Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Gothic Architecture, History, and Art
Lust, Sin, and Misogyny
Appearances, Alienation, and Hypocrisy
Fate and Predestination
The Supernatural, Rationalism, and Knowledge
Justice, Punishment, and Freedom
Summary
Analysis
Frightened by his experience, Gringoire charges through the narrow streets and, when he stops, he realizes he is hopelessly lost. He curses himself and remembers that, after the children ran away, he could have slept on the mattress. Even if the mattress is on fire, it would keep him warm. He feels that the mattress is a gift from the Virgin Mary to reward him for his play, which he wrote in her honor.
Gringoire is not particularly religious or superstitious. He is arrogant, however, as his belief about the Virgin Mary demonstrates. Gringoire’s belief that the mattress is specifically a blessing for him—rather than a random occurrence or a miracle more generally—suggests that people often belief in fate, or the supernatural, when it suits them or justifies their own beliefs about themselves.
Themes
Gringoire tries to find his way back to the mattress but he is lost in the confusing tangle of streets. Finally, he sees a light burning at the end of a passage and begins to walk towards it. As he draws nearer, he realizes that the street is full of figures which crawl along the ground ahead of him. Gringoire is unnerved but he is also very hungry, and so he decides to follow them.
The city is like a character in the novel; it seems to lead the characters on to their fates. Hugo uses descriptions of the tangled streets to show the vitality of Paris in the medieval period, which was a bustling, thriving city and a center of culture, rather than a barbarous or uncivilized place, as many 18th- and 19th-century scholars believed.
Themes
When Gringoire gets close to one of the figures, he realizes that they are beggars, who drag themselves along the ground because they cannot walk. As Gringoire progresses down the street, the beggars surround him and Gringoire starts to run. He is amazed to find that a man with no legs, a blind man, and a beggar on crutches begin to run after him. They catch hold of him and Gringoire is horrified to see more beggars emerging from every corner of the street.
The beggars are not what they appear to be. They are actually healthy men who use false appearances to fool the Parisian populace into giving them money. This suggests that people are often not what they appear to be and that it’s foolish to judge others based on appearances.
Themes
The beggars lead Gringoire into a crowded square lit by several fires. He sees now that the blind man is not blind and that the men who appear to have no legs can, in fact, walk. Gringoire asks where he is and another figure answers that he is in the “Court of Miracles.”
The beggars are not what they appear to be and use props to fool Parisians into giving them money. The name “the Court of Miracles” makes fun of religious and superstitious beliefs about miracles, which were thought to be common in the medieval period. The beggars are not miraculously healed when they enter the court, as the name implies, and their seemingly miraculous recoveries have a rational explanation. This suggests that many medieval people were not as ignorant as 19th-century scholars believed and that, while medieval people did believe in some supernatural things, they also exploited other people’s superstitions to make money.
Themes
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“The Court of Miracles” is well known in Paris as a “city of thieves,” the place where all the criminals, beggars, and con artists gather at night. Gringoire looks around and is horrified to see beggars removing false wounds and tossing aside their crutches. People cry out that Gringoire must be brought before the king and he is jostled through the square.
Gringoire begins to understand the horrible reality of his situation as the beggars set him down outside a tavern at one end of the square. Outside this tavern there is a bonfire and beside the bonfire Clopin Trouillefou sits on a barrel as the “King of Thunes.” Gringoire recognizes Clopin from the performance in the Palace of Justice—although, of course, Clopin’s fake wound is now gone. Clopin gruffly asks for Gringoire’s name and announces that Gringoire will be hanged if he cannot prove he is a criminal.
The Court of Miracles is a parody of Parisian society; it mirrors many aspects of the medieval city to show their absurdity. For example, like the Parisians, the thieves have a king, who wields large amounts of power and can sentence people to death arbitrarily. This suggests that the legitimate system of government in medieval France is corrupt, because it follows the same laws as a group of criminals.
Themes
Clopin explains that, in the “Court of Miracles,” they hang innocent men and women, just as in the rest of the city they hang thieves. Clopin feels that this makes things fair. Gringoire explains that he is the poet who wrote the morning’s mystery play, which Clopin attended. Clopin does not see what difference this makes and Gringoire explains that artists are often considered vagabonds.
Clopin and the truants hang innocent people in retaliation for the way that medieval society treats criminals. Nobles and kings controlled all the wealth in medieval society, and it was difficult for poor people to make a living. Therefore, many people turned to a life of crime out of necessity and then were punished for this by the same system that forced them to become criminals in the first place. The laws the truants follow are brutal because they imitate the real laws of France. Gringoire’s absurd dilemma here highlights Hugo’s point that a brutal system creates brutal people, because it alienates and punishes people in need rather than helping them.
Themes
Clopin thinks this is a waste of time and wants to hang Gringoire immediately. Gringoire insists that he should receive a fair trial and Clopin says that he will spare Gringoire if Gringoire can prove he is a thief. Gringoire says he will do anything they like.
Clopin and his friends offer innocent people trials because their system parodies the official court system of medieval Paris. This suggests that a cruel system, which punishes those in need, breeds cruel people who do not care about innocent lives or the suffering of others—because they themselves have been shown no mercy by the law.
Themes
The thieves bring out a dummy, which is hung from a set of gallows and dressed in a costume covered in bells. Clopin explains that if Gringoire can pick the dummy’s pocket without ringing any of the bells, then they will make him one of them and only beat him up rather than hang him. Gringoire thinks this is worth a try and he climbs up on a stool beside the dummy.
The trial that the thieves give Gringoire is obviously laughable and almost impossible for him to win. This mirrors the justice system of Paris, which appears to be just but, really, is laughably rigged against poor people, who often steal out of necessity. This is highlighted by the fact that Gringoire has done nothing wrong and is punished for being innocent, just as many of the people killed by the courts are innocent and not given a fair trial.
Themes
Gringoire tries to pick the dummy’s pocket, but he immediately sets it swinging and all the bells ring. The thieves pull the dummy down and make to hang Gringoire in its place. Gringoire is about to be executed—he feels like a fly trapped by a spider—when Clopin suddenly remembers that, according to the law of the “truants,” they must see if any of the women want to marry Gringoire before they kill him.
The image of the spider and the fly recurs throughout the novel. It is associated with the idea that people are often victims of fate and, like the fly who cannot escape the spider’s web, cannot escape or control their destinies.
Themes
Several women come forward to inspect Gringoire, but none of them want him for a husband. As he is about to be hanged, the crowd parts and Esmeralda appears. She solemnly tells Clopin that she will marry Gringoire and Clopin cuts Gringoire down. Esmeralda hands Clopin a pitcher, which he smashes on the ground before he pronounces them man and wife. Gringoire is baffled by this change in his circumstances and Clopin dismisses him from the court.
Although many of the characters in the novel are not what they appear, Esmeralda is both beautiful and virtuous: her external appearance corresponds with her internal goodness. This is demonstrated here, when she saves Gringoire even though he is a stranger to her. Gringoire feels that he is at the mercy of fate and cannot predict where his life will go next.
Themes
