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
Gringoire follows Esmeralda to her room and finds himself alone with her. He is amazed by the night’s events and cannot believe that he is not in a fairytale. Esmeralda ignores him and plays with her goat, Djali. Gringoire remembers that he is now her husband and supposes that she must be in love with him. He tries to approach her seductively but Esmeralda dashes away and threatens Gringoire with a small dagger which she hides in her dress.
Gringoire feels that he has experienced several strange twists of fate, which he could neither have predicted nor controlled. Esmeralda aggressively defends herself against Gringoire’s advances and this suggests that she strongly desires control over her own body—something that women were often misogynistically denied in the medieval period.
Themes
Gringoire is surprised and confused, but he immediately backs down and asks Esmeralda why she has married him. Esmeralda replies that she married him to save him and Gringoire promises that he will not attempt to seduce her. Instead, he asks her for some food. Esmeralda is amused and brings him a plate of supper. Gringoire, who is very hungry, eats it quickly. When he is finished, he notices that Esmeralda pays no attention to him and, instead, seems lost in thought.
Gringoire is not a passionate or an amorous man and quickly gives up on his lust for Esmeralda. This reinforces the idea that he avoids extreme emotions and prefers to enjoy things in moderation and remain philosophical about life. All he wanted earlier in the night was food and a place to stay, and now that he has those things, he’s content.
Themes
At last, Djali gets Emseralda’s attention by chewing her skirt and Gringoire asks Esmeralda if she will be his friend. Esmeralda agrees and says that the difference between love and friendship is that friendship exists between brother and sister, while love is like heaven. Gringoire asks her what sort of man she loves, and she replies dreamily that he must be a man who can protect her.
Esmeralda is sexually innocent and, although she is aware of a difference between familial and sexual love, she still believes sexual love can be pure and holy. This is at odds with medieval Christian doctrine, which taught that sex was sinful while non-sexual love was pure. Esmeralda is a gypsy, however, and not a Christian. Still, she believes that purity is a protective or magical force, and that men and women should be married before they have sex, which suggests that these views were pervasive even outside the Church in the medieval period.
Themes
Gringoire suddenly remembers that, earlier in the evening, Quasimodo tried to abduct Esmeralda. He asks her how she escaped. Esmeralda does not reply and Gringoire asks her why Quasimodo followed her. Esmeralda says she does not know and Gringoire asks why the thieves call her “La Esmeralda.” Esmeralda shows him an amulet which she wears around her neck and which contains an emerald. She does not know where it came from because she does not know who her parents are.
Esmeralda is innocent in terms of knowledge, as well as sexual experience. Although she was raised by gypsies, she does not know who her parents are and, therefore, she knows little about her identity. This supports the idea that Esmeralda is pure and saintly because, in the Christian Bible, innocence is associated with goodness and holiness, whereas knowledge is associated with sin.
Themes
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Gringoire then tells Esmeralda his life story. He is an orphan and has tried many different trades, without much success. As a young man, Claude Frollo took Gringoire in and gave him an education in the Church and this allowed Gringoire to become a poet. Esmeralda, who has stopped listening, suddenly asks Gringoire what “Phoebus” means. Gringoire is confused but tells her it means “sun.” Esmeralda seems pleased by this so Gringoire tells her that it is also the name of a handsome warrior God.
Gringoire has no specific calling in life—he does not consider himself fated to be anything in particular and, instead, is inclined to see where life takes him. Frollo’s behavior towards Gringoire is generous, and this suggests that Frollo was a charitable man in his youth. Esmeralda’s attraction to Phoebus is symbolic because Esmeralda is drawn to the natural world, which is associated with sunlight. In the medieval period, God was believed to be the source of all light in the world, so Esmeralda’s attraction to Phoebus indicates that, metaphorically, she is on the side of light rather than darkness. She is taken in by Phoebus’s heroic appearance—he is a soldier—and connects him to the idea of a godlike warrior who can protect her. However, it will later become clear that Phoebus isn’t really the beacon of goodness that she imagines him to be.
Themes
At this moment, a bracelet falls from Esmeralda’s wrist and Gringoire bends to pick it up. When he straightens up again, Esmeralda has vanished into another room and bolted the door. Gringoire curls up to sleep on top of the table and thinks wistfully about his new situation.
Esmeralda is clearly used to avoiding unwanted attention and uses the bracelet to distract Gringoire. This suggests that Esmeralda’s beauty causes her to stand out and that she is often persecuted or harassed because of misogynistic attitudes towards women in the medieval period.
Themes
