THE HUNCHBACK OF

NOTRE DAME
VICTOR HUGO
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 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.
CHARACTERS
• Quasimodo - The hunchback of Notre Dame. Quasimodo
is an abandoned child left at Notre Dame and adopted
by Archdeacon Claude Frollo. Hideously deformed, he
has a giant humpback, a protrusion coming out of his
chest, and a giant wart that covers one of his eyes. He is
also deaf. His heart is pure, and this purity is linked to
the cathedral itself. Indeed, his love for Notre Dame's
bells and for the beautiful sound of their ringing
represents his only form of communication. The whole
of Paris ironically enjoys Quasimodo's singing while at
the same time detesting him for his ugliness. His name
literally means "half-made."
• Archdeacon Claude Frollo - A priest at Notre Dame, Frollo is also the
novel's antagonist. However, he is not a typical evil character bent on
causing pain and suffering; instead, he is very bright and
compassionate. He dearly loves his brother, Jehan and does everything
in his power to make Jehan happy after their parents die. He extends
the same compassion to Quasimodo, who he tries to mold into a
scholar just like his brother by teaching him how to read and write.
Hugo explains Frollo's descent into black magic and madness through
his failure to bring up both Jehan and Quasimodo. Jehan drinks and
gambles all his money away, completely neglecting his studies, while
Quasimodo's deafness makes it virtually impossible to teach him
anything. The hunchback thus becomes both a symbol of failure for
Frollo as well as a powerful tool of vengeance to wreak his frustrations
out on the world. His obsessive lust for La Esmerelda causes her to be
executed and Quasimodo to be tortured. No matter how hard he tries
to make her love him, he only ends up causing her pain.
• La Esmerelda - The lost daughter of Sister
Gudule, La Esmerelda is a beautiful gypsy street
dancer. Along with her goat, Djali, she charms
everyone she meets with her stunning looks and
magic tricks. She keeps an amulet and other
trinkets around her neck to help her find her
parents.
• Pierre Gringoire - A struggling playwright and
philosopher. La Esmerelda saves him from being
hanged by a group of vagabonds and agrees to
"marry" him for four years. He later joins the
vagabonds and unwittingly helps Frollo hand La
Esmerelda over to the authorities.
• Phoebus De Chateaupers - The captain of the
King's Archers, he saves La Esmerelda from
Quasimodo. He does not love her, but tries to
seduce her and a number of other women as
well. Frollo stabs him and everyone leaves him
for dead. He recovers but fails to speak up when
La Esmerelda is sentenced to death for his
murder. He ends up marrying Fleur-de-Lys de
Gondelaurier. His first name is Greek for "the
sun
• Sister Gudule - La Esmerelda's long lost mother.
She is a miserable recluse living in the Tour
Roland, who hates to hear the sound of children
playing. She is convinced that gypsies ate her
adoptive daughter, Agnes, fifteen years earlier.
She hates La Esmerelda and is convinced that
she is a child thief, but when she learns that she
is actually her daughter, Gudule gives her life to
save her.
• Jehan Frollo - Claude Frollo's brother. Jehan is a
horrible student who gambles and drinks all his
money away. He decides to join the vagabonds and
Quasimodo kills him as he attacks Notre Dame.

• Clopin Trouillefou - Clopin disrupts Gringoire's play

and later turns out to be not just a simple beggar, but
"King" of the vagabonds. He tries to save La
Esmerelda from being hanged but Quasimodo thinks
that Clopin is trying to kill her.
• Louis XI - The King of France in 1482. Louis XI is a
heartless monarch who lives in the Bastille
instead of the Louvre. He pardons Gringoire for
attacking Notre Dame but orders La Esmerelda's
execution.
• Djali - La Esmerelda's goat. Djali can perform
magic tricks and spell the name Phoebus out of a
group of letters. At La Esmerelda's trial Djali is
accused of being possessed by the devil
• Master Florian Barbedienne - The deaf judge
who condemns Quasimodo to torture.
• Master Jacques Charmolue - One of Claude
Frollo's associates. Jacques prosecutes and then
tortures La Esmerelda to get her to confess to
killing Phoebus. He later has her executed.
VOCABULARY
adduce
advance evidence for
plinth
an architectural support or base, as for a column or statue
fret
be agitated or irritated
arcade
a structure composed of arches supported by columns
slate
fine-grained metamorphic rock that can be split into layers
penthouse
a luxurious apartment on the top floors of a building
statuary
of or relating to or suitable for statues
tranquil
free from disturbance by heavy waves
symphony
a long and complex sonata for an orchestra
imperial
antiquity
the historic period preceding the Middle Ages in Europe
arabesque
position in which the dancer has one leg raised behind
proverbial
widely known and spoken of
steeple
a tall tower that forms the superstructure of a building
nave
the central area of a church
encumbered
loaded to excess or impeded by a heavy load
reliquary
a container where religious relics are stored or displayed
anachronism
locating something at a time when it couldn't have existed
pane
sheet glass cut in shapes for windows or doors
bedaubed
ornamented in a vulgar or showy fashion
belfry
a bell tower; usually stands alone unattached to a building
transept
structure forming the transverse part of a cruciform church
MORAL LESSON
• One of the lessons to learn from reading the
novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor
Hugo is that of not judging by appearances.
Quasimodo has been abandoned by his mother
just because he has been born in an ugly twisted
body - but that says nothing about his heart or
his soul.