The first theme centers on the fact that people cannot be judged by appearances. We hope it will help you to look at this brilliant classic novel from the different angle. The case of Quasimodo is equally tragic. Later, we see that mostly the characters are defined by their position of the “fate vs free will scale”. In general, in the entire book there are too much coincidences to believe that the Fate doesn’t help the events of it happen. Please enable Cookies and reload the page. He is raised by Frollo, so the fatalistic approach of the Judge is instilled in his brain. The Hunchback of Notre Dame is the story about compassion and dark desires, mercy and cruelty, honesty and hypocrisy. The book tells the story of a poor barefoot Gypsy girl (La Esmeralda) and a misshapen bell-ringer (Quasimodo) who was raised by the Archdeacon (Claude Frollo). Suffering is one of the most prominent The Hunchback of Notre Dame themes. The Hunchback of Notre Dame themes are mostly existential, such as fate versus free will, the types of love and ways to control them and the sense of sufferings. Major . He doesn’t see any meaning in fighting fate, because he believes that no human is capable of doing it and winning. The average student has to read dozens of books per year. Through The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Disney explored themes like the malleability of the masses, abuse of authority, prejudice, religion, obsession, sexuality, … We're talking, of course, about The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. These Greek capitals, black with age, and quite deeply graven in the stone, with I know not what signs peculiar to Gothic calig-raphy imprinted upon their forms and upon their attitudes, as Okay, it's not once upon a time: it's specifically January 6th, 1482, and a crowd of Parisians are celebrating the Festival of Fools by waiting for a play to begin. We see the first mention of Fate when we see the word ANA?KH, that means “fate”. We see Frollo carving the word “fate” on the wall, committing to yield to his destiny. The Gothic cathedral of Notre Dame, in Paris, is a central motif in Victor Hugo’s novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Quasimodo is hideous and almost unable to speak, which leaves him extremely vulnerable. The different types of love and losses, the lust that can’t be tamed either through piety or through courtship. Quasimodo’s desires are barely seen and mostly repressed by his shame and feeling that he is unworthy of love in any sense. The original setting of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" is January 6, 1482, the day of the Feast of Fools (traditionally held around the 1st), which was a popular festival during the Middle Ages (specifically in France). Victor Hugo pays much attention to comparison of the modern Paris of 1831 and the medieval city of 1482. Luckily, FreeBookSummary offers study guides on over 1000 top books from students’ curricula! The Hunchback of Notre Dame is one of the most prominent pieces of classical literature that inspired many more writers after Victor Hugo. It is a historical novel, which, published in 1831, brings to life a world of the past, the Middle Ages, as a panorama of words. Phoebus does whatever he pleases – still he lives happily ever after. Study Guide for The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The only thing that is permanent is the Notre Dame Cathedral itself. This material is available only on Freebooksummary, We use cookies to give you the best experience possible. Study Guide for The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Notre-Dame, the author of this book found, in an obscure nook of one of the towers, the following word, engraved by hand upon the wall:— ANAPKH. It is something that just happens to him, it isn’t the consequence of his choices, but he feels like he didn’t deserve such a fate. On the contrary, Esmeralda is beautiful and feminine, so everyone sees only her body too, not even trying to see through the appearance and understand her soul. FAIL. We're gonna level with you, folks: sex is a major player in The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.. Or at least, the desire to have sex is a major player. Still, Quasimodo is a young man who has the courage to search for the exit from the web of fate. Free, fun, and packed with easy-to-understand explanations! There is too much suffering for anyone in a seemingly peaceful city. Esmeralda, as a female character with all the double standards, has to be more cautious with her sexual desires, but still her wish to be with Phoebus helps Frollo a lot to condemn her. They both lacked the parental love and grew up completely unable to be in touch with their emotions and deal with them in other way than repressing them. Start your 48-hour free trial to unlock this The Hunchback of Notre Dame study guide. Another link, as the author believes, is the printed book. In-depth explanations of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame's themes. The grim undertones of the medieval society and the strange course of events that creates the feeling of supernatural intervention. The existential questions raised in the Victor Hugo’s novel and the ways they are shown through the actions of the main characters. For example, the birth of a physically deformed child like Quasimodo is considered a bad omen and such a person will be always treated as a wicked and wrong one. Not only people lack empathy to see his nature under his appearance, but he is considered outright evil. The crowd are afraid of Quasimodo because of his hideous appearance, but they crown him the fool’s pope and parade him through the streets. Have a look at the list of the main themes we made for you. “The Hunchback” tells the story of the hunchbacked bell ringer Quasimodo—played by Steven Macias—who lives behind the walls of Notre Dame Cathedral. The most obvious is the abandonment of Quasimodo by … Despite the life goes by and the story definitely has the moments of joy and fun, nothing ends well for everyone except Phoebus. If you are interested in literary analysis samples, we have more for you on our blog. He resolves the conflict by believing that he is cursed by a witch and it is the hellish temptation he has to resist. Frollo’s love for Esmeralda is his desire to possess her and lust he never felt before and is unable to control. We don’t feel the ominous atmosphere of tragedy until the main plotline starts to unwind: we are just living the life of the people shown to us by Victor Hugo. Frollo feels secured only when he is able to control everything and he is proud to control himself, so, when his feelings to Esmeralda take over, he faces a conflict. Cloudflare Ray ID: 6172c4bc9c59f0e1 Something permanent and made in stone with the pure information: written on fragile paper, but still capable of living through centuries. Quasimodo’s guardian, Archdeacon Claude Frollo—played by Jackson Bouchard—reluctantly raises him when Frollo’s brother Jehan dies and leaves his deformed son in his hands. Phoebus is openly lascivious, he is not above cheating on his fiancée Fleur de Lis with a pretty Gypsy who seems to be totally in love with him – and he even not against the mysterious man who wants to see them having sex. The only place where the atmosphere of supernatural exists for real is the Cathedral. It's been written by the obliviously untalented Pierre Gringoire. It is set in 1482 in Paris, in and around the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris. Both of them were stolen – Esmeralda was taken by Gypsies from poor Paquette to be raised amongst them and Quasimodo was a changeling his own mother left to take another, prettier baby. Study Guide for The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It also somehow explains why Phoebes avoids the overall tragedy: he doesn’t fit into this line. The story shows not only passions and personal tragedies of the characters, but strongly hints that the justice of fate is a very vague thing. Claude Frollo, an intelligent man and a priest at Notre-Dame, should be a picture of virtue and kindness; instead, he is … The problem is, that desire is usually unrequited. Good luck — the Stickman is counting on you! admin March 13, 2019 Free Essays Comments are off for this post “Love is a universal language.” This popular quote from many movies and literary works describes the importance of love, and how there are no limits or barriers when dealing with love. Throughout the book we see a lot of scenes of trials, courts, executions, interrogations and tortures, unwillingly becoming acquainted to the medieval system of justice. Think you’ve got your head wrapped around The Hunchback of Notre-Dame? Is it portrayed in the right way for the medieval society, being the lesser evil in that harsh time, or is it flawed and wrong to the very core? The society is ignorant, not wanting to see something else than an ugly hunchback. Lots of workers of the justice system of medieval Paris are corrupted, lazy, incompetent and totally ignorant. In the end of the story we see only the two skeletons of Quasimodo and Esmeralda and their story is long forgotten. This is my attempt at mimicking Yoko Shimomura for the upcoming Hunchback of Notre Dame world. It is described almost as a living, benevolent being, and the shelter given by it is reliable and reassuring. Even more popular than it became throughout the twentieth century and into the early 2000s, this romantic story grabbed the imagination of the French people who embraced it for its melodramatic storyline and Hugo's detailed rendering of the life and culture of fifteenth-century Paris. The conclusion that Hugo comes to is that art – no matter in which form – is the only thing that can defeat time and preserve something that once was important. In this book, Quasimodo, the... See full answer below. Put your knowledge to the test. freebooksummary.com © 2016 - 2021 All Rights Reserved. Him, escaping punishment, is a meta-example that makes us suffer: we can feel the injustice of the world that lets Phoebus go while everyone else ends dead. Esmeralda gets lots of lust from the spectators of her dancing, but no one believes she can truly love. Yet there are a lot of light-hearted moments of sheer comedy, happiness and enjoyment. 1482) is a French Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. The Cathedral was unable to preserve the memories of the tragedy that happened there, but it is completely possible for the written words. The Parisians recognize the man as Quasimodo, the hunchback bell-ringer of Notre Dame cathedral. The Hunchback of Notre-Dame Summary. Even in the end she is valued less than her pet goat, who her husband (whom she saved from gruesome death by marrying him) considers more worthy to live. The medieval beliefs stated that the physical deformity is the mark of Devil or the sign of something wrong in the very soul of the owner of such a hideous body. Esmeralda is innocent, kind and possesses lots of virtues, but as a Gypsy she is viewed as promiscuous and dangerous. The Hunchback of Notre Dame study guide contains a biography of Victor Hugo, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. For the time of Victor Hugo the novel was very open-minded and non-canonical, showing the feelings of the people as they are, portraying the characters as flawed people who have their own stories, the living beings, not walking aesops. Abandonment The theme of abandonment plays out in different ways in Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Moreover, their fatal flaws can all be caused by one single thing: loss and lack of love. The Cathedral becomes the link between these two ages. Frollo’s words are the distorted version of the romantic “We are destined to be together” and his obsession becomes even more creepy. Victor Hugo uses contrasting themes to highlight the dual natures of his characters and setting in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. We don’t know if there were reasons to consider Gypsies dangerous, or they ended up as beggars and thieves because they couldn’t integrate into the hostile society, but what we see is the clearly racist and very bigoted Parisian society. Mostly these superstitions are directed towards someone who doesn’t fit the social standard. The novel makes Quasimodo’s defining characteristic his physical monstrosity, and his entire identity is constructed around being perceived as a monster. The real theme of Victor Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris, as The Hunchback of Notre Dame was originally entitled, was to bring attention to the beauty, grandeur, and history of … Frollo’s lust gets out of control and scares him so much that, instead of looking into himself and admitting that he is a man who has sexual desires, he claims it to be a spell and witchcraft. If you are on a personal connection, like at home, you can run an anti-virus scan on your device to make sure it is not infected with malware. He had a relatively happy childhood and life and he is a mere instrument of destiny, not its target. Also addressing the film's darker themes, The Daily Mail called The Hunchback of Notre Dame "Disney's darkest picture, with a pervading atmosphere of racial tension, religious bigotry and mob hysteria" and "the best version yet of Hugo's novel, a cartoon masterpiece, and one of the great movie musicals". • Throughout the story the overall tone shifts from comedy to tragedy and we never know the fates of the main characters until the very end. Now, there aren't many people out there who haven't heard of the Hunchback , whether it's because one of the few dozen film and TV adaptations, or because of all those bell-ringing hunchbacks in pop culture, or … Esmeralda appears to be a stolen kid, Quasimodo, Frollo and his brother are also the changelings or orphans. Timeline, leaving no traces and no memories the entire movie is set in the context of antihero! 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