The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Analysis of
Style and Structure
Theme
Theme #1 – Obsession
Claude
Frollo’s obsession with Esmeralda grows and when he finds out Grignoire married
her, he is furious. He manipulates a former student into telling him intimate
details about La Esmeralda, including the fact that she is in love with Captain
Phoebus. The priest, in disguise, goes to the Court of Miracles, where he
observes La Esmeralda making love with Phoebus. In rage, the priest stabs the
Captain and leaves. Esmeralda faints out of fear, when she regains
consciousness she is arrest for the stabbing and is later sentenced to death by
hanging.
Theme #2 – Bravery
La
Esmeralda is about to be executed, Quasimodo rescues her off the pillory and
carries her over his head into the cathedral for safety. As long as she remains
inside Notre Dame, authorities cannot come inside to seize her. Amazed at his
bravery, La Esmeralda cannot tolerate looking at Quasimodo’s disfigured face
and body. Frollo enters her cell and tries to get her; Quasimodo fights him,
keeping her away from her. La Esmeralda reveals to Quasimodo that she is in
love with Phoebus; he agrees to go and find the captain and bring him to
Notre-Dame to see the gypsy girl. Phoebus laughs at the hunchback and refuses
to see La Esmeralda.
Theme #3 – Selflessness
La
Esmeralda repeatedly rejected him; Frollo decides no one will have her. He
develops a wicked plan to take La Esmeralda from the tower and asks the help of
Grignoire, to carry out the plan. Grignoire organizes the gypsies in the Court
of Miracles to rescue La Esmeralda, and they march towards Notre-Dame. Quasimodo
sees the mob approaching and prepares to fight them, thinking they are coming
to harm La Esmeralda. When they break through the door of the great cathedral,
Quasimodo throws a beam, rocks, and molten lead at them, killing several people
in the process. King’s army arrives, the gypsies retreat. Quasimodo rushes up
to the tower and checks on La Esmeralda and discovers that she’s gone. Although
he does not know what happened, Grignoire and Frollo have managed to steal her
away.
Theme #4 – Family
In
the street below, Frollo sends Grignoire with a goat. The evil priest then
tells La Esmeralda that she must love him, or he will turn her over to the
authorities for hanging; she chooses hanging. In anger, Frollo takes her to
Ronalde’s Tower and locks her in a cell with Sister Gudule, the old woman who
hates gypsies. When he leaves to go and bring the King’s army, La Esmeralda
talks with Sister Gudale (Pacquette). She discovers that La Esmeralda is the
old woman’s long lost daughter. When the police arrive, Sister Gudale tries to
protect her newly found daughter by hiding her; but when the gypsy girl heard
Phoebus, whom she loves, she comes out of hiding to see him. As she is seized
and dragged away Paquette tries to save La Esmeralda. In the process, Paquette
is struck and killed by one of the soliders as her daughter watches.
Theme #5 – Revenge
Back
in the tower, Quasimodo finds Frollo as he watches the events taking place in
the humiliation. The hunchback looks down to see what is happening, he sees his
beloved being dragged to be hung. He watches the horror as she is hung. When
the priest lets out an evil laugh about her death, Quasimodo goes crazy. The
hunchback charges the priest and throws him off the towers balcony to his death
below. La Esmeralda and Frollo dead before his eyes, Quasimodo cries out as he
has lost everyone whom he has ever loved. The hunchback then disappears, never
to be seen in Paris again.
Theme #6 – Tragedy
In
the final chapter, Hugo ties up all the loose ends of the novel. Grignoire, who
lives with his goat, becomes a successful writer; Phoebus marries Fleur de Lys;
and King Louis XI dies. Two years after the death of La Esmeralda, the body of
Quasimodo is found. When the vault of Montfaucon is opened, the soldiers find
the skeleton of the hunchback intertwined with the skeleton of La Esmeralda. He
grieved himself to death; Quasimodo eternally united himself with the one he
loved.
Conflict
Protagonist
Quasimodo
is the central character and protagonist of the novel, as shown by the title of
the book. He is deformed, deaf and one-eyed hunchback; he is exiled from
society and treated cruelly. For most of his life, his only companions are
Claude Frollo and the bells. When La Esmeralda, the gypsy street performer
shows him kindness, Quasimodo becomes devoted to her, becoming her savior and
protector.
Antagonist
There
are two antagonists in the novel. First is Quasimodo’s deformity. His hunched
back, one-eyed and disfigured face, and his deafness, Quasimodo is
misunderstood and hated by the people of Paris, who call him the devil. He
saves La Esmeralda from death and carries her into Notre-Dame for safety; she
cannot bear to look at him because of his ugliness.
The
second antagonist is Claude Frollo, his master. He was once a good man who
helped Quasimodo, Frollo becomes transformed by his lust of La Esmeralda. Driven
by his evil passion, he ignores Quasimodo, stabs Phoebus, manipulates
Grignoire, and eventually causes the hanging of La Esmeralda. He wickedly
laughed about her execution; Quasimodo pushes him off the balcony of
Notre-Dame, causing him to fall to his death on the street below. Ironically,
with the death of the priest, Quasimodo is totally alone in the world. He
disappears from Notre-Dame and perishes in the Montfaucon vault, clinging to
the dead body of La Esmeralda, his beloved. Frollo is therefore, indirectly
responsible for the death of the hunchback of Notre-Dame, as well as the death
of La Esmeralda.
Climax
The
climax of the novel occurs when Quasimodo realizes he has lost La Esmeralda, in
spite the fact he tried to save her by fighting the mob of gypsies in the Court
of Miracles. He no longer has anything to live for, Quasimodo later kills
Frollo, who is responsible for La Esmeralda’s dissapearence from her cell in
the tower and her eventual hanging and then perishes in grief.
Outcome
The
novel ends in tragedy, for Quasimodo is defeated by his deformity and his
master, Claude Frollo. La Esmeralda, who he deeply loves, can never return his
love of his horrible appearance; in face she finds it difficult to even look at
him, even though she tries to be king to him. Frollo defeats Quasimodo in the
worst way. He causes the death of La Esmeralda, which takes away the purpose of
the hunchback’s life. With nothing to live for after La Esmeralda’s death,
Quasimodo perishes in the vault, clinging to her dead body. In death, his
misshapen body is no longer a distance away from the one he loves.
Narrative Structure
The
narrative structure throughout the book was told through a third person
narrative and at certain points where appropriate there was dialogue. The novel
was divided into various books with chapters in them. I feel the book was well
set up and everything flowed just right when Hugo used this method.
