one answers his pleas until Esmerelda comes forth and brings him something to drink. Nearby, a recluse called Sister Gudule, screams at La Esmerelda for being a "gypsy child- thief" and blames her for her daughter's kidnapping fifteen years earlier.

Two months later, Esmeralda is walking in the streets when Fleur-de-Lys de Gondlaurier and her wealthy, aristocratic friends spot her from the house de Gondlaurier. Fleur-de-Lys becomes jealous of Esmeralda's beauty and pretends to not see her, but Fleur's friends call Esmeralda to them out of curiosity. When Esmeralda enters the room, tension immediately appears-- the wealthy young women, who all appeared equally pretty when compared to each other, are plain in comparison to Esmeralda. Knowing that Esmeralda's beauty far surpasses their own, the aristocrats make fun of her clothes instead. Phoebus tries to make Esmeralda feel better, but Fleur grabs Esmeralda's bag and opens it. Pieces of wood fall with letters written on them fall out, and Djali moves the letters to spell out "Phoebus". Fleur, realizing that she now has competition, calls Esmeralda a witch and passes out. Esmeralda runs off, and Phoebus follows her.

Later that month, she meets with Phoebus and declares her love for him. Phoebus takes the opportunity to kiss her as she speaks, and he pretends to love her. He asks Esmeralda what the point of marriage is (he had no intentions of leaving his fiancée; he just wanted to have sex with Esmeralda), which leaves the girl hurt. Phoebus, seeing the girl's reaction, pretends to be sad and says that Esmeralda must no longer love him. Esmeralda then says that she does love him and will do whatever he asks. Phoebus begins to undo Esmeralda's shirt and kisses her again. Frollo, who was watching from behind a door, bursts into the room in a jealous rage, stabs Pheobus, and flees. Esméralda passes out at the sight of Frollo, and when she comes to, she finds herself framed for murder, for a miscommunication makes the jury believe that Phoebus is in fact dead. Esmeralda proclaims her innocence, but she is tortured by a device that twists and crushes one of her feet. Unable to withstand the pain, she states that she is Phoebus' murderer. The court sentences her to death for murder and witchcraft (the court has seen Djali's spelling trick), and she is locked away in a cell. Frollo visits her, and Esmeralda hides in the corner (before this point in the book, the readers know that Frollo's lustful obsession of the girl has caused him to publicly denounce and stalk her). Frollo tells Esmeralda about his inner conflict about her, and he gives her an ultimatum: give herself to him or face death. Esmeralda is repulsed that Frollo would harm her to this extent for his own selfishness. She refuses. Frollo, mad with emotion, leaves the city. The next day, minutes before she is to be hanged, Quasimodo dramatically arrives from Notre Dame, takes Esméralda, and runs back in while crying "sanctuary".

While she stays in the cell at Notre Dame, she slowly becomes friendly to Quasimodo and is able to look past his misshapen exterior. Quasimodo gives her a high-pitched whistle, one of the few things he can still hear, and instructs her to use it whenever she needs help. One day, Esmeralda spots Phoebus walking past the cathedral. She asks Quasimodo to follow the captain, but when Quasimodo finds where Phoebus is, he sees Phoebus leaving his fiancee's house. Quasimodo tells him that Esmeralda is still alive, but Phoebus, believing Esmeralda to be dead, tells him to go away. Quasimodo returns and says he did not find Phoebus. For weeks Esmeralda and Quasimodo live a quiet life, but Frollo unexpectedly comes back and is infuriated to see the pair comfortable with each other. He decides to keep his return a secret from them, and for a few days, Frollo hides in his private chambers thinking about what to do next. One night, he brings his master key to Esmeralda's room. The girl wakes up and is paralyzed with terror until Frollo pins her to the bed with his body and tries to rape her. Unable to fight him off, Esmeralda grabs the whistle and frantically blows it. Before Frollo can make sense of her actions, Quasimodo picks him up, slams him against the wall, and beats him with the intention of killing him. Before Quasimodo can finish, Frollo stumbles into the moonlight pouring in from a far window. Quasimodo sees who Esmeralda's attacker is, and drops him in surprise. Frollo fumes with infuriation, and tells Esmeralda that no one will have her if he cannot, before leaving the cathedral.

Frollo finds Gringoire and falsely feeds him information that the Parliament will order soldiers to forcefully remove Esmeralda from Notre Dame. Gringoire, believing that he will save the girl, formulates a plan with Frollo. One night, Gringoire leads all the Parisian Gypsies to Notre Dame to rescue Esméralda. Mistakenly responding to this assault, Quasimodo retaliates and uses Notre Dame's defenses to fight the gypsies, thinking that these people want to turn in Esmeralda.

When the King's advisers see the battle of Notre Dame, Parliament votes to remove Esmeralda from her sanctuary.

Meanwhile, Quasimodo soon finds that he is outnumbered, but the King's archers come to Notre Dame's aid. They clear the streets of the gypsies while Quasimodo runs to Esmeralda's room. He goes into a panic when she is nowhere to be found.

During the attack, Gringoire and a cloaked stranger had slipped into Notre Dame and found Esmeralda about to sneak out of the cathedral (she had feared that soldiers were trying to take her away when she heard the battle). When Gringoire offered to save the girl, she agreed and went with the two men. The three get into a nearby boat and paddle down the Seine, and she passes out when she hears many people chanting for her death.

When Esmeralda wakes, she finds that Gringoire is gone, and the stranger is Frollo. Frollo once more gives Esmeralda a choice: stay with him, or be handed over to the soldiers. The girl asks to be executed. Angry, Frollo casts her into the arms of Gudule, who, in hatred for gypsies, holds Esméralda firmly, while awaiting the guards. Moments before the guards arrive, the two realize that Esméralda is in fact Gudule's lost child, but it is now too late for Esméralda to escape. The guards arrive, and Gudule pleads for them to show Esmeralda and herself mercy. Gudule follows the guards to the scaffold, kicking and biting along the way. A guard pushes her, causing her to hit her head, resulting in her death.

Back at Notre Dame, Quasimodo is still frantically looking for his friend. He goes to the top of the north tower and finds Frollo there. Quasimodo notes Frollo's demented appearance and follows his gaze, where he sees Esméralda in a white dress, hanging from the scaffold. Quasimodo hurls Frollo from Notre Dame in a fit of rage. Looking at La Esmerelda hanging off in the distance and Frollo's wrangled corpse down below, Quasimodo cries out: "There is everything I ever loved!" Quasimodo is never seen again.

[edit] Characters in The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Pierre Gringoire is a struggling poet. He mistakenly finds his way into the "Court of Miracles", the secret lair of the Gypsies. In order to preserve the secrecy, Gringoire must either be killed by hanging, or marry a Gypsy. Although Esmeralda does not love him, and in fact believes him a coward rather than a true man (he, unlike Phoebus, failed in his attempt to rescue her from Quasimodo), she takes pity on his plight and marries him - although, much to his disappointment, she refuses to let him touch her.


Esmeralda is a Gypsy dancer. She is the center of the human drama within the story. A popular focus of the citizens' attentions, she experiences their changeable attitudes, being first adored as an entertainer, then hated as a witch, before being lauded again for her dramatic rescue by Quasimodo; when the King finally decides to put her to death, he does so in the belief that the Parisian mob want her dead. She is loved by both Quasimodo and Claude Frollo, but falls in love with Captain Phoebus, who only wants to take her to bed.

Djali is Esmeralda's pet goat. She performs tricks that make people believe that Esmeralda is an enchantress (witch). These tricks include writing the word "PHOEBUS" in moveable letter-blocks, and tapping the number of beats to indicate the month and hour of the day. These tricks delight the citizens at first, but are later horrified by them, believing Esmeralda is a witch.

Quasimodo is the hunchback of Notre Dame. He lives in the bell tower of Notre Dame and rings the bells, which have made him become deaf. When he was a hideous and abandoned baby, he was adopted by Claude Frollo. Quasimodo's life within the confines of the cathedral and his only two outlets - ringing the bells and his love and devotion for Frollo - are described. He ventures outside the Cathedral rarely, since people despise and shun him for his appearance: the notable occasions when he does leave include his taking part in the Feast of Fools - during which he is elected Fools'-Pope due to his perfect hideousness - and his subsequent attempt to kidnap Esmeralda, his rescue of Esmeralda from the gallows, his attempt to bring Phoebus to Esmeralda, and his final abandonment of the cathedral at the end of the novel. It is revealed in the story that the baby Quasimodo was left by the gypsies in place of Esmeralda, whom they abducted.

Claude Frollo is the Archdeacon of Notre Dame. Despite his celibacy vows as a priest, he finds himself madly in love with Esmeralda. He nearly murders Phoebus in a jealous rage from seeing Phoebus nearly rape Esmeralda. He is killed when Quasimodo pushes him off the cathedral. His dour attitude and his alchemical experiments scared and alienated him from the Parisians, who believed him a sorcerer, and so he lived without family, save for Quasimodo and his spoiled brother Jehan.

Jehan Frollo is Claude Frollo's over-indulged younger brother. He is a troublemaker and a student at the university. He is dependent on his brother for money, which he then proceeds to squander on alcohol. Quasimodo kills him during the attack on the cathedral.

Phoebus de Chateaupers is the captain of the King's Archers. After he saves Esmeralda from abduction, she becomes infatuated with him, and he himself is intrigued by her. He attempts to seduce her, but is interrupted in the attempt when Frollo tries to kill him. After recovering, Phoebus returns in shame to his fiancée, and for a time believes that Esmeralda has been executed for witchcraft and his 'murder'. He later leads the archers in fighting off the gypsy attackers of Notre-Dame, and searches the Cathedral and the city for Esmeralda. After the events of the novel, he suffers the 'tragedy' of marriage to the beautiful but spiteful Fleur-de-Lys Gondelaurier

Fleur-de-Lys de Gondelaurier A beautiful and wealthy socialite engaged to Phoebus. Phoebus' attentions to Esmeralda make her insecure and jealous, and she and her friends respond by treating Esmeralda with contempt and spite. Fleur-de-Lys later neglects to inform Phoebus that Esmeralda has not been executed, which serves to deprive the pair of any further contact. Phoebus and Fleur-de-Lys marry at the end of the novel

Sister Gudule, formerly named Pacquette de Chantfleurie, is an anchorite, who lives in seclusion in an exposed cell in central Paris. She is tormented by the loss of her daughter, whom she believes to have been cannibalised by gypsies as a baby, and devotes her life to mourning her. Her long lost daughter turns out to be Esmeralda.

Louis XI is the King of France. Appears briefly when he is brought the news of the rioting at Notre Dame.

Tristan L'Hermite- A friend of King Louis IX, who leads the band who go to capture Esmeralda.

Henriet Cousin- the city executioner.

Florian Barbedienne is the judge who sentences Quasimodo to be tortured. He is also deaf.

Jacques Charmolue gets Esmeralda to falsely confess to killing Phoebus. He then has her executed.

[edit] Major themes

As stated by many critics and scholars, the Cathedral of Notre Dame appears to be the main setting, which is almost elevated to the status of a character. Indeed, the original French title of the book, Notre-Dame de Paris (the formal title of the Cathedral) shows that the cathedral (and not Quasimodo) is the subject of the story. The book portrays the Gothic era as one of extremes of architecture, passion, and religion. Like many of his other works, Hugo is also very concerned with social justice, and his descriptions of religious fanaticism are also examined. Another unique element of the book is the way in which Hugo changes the roles of protagonist and antagonist, hero and villain, between characters throughout the novel.

[edit] Literary significance and reception

The enormous popularity of the book in France spurred the nascent historical preservation movement in that country and strongly encouraged Gothic revival architecture. Ultimately it led to major renovations at Notre-Dame in the 19th century led by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. Much of the cathedral's present appearance is a result of this renovation.

[edit] Allusions and references

[edit] Allusions to actual history, geography and current science

In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo makes frequent reference to the architecture of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.

He also mentions the invention of the printing press, when the bookmaker near the beginning of the work speaks of "the German pest."

Victor Hugo lived a few homes away from Victor of Aveyron, the first well-documented feral child.[2] Although, the inspiration for Quasimodo's character is not directly linked to Victor of Aveyron.

[edit] Allusions in other works

The name Quasimodo has become synonymous with "a courageous heart beneath a grotesque exterior." [3]

[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

To date, all of the film and TV adaptations have greatly strayed from the original plot.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame has had a number of film adaptations:

It has also appeared on TV numerous occasions:

Music:

  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Alec_R._Costandinos and the Syncophonic Orchestra from 1977, a lush orchestral disco 28 minute epic re-telling the tale of Quasimodo and Esmeralda.

Musical theatre:

  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1993), an Off Broadway musical with music by Byron Janis, lyrics by Hal Hackady and book by Anthony Scully [4]
  • In 1999, "Notre Dame de Paris (musical)" opened in Paris and became an instant success. It is considered the most successful adaptation of any novel except for "The Phantom of the Opera" and "Les Misérables." It was also adapted for the stage by Nicholas DeBaubien.[5]
  • A rock musical version was released in Seattle, Washington in 1998 titled "HUNCHBACK" with music and script by C. Rainey Lewis. [6] A 2 Disc CD of the songs from the show could be found in a handful of internet stores like amazon.com
  • A musical version, scored by Dennis DeYoung, will open in Chicago at the Bailiwick Reperatory in the summer of 2008 [7]

[edit] Publication history

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is widely available in English language editions.

  • 1978, USA, Penguin Classics ISBN 0140443533, Pub date 26 October 1978, paperback
  • 2001, USA, Signet Classics ISBN 0451527887, Pub date 10 April 2001, paperback
  • 2002, USA, Modern Library Classics ISBN 0679642579, Pub date 8 October 2002
  • 2006, USA, Ann Arbor Media ISBN 1587264021, Pub date 14 July 2006, hard cover

[edit] Quotations

  • A description of Quasimodo upon his election as the fool's pope: "We shall not attempt to give the reader an idea of that tetrahedron nose-that horse-shoe mouth-that small left eye over-shadowed by a red bushy brow, while the right eye disappeared entirely under an enormous wart-of those straggling teeth with breaches here and there like the battlements of a fortress-of that horny lip, over which one of those teeth projected like the tusk of an elephant-of that forked chin-and, above all, of the expression diffused over the whole-that mixture of malice, astonishment, and melancholy. Let the reader, if he can, figure to himself this combination." (p. 62)
  • On the connection between architecture and culture: "When a man understands the art of seeing, he can trace the spirit of an age and the features of a king even in the knocker on a door." (p. 184)
  • Quasimodo's reaction to Esmeralda's gift of a drink of water while he is being heckled on the pillory: "Then from that eye, hitherto so dry and burning, was seen to roll a big tear, which fell slowly down that deformed visage so long contracted by despair. Perhaps it was the first that the unfortunate creature had ever shed." (p. 322)
  • Quasimodo, explaining why he won't enter Esmeralda's cell: "The owl goes not into the nest of the lark." (p. 502)
  • After Esmeralda's execution: "Quasimodo then lifted his eye to look upon the gypsy girl, whose body, suspended from the gibbet, he beheld quivering afar, under its white robes, in the last struggles of death; then again he dropped it upon the archdeacon, stretched a shapeless mass at the foot of the tower, and he said with a sob that heaved his deep breast to the bottom, 'Oh-all that I've ever loved!" (p. 678)

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Rebello, The Art of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, p. 33
  2. ^ Shattuck, R. (1980). The forbidden experiment: The story of the wild boy of aveyron. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.
  3. ^ Webber, Elizabeth; Mike Feinsilber (1999). Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Allusions. Merriam-Webster, 592. ISBN 0877796289. 
  4. ^ The Hunchback of Notre Dame
  5. ^ MAINSTAGE 1997 - NICHOLAS DeBEAUBIEN'S THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME
  6. ^ Hunchback
  7. ^ Playbill News: Hunchback of Notre Dame Musical By Styx Front-Man to Play Chicago's Bailiwick

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] External links

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The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
Characters
Films
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