Summary

Summary  Summary

During the 1482 Festival of Fools in Paris, Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre
Dame, is elected the Pope of Fools for being the ugliest person in Paris. He is hoisted
on a throne and paraded around Paris by the jeering mob. Pierre Gringoire, a
struggling poet and philosopher, tries unsuccessfully to get the crowd to watch his
play instead of the parade. Archdeacon Claude Frollo appears and stops the parade
and orders Quasimodo back to Notre Dame with him. Looking for something to eat,
Gringoire admires the graceful beauty of La Esmerelda, a gypsy street dancer, and
decides to follow her home. After rounding a corner, she is suddenly attacked by
Quasimodo and Frollo. Gringoire rushes to help her but is knocked out by Quasimodo
as Frollo runs away. The King's Archers, led by Phoebus de Chateaupers arrive just in
time and capture the hunchback. Later that night, a group of beggars and thieves are
about to hang Gringoire when La Esmerelda comes forward and offers to save his life
by "marrying" him for four years only.

The next day, Quasimodo is put on trial and sentenced to two hours of torture in the
Place de Grève. He suffers both the pain of being stretched and pulled apart as well as
being publicly humiliated by the crowd of people, who hate him for his ugliness. He
begs for water, but no one answers his pleas until La Esmerelda comes forth and
brings him something to drink. Nearby, a recluse called Sister Gudule, screams at La
Esmerelda for being a "gypsy child- thief" and blames her for her daughter's
kidnapping fifteen years earlier. A few months later, La Esmerelda is dancing in front
of Notre Dame and Phoebus calls her over to him. She has fallen in love with him and
blushes when he asks her to meet him later that night. Frollo watches them from the
top of Notre Dame and becomes insanely jealous of Phoebus. His obsessive lust for
La Esmerelda has made him renounce God and study alchemy and black magic. In his
secret cell at Notre Dame, he plans to trap La Esmerelda like a spider catching a fly
with its web. Later that night he follows Phoebus to his tryst with La Esmerelda and
stabs Phoebus repeatedly. He escapes and La Esmerelda is captured by the King's
guard.

After being tortured at her trial, La Esmerelda falsely confesses to killing Phoebus and
being a witch. She is sentenced to hang in the Place de Grève. Frollo visits her in jail
and declares his love. He begs her to love him and show him some pity but she calls
him a "goblin-monk" and a murderer, refusing to have anything to do with him.
Before her execution, La Esmerelda is publicly humiliated in front of Notre Dame.
Looking across the square, she suddenly sees Phoebus and calls out his name. He
actually survived the murder attempt but doesn't want anyone to know that he was
injured. He turns away from La Esmerelda and enters the house of his bride-to-be.
Just then, Quasimodo swings down on a rope from Notre Dame and carries her back
to the cathedral, crying out "Sanctuary!" He had fallen in love with her when she
brought him water and had been planning her escape all along.

La Esmerelda is safe from execution just as long as she stays inside the cathedral. At
first, she finds it hard to even look at Quasimodo, but they form an uneasy friendship.
Even though he is deaf, he enjoys being around her when she sings. Meanwhile, a
group of vagabonds resolves to save La Esmerelda after hearing that Parliament has
ordered that she be removed from Notre Dame. But when Quasimodo sees them
attack the cathedral, he thinks they have come to kill La Esmerelda and he fends them
off as best he can, killing a large number of them. Frollo has used the attack as a
diversion to sneak La Esmerelda out of the cathedral. He offers her two choices: she
can either say she loves him or be hanged. She demands to be executed and he leaves
her with Sister Gudule. To their astonishment, they discover that they are mother and
daughter. Gudule tries to protect La Esmerelda, but it is too late. Back at Notre Dame,
Quasimodo goes to the top of the north tower to find her. Gazing off into the distance,
he sees the figure of La Esmerelda in a white dress hanging from the scaffold. He
bellows out in despair and grabs Frollo by the neck. Holding him up in the air,
Quasimodo sighs with grief and then throws Frollo down to his death. Looking at La
Esmerelda hanging off in the distance and Frollo's wrangled corpse down below,
Quasimodo cries out: "There is everything I ever loved!" Quasimodo is never seen
again. Years later when a gravedigger stumbles across La Esmerelda's remains, he
finds the skeleton of a hunchback curled around her.

Plot summary
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is set in Paris during the 15th
century. The story centres on Quasimodo, the deformed bell
ringer of Notre-Dame Cathedral, and his unrequited love for
the beautiful dancer La Esmeralda. Esmeralda, born Agnès, is
perceived to be a French Roma girl. Her biological mother is a
former prostitute once known as Paquette la Chantefleurie but
now known as Sister Gudule; 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: 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 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 too
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 reports that Phoebus also came to a
tragic end: “He married.”

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Central themes
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 Rom, 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.

Context and reception

The cathedral Notre-Dame de Paris is one of the most
enduring symbols of the French capital city. Hugo conceived
of The Hunchback of Notre Dame as a story of the cathedral
itself and devoted two chapters of the novel to describing it.
He focused primarily on the Gothic architectural elements of
the structure, including its flying buttresses, clerestory
windows, and stained glass. Hugo identified Gothic
architecture as the bearer of the cultural heritage of France
and argued that, as such, it should be protected. At the time
that the novel was written (between 1828 and 1831), Paris was
verging on major changes that cumulatively threatened to
destroy much of its cultural heritage. The French
Revolution had resulted in the desacralization, decay, and
consequent destruction of many Gothic cathedrals and
churches. In the July Revolution of 1830, the French people
expressed a desire to liberate themselves from the past. This
uprising was driven by a condemnation of the forms and
institutions associated with the traditional monarchical
regime, and its leaders sought a new way forward.

In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hugo recreates the vibrant,

intense atmosphere of 15th-century life to remind his readers
of the splendour and significance of Paris’s Gothic past. The
book doubles as a plea for the preservation of the city’s historic
Gothic architecture (and thus its heritage). His plea was met
with great success. The first printing, by publisher Charles
Gosselin, was distributed in four issues of 275 copies each, and
the novel was instantly, incredibly popular. Many thousands of
printings followed. The Hunchback of Notre Dame circulated
widely, inspiring illustrations by lithographers, painters, book
illustrators, and even cartoonists. Images from the novel
(especially images of the cathedral) became known to
individuals at all levels of society. Notre-Dame de Paris
became a French national icon, and the proliferation of images
of the cathedral helped revive the use and prestige of Gothic
forms. An extensive program of renovation, overseen by
French restoration specialist Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-
Duc, was undertaken in the mid-1840s, and in the latter half of
the 19th century Gothic monuments began to regain their
religious significance.

Adaptations
The Hunchback of Notre Dame has been adapted several
times for the stage and screen. One of the most notable film
versions was directed by William Dieterle; it was released in
1939 and starred Charles Laughton and Maureen O’Hara,
though its happy ending diverged significantly from Hugo’s
novel. Other screen adaptations included a 1923 silent film
featuring Lon Chaney and a 1956 version starring Anthony
Quinn and Gina Lollobrigida. The stage musical Notre-Dame
de Paris premiered in Paris in September 1998. The
production reportedly had the most successful first year of any
musical up to that time. A year later, Der Glöckner von Notre
Dame (“The Bell Ringer of Notre Dame”) opened in Berlin.
Unlike it’s French counterpart, the German adaptation was
based on the Disney animated film The Hunchback of Notre
Dame, which was released three years prior, in 1996. Although
based on Hugo’s novel, the animated film differs significantly
from the original text. In Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre
Dame, Quasimodo is not dark and brooding but naïve and
friendly. He craves social interaction and expresses a keen
desire to make friends. Phoebus is also recast: he is a good-
natured heroic soldier who returns Esmeralda’s love. The film
also revises the end of the novel, such that Esmeralda survives
and befriends Quasimodo.