In Judgement of Monsters

Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame is set in Paris during the 15th Century. The story centers on Quasimodo, the deformed bell ringer of Notre-Dame Cathedral, and his unrequited love for the beautiful dancer Esmeralda. Born Agnès, Esmeralda is perceived to be a French Roma girl. Her biological mother is a former prostitute; her paternity is unknown. Fifteen years before the events of the novel, a group of Roma kidnapped the infant Agnès from her mother’s room. Esmeralda has no knowledge of her kidnapping, so she lives and travels with the Roma as if she is one of them.

Quasimodo first meets Esmeralda at the Feast of Fools, an annual festival parodying ecclesiastical ritual and cardinal elections. During the Feast of Fools, a crowd of people arrive at the Grand Hall of the Palace of Justice where Gringoire introduces them to a play written by him, but is soon interrupted by Clopin Trouillefou, the King of Truands. During the festival, Quasimodo is elected “Pope of the Fools” and subsequently beaten by an angry mob. Esmeralda takes pity on him and offers him a drink of water. Quasimodo thereafter falls in love with the dancer and decides to devote himself to protecting her.

Unbeknownst to Quasimodo, two other men vie for Esmeralda’s affection - Quasimodo’s adoptive father, Archdeacon Dom Claude Frollo, and the womanizing captain Phoebus de Châteaupers. Esmeralda, for her part, has fallen hopelessly in love with Captain Phoebus. When he asks her to meet him in secret late one night, she enthusiastically agrees.

That night Phoebus tries to persuade Esmeralda to sleep with him. From a closet in Phoebus’s room, a disguised Frollo spies on the couple. After he sees Phoebus kiss Esmeralda’s shoulder, the archdeacon, in a fit of jealous rage, breaks down the closet door and stabs Phoebus in the back. Phoebus collapses before he can see his assailant. Esmeralda also loses consciousness, and Frollo escapes, leaving Esmeralda as the only suspect for the attempted murder.

Esmeralda is quickly captured by the king’s guard. Master Jacques Charmolue presides over her trial. Charmolue sentences her to death after she falsely confesses to witchcraft and to murdering Phoebus. (Esmeralda is unaware that Phoebus is alive.) Quasimodo attempts to shelter Esmeralda in Notre Dame, but he is ultimately unable to save her. Frollo betrays Quasimodo and Esmeralda by taking Esmeralda from the cathedral and releasing her to an angry mob of Parisians. Shortly thereafter Esmeralda is hanged, and Quasimodo, in his grief and despair, pushes Frollo from the cathedral tower. The novel ends many years later, when two skeletons—that of a hunchback and that of a woman—are found embracing in Esmeralda’s tomb.

Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame considers what it means to be a monster. The novel makes Quasimodo’s defining characteristic his physical monstrosity, and his entire identity is constructed around being perceived as a monster. He is described by one of the women of Paris as a “wicked” ugly man. Several characters suggest that he is some kind of supernatural being that prowls around Paris, casting spells on its citizens.

Quasimodo is juxtaposed with the dashing Captain Phoebus, who shares his name with the Greco-Roman god of the Sun. Phoebus is described as an imposing young man, “one of those handsome fellows whom all women agree to admire.” Yet it is Quasimodo—not Captain Phoebus—who attempts to save Esmeralda and who ultimately kills the archdeacon, thereby ending his reign of terror.

Esmeralda is also perceived as a kind of monster. Although she is not, in fact, a Roma, she is seen and treated as one. In The Hunchback of Notre Dame the Roma are associated with witchcraft and the supernatural. They are viewed as exotic outsiders and are said to practice magic, possess satanic goats, and kidnap Parisian children among other things. Frollo exploits their association with the supernatural to sanction a Roma purge, just as Charmolue uses it to authorize Esmeralda’s execution. The novel condemns the society that heaps misery on the likes of Quasimodo and Esmeralda. In the end, Hugo indicates that the real monsters are not Quasimodo and Esmeralda, but Frollo and Phoebus.

Setting all appearances aside, we live in a starkly dichotomous world today where each side viciously denigrates the monsters on the other. Are there monsters on both sides today, or have some of us made a terrible misjudgement? If we are still here by the end of the play, will we have seen through the story line and judged the archetypes in the dream correctly?