Gothic architecture, lust, religious hypocrisy, an unfortunate boy and a beautiful maiden. Yes, this is what we need in a novel! Though many know him more for his other popular novel Les Miserable, Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a literary delight. This was the book that launched Hugo’s popularity in England, with intriguing characters, an intelligent plot, as well as beautiful and dark settings alike. Reality and fiction blur in this gothic romance.
The Facts and more…
What many do not realise is that this piece of thriving fiction would actually have been considered historical fiction, as the novel is set long before it was written (it was originally published in 1831 and set in the late 1400’s). Surprisingly, this beast of a book at over 200,000 words was written in just four and a half months!
Over the years, The Hunchback of Notre Dame has been translated into English many times. The most recent editions usually include introductions with some rather interesting takes on the original text, such as John Sturrock’s 2004 edition, in which he observes, “reality was compound of both the beautiful and the ugly and had given the ugly at least a token part to play in a harmonious whole.”
The ugliness in life goes hand in hand with beauty, its shadow, and proves as necessary as beauty.
The Importance of the Cathedral
The story centres around the great Cathedral, “our Lady of Paris”, which embodies the novel's main themes, telling an often twisted tale of innocence and damnation. Notre Dame is referenced numerous times symbolically. The architecture is both repulsive (consider the gargoyles) and enchanting much like many of the characters in the novel which also have two sides to them. You cannot have beauty without its ugly shadow.
Hugo found the building particularly inspiring and fought to have it preserved. The character Claud Frollo is described often as being passionate about architecture, like Hugo himself, and he uses Frollo to express his view on Notre Dame and other gothic architecture.
The plot
Quasimodo, named for the day he is found by the priest Claud Frollo, is a disabled and deformed young man, abandoned as a child by his parents for his appearance. He is blind in one eye, has a hunchback and is deaf from ringing the bells he loves so much. Civilians fear and despise him and the only one who he can trust is his Master Frollo. That is until his master betrays him, and leaves him to suffer at the hands of a vengeful mob. Only the beautiful and kind hearted gypsy dancer, La Esmeralda, shows him a drop of kindness with some exciting and unforeseen consequences.
Quasimodo’s Vase
One of the most moving scenes of the novel comes when Quasimodo tries to show Esmeralda that there is more to him than what she sees. He gives her two vases with flowers. One vase is beautiful but has a withered flower inside; the other is cracked, dull and dirty, but the flower inside is blooming and sweet. The first represents Phoebus, the handsome but selfish captain, and the latter Quasimodo.
Beauty’s Dark Shadow
The moral of this story is not as obvious as one would assume: an all too familiar beauty and the beast tale, beauty being only skin deep. It is far darker than that. Every attractive character has their ugly flaw and every character that is considered ugly posses their own attractive quality. Hugo shows us that ugliness hides itself in the shadow of beauty and you cannot have one without the other.
Reference:
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
Tina Poole - A Southampton based Writer with a passion for history, travelling and learning about other cultures.
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