Quasimodo - a name that has become a household word and even offensive. But not everyone knows that Quasimodo is the hero of the Hugo novel “Notre Dame de Paris”. And to find out the history of this character will be interesting to anyone who wants to be an interesting and erudite interlocutor.
Who is Quasimodo?
Quasimodo is a hunchback selected in infancy by Claude Frollo, a minister of the Notre Dame Cathedral . The good deed of the minister was rewarded by the devotion of the child, who remained to live in the cathedral and began to fulfill the duties of a bell ringer.
But people mocked the ugly man, feared him and even shied away. Quasimodo’s photo, even embodied by artists, looks frightening. This made Quasimodo a reserved, evil, and even cruel person. It seemed that he was capable of warm feelings, but at one moment he meets the beautiful gypsy dancer Esmeralda.
Plot of the novel
One evening, two unknown men attack the dancer Esmeralda. One of them manages to be detained, and it turns out to be the hunchback of Quasimodo. In punishment he is chained to a pillar and beat with a whip. The hunchback asks for a sip of water, but no one responds to his request, the crowd laughs at the ugly bell-ringer, mocks him. And only one person approaches Quasimodo with a glass of water. This person is the victim herself - Esmeralda. A generous act touches an embittered hunchback to tears.
The second culprit, who remained uncaught, is the minister of Notre Dame Frollo. He is attracted to a beautiful gypsy, and she does not reciprocate, because she is in love with the capital de Châteauraux. She is about to reveal her feelings to him, but Frollo pursuing her is ahead of her, trying to kill the captain.
Esmeralda is accused of attempting to assassinate de Chateaupera on the sole ground that she is a gypsy, and therefore a witch. The surviving captain makes no attempt to help Esmeralda, and Frollo comes up with a sinister plan: to come to the prisoner and offer her to become his wife in exchange for freedom. The beautiful dancer categorically refuses the offer, and the clergyman decides that the death penalty for Esmeralda is the best way to get rid of her own love feelings.
Hunchback and dancer
Remembering the good deed of a beautiful gypsy, Quasimodo decides to save the girl. He abducts her directly from execution and takes her to the cathedral, knowing that not a single criminal can be arrested inside the building. Quasimodo and Esmeralda live in the cathedral. The hunchback brings her clothes and food, and she, unable to leave the walls of the cathedral, takes over his care.
Frollo persuades people to rescue Esmeralda from the cathedral to complete the execution, but Quasimodo is no longer a stale hunchback, but a passionately in love person. Therefore, he guards the dancer and, noticing the crowd at the foot of the cathedral, gives a rebuff. He does not know that the people on whom he drops logs and pours molten lead are not the enemies, but the savior of the girl.
Taking advantage of the hype, Frollo kidnaps the gypsy and makes a second offer. Having received another refusal, he rushes to a cell located nearby, where the recluse Gadula, who hates gypsies, lives, and offers the woman to kill the gypsy. But Gadula recognizes a little pendant-shoe on the dancer’s neck and realizes that her own daughter is in front of her. But she no longer succeeds in rescuing her - officers who have arrived have killed the girl on the spot.
Death of Quasimodo
From the tower, the assassination of Esmeralda is observed by Quasimodo and Frollo. The latter erupts in ominous laughter, and the distraught hunchback throws the minister off the tower.
Having found in the crypt, where the corpses of the executed are dumped, the body of the beautiful Esmeralda, he squeezes him in his arms and dies.
Analysis of the novel
The work of Hugo, where Quasimodo and Esmeralda are drawn into strange and complex relationships, was a great success. The character of each hero is complex and contradictory: the gypsy who grew up on the street has a clean and beautiful soul, the priest Frollo is vindictive and embittered, and the hunchback-ringer is capable of sincerely falling in love.
In the center of the whole novel is not an animated hero, but a building - Notre Dame Cathedral. It is a monumental church with amazing architecture, columns, vaults, bells and chimeras. It is likely that Quasimodo is one of the chimeras on the building.
The novel is a panoramic view of the life of that era. That is, the reader learns not only the fate of the beautiful gypsy who Quasimodo fell in love with, but also, in deviations from the plot, learns about Louis XI and the Flemish delegation.
If the novel was written a century later, it could well have become a script for an exciting movie, since Hugo very vividly described the spectacular scenes of Frollo's death or the hunchback's defense of the fortress from gypsies.
Criticism of the novel
The main argument put forward by literary critics is the implausibility of the characters of the heroes. Quasimodo - who is it? An embittered hunchback, or is a man of pure soul capable of courageous deeds for the sake of others? And Esmeralda, who grew up in the midst of violence, could have the honor and pride to refuse Frollo's proposed hand, going to death?
Victor Hugo's biographer, Andre Maurois, agreed with the critics, but added that, despite the implausibility of the characters in the novel, they were able to stay in the minds and souls of readers of the novel for many years.
The novel "Notre Dame de Paris" is today a classic and a heritage of 19th-century French literature. The story of Esmeralda, a priest and a hunchback has been living for almost 200 years and still remains interesting, intriguing, touching. Films are made based on the novel, cartoons are created, and we can see a photo of Quasimodo according to various artists, guessing what a hunchback might be if he existed in fact, and not on the pages of the novel.