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
Claude Frollo comes from a noble family and has been educated from a young age. He was a somber, thoughtful child and did not play much with the other boys or join in with student pranks. He was always the first to arrive in class and he worked hard at all his subjects. As Frollo grows into a young man, he develops a “lust for knowledge” and expands his studies from religion into medicine and science. Frollo also studies the arts and languages and learns to read Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. He has a passion for knowledge which is like a “fever” and he views it as his only purpose in life.
Frollo is a very intense and passionate young man. This is demonstrated through his hunger for knowledge and his dedication to his studies. Scientific knowledge was very limited in the medieval period, although it would progress rapidly in the following centuries with the dawn of the Renaissance. Frollo is ahead of his time and wants to push the limits of knowledge beyond those of his society. However, Hugo’s use of the word “lust” to describe Follo’s passion for knowledge indicates that this intense nature might turn into something destructive, since sexual lust was considered sinful in medieval society.
Themes
When he is 19 years old, Frollo’s parents both die of plague. When Frollo visits their house, he finds his baby brother, Jehan, still alive but without anyone to care for him. Frollo takes charge of Jehan and develops an intense bond with him. Previously, Frollo had only loved knowledge and intellectual pursuits, but his relationship with Jehan teaches him how to care passionately for another human being and, for a time, his brother becomes the sole focus of his life.
Medicine, like all scientific areas of knowledge, was extremely underdeveloped in the medieval period and people often died from diseases which modern societies can cure. Frollo channels his passionate nature into his care for Jehan. This suggests that Frollo is prone to extreme emotions and that he becomes fixated on certain interests and passions.
Themes
Through his time spent with Jehan, Frollo comes to realize that there is more to life than knowledge and that, without human connection, people become harsh and inhuman. Frollo believes that a person only needs familial love, however. Frollo is extremely devoted to Jehan. He finds a nurse for him and pays for the boy’s education. He devotes his future to Jehan’s success and enters the church so that he may have a means to provide for him. With his clerical vows, he vows never to have a wife or children of his own.
Frollo is a priest and, therefore, must remain sexually celibate. Although he clearly has the potential to be a loving person, this love must now be limited to non-sexual relationships, as lust and sex were considered impure and sinful in the medieval period. Frollo is, clearly, aware of his desire for human connection but does not connect this to sexual love because he believes that celibate love is pure while sexual love is sinful.
Themes
Frollo becomes a chaplain in Notre Dame, where he is a popular priest. Since he is renowned for his intelligence, it is also widely believed that he is a magician. During this period of his life, he comes across the abandoned baby in the church. The poor, orphaned child reminds him of Jehan and he adopts the baby out of compassion. He names the baby Quasimodo after the holiday on which he was found.
Frollo’s extreme intelligence singles him out as someone unusual in medieval society because most people could not read and were not educated in this era. Since people lacked the knowledge to explain the world rationally, they tended to be highly superstitious and to suspect anything they could not explain—such as Frollo’s extreme intelligence—of being somehow supernatural. Frollo’s generous nature as a young man extends beyond his own family and he adopts Quasimodo because he feels sorry for him, indicating again that Frollo’s emotional intensity gives him an unusual capacity for empathy.
Themes
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