The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

A young dancer who lives in Paris, Esmeralda was raised by a band of Romany travelers but, as the end of the novel reveals, is really the missing daughter of a disgraced French woman from Reims. Together with her pet goat, Djali, 16-year-old Esmeralda develops a reputation as an object of desire among the residents of Paris. However, most consider her a member of the ostracized Romany community, so Esmeralda experiences prejudice from Parisians (including, ironically, her own mother). The people of Paris believe that since she is Romany, she lacks honor and virtue. This characterization of young Esmeralda is demonstrably incorrect; she wears an amulet around her neck that, she believes, will help guide her to her parents if she maintains her virtue. Esmeralda fiercely polices her virtue and integrity. She is desperate to reunite with her parents and thus refuses to become the dishonorable person that the prejudiced people of Paris think she is. Esmeralda has learned to maintain her virtue through violence in a world that treats her as less than equal. Even the seemingly honorable Gringoire falls victim to prejudicial assumptions: After Esmeralda saves him by agreeing to marry him, he makes sexual advances toward her. As she defends herself with a knife, her resigned manner suggests that this is not the first time she has had to defend her virtue. The contrast between the received, prejudicial understanding of Esmeralda as an ethnic minority and the reality of her character illustrates the prejudice against the Romany community in Medieval Paris.

Although the novel presents Esmeralda as a virtuous and honorable person, she has flaws. In fact, she is subject to the same powerful delusions as other characters. She may be alienated and ostracized from mainstream society, but she is susceptible to love’s destructive powers. After Phoebus, the captain of the guards, saves her from a kidnapping attempt, she falls in love with him and convinces herself that he loves her, even though the novel patently indicates that he considers her both disposable and beneath him. Even though he ignores her, even when she spots him with other women, and even when he refuses to challenge her death sentence for her supposed involvement in his murder, Phoebus gives no indication that he has more than a passing sexual desire for her. To the naive Esmeralda, however, his heroic intervention is a sign that he loves her, that he is returning her love. Given society’s prejudice against her, this act of heroic protection is significant. For Phoebus, however, it is just another evening, and Esmeralda is a temporary release for his perpetual lust.

At the end of the novel, Esmeralda cannot overcome her naive delusion regarding Phoebus’s love. After being nearly executed and then being nearly raped by Frollo but escaping his clutches through the fortuitous reunion with her mother, Esmeralda hides in the rathole. Her mother, Paquette, desperately tries to divert the guards’ attention. When Esmeralda sees Phoebus, however, she is struck again by the romantic notion that he will protect her. She is mistaken. Phoebus does not even hear her, a fact that metaphorically represents their entire relationship, in which she risks everything for a love that barely registers in his life. The guards catch and hang Esmeralda. She is a victim of mistaken character, a young girl presumed to be of Romany heritage and falsely accused of magic, condemned by her desire for love she was perpetually denied by a society that considered her dishonorable.

The bell-ringer of Notre-Dame cathedral, Quasimodo is most notable among Parisians for his appearance. The text depicts Quasimodo as having numerous visible differences. When he enters an impromptu face-pulling contest, he wins without any effort. Each well-meaning person turns away from his face. This sense of revulsion from common people turns Quasimodo into a social outcast. He reveres the cathedral’s bells because they do not abhor him. When he rings them, he feels as though he is communicating to the world in a beautiful manner, whereas his every interaction with other people is defined by his physical appearance. Unfortunately for Quasimodo, his adoration of the bells has led to his total loss of hearing. As a result, he struggles even more to communicate with society. His appearance and his lack of hearing cut him off from other people. His only real relationship (other than with the cathedral) is with his adoptive father, Frollo. Since they have formed a semblance of a father-son relationship, they develop a kind of sign language, a rudimentary system of signing that allows them to talk. At each step of his life, from an abandoned baby to an alienated adult, Quasimodo has lacked meaningful communication with the world. His life becomes defined by isolation, shaped by the brutal treatment he receives from the rest of the world, and conditioned by the revulsion he elicits from others. He internalizes this brutality, deciding that he is not worthy of love or affection. Quasimodo lives in a church but feels as though he is far from the grace of God.

Quasimodo’s reliance on Frollo leads him into trouble. When Frollo becomes obsessed with Esmeralda, Quasimodo unquestioningly takes part in a failed kidnapping plot. He is arrested and subjected to public punishment. His ritualistic humiliation in a public square is a formalized version of the treatment he has received his entire life. During this punishment, however, he is shocked when Esmeralda—the victim of his crime—comes forward. She is the only person who offers him water. This act of genuine pity changes Quasimodo. For the first time, he feels a connection with a person outside Notre-Dame. The inexperienced, naive Quasimodo almost mistakes this connection for a feeling of romantic love, but he quickly decides that Esmeralda could never love him. Nevertheless, he is fiercely devoted to her. He saves her from execution, protects her inside the church, and even defies Frollo to save her from his clutches. He weaponizes the cathedral against the rioting thieves who he (mistakenly) believes are trying to kill Esmeralda. Quasimodo realizes that Frollo has kidnapped Esmeralda and correctly deduces that Frollo’s actions will lead to Esmeralda’s execution. Quasimodo is torn between the only two people who have offered him anything approaching kindness. Ultimately, he kills Frollo, unable to tolerate a world without Esmeralda or to live in a world in which his only relationship is with the man who caused her death. Quasimodo disappears, and years later his body is found alongside Esmeralda’s in a mass grave. His death symbolizes not only his enduring love for the sole provider of pity or affection in his life, but also the death of the entire Medieval era and its Gothic architecture.