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
In the Place de Grève, the square is littered with debris and confetti from the festival the previous day. Four guards stand around the pillory and wait for a prisoner, who is to be brought out for punishment. A crowd has gathered to see this spectacle. In the corner of the square, built into the side of a mansion called the Tour-Roland, is a narrow cell with no door and only one barred window looking onto the outside world.
Public punishment and execution were popular entertainments in medieval France. This suggests that medieval society was not empathetic and did not try to understand or sympathize with people on a deeper level. Instead, people are interested in being entertained and in seeing their frustrations taken out on someone else.
Themes
This cell is very drab and dingy-looking compared with the lively atmosphere of the square, and Parisians call it the “rat-hole.” The cell was originally created by Madame de Roland, the mistress of the Tour-Roland. She built the cell after her father’s death and walled herself up in it as a testament to her grief. She lived as a recluse in the cell for 20 years before her death. In her will, she dedicated the “rat-hole” to women in need so that they might seek refuge there in times of suffering.
Religious recluses were common in the medieval period. Recluses gave up all worldly and physical comforts because abstinence of this sort was associated with spiritual purity and rewards—people believed that God or the saints might intercede on behalf of a deceased loved one as a reward for one’s sacrifices on earth.
Themes
Inhabitants of the “rat-hole” survive on scraps given to them through the bars of the window. There is no bed and they must sleep on the floor, constantly exposed to the elements. Although many people stop to worship outside the cell (since the inhabitants, viewed as religious recluses, are considered saintly), the public does not sympathize much with the people inside and simply views their seclusion as a symbolic religious choice. Society in 1482 had not yet developed many of the modern tools that help people look more deeply into one another’s minds and motivations.
People view the recluse in the rat-hole as saintly because she has given up worldly things, like good food and comfort. People believe that this makes her holy, as worldly pleasures were associated with sin and temptation in the medieval period, whereas abstinence and physical sacrifice were associated with spiritual purity. Hugo suggests that, before people could read and learn about each other’s experiences in books, people took things at face value and valued the appearances of things over their internal substance.
Themes
There are several of these cells all over Paris, many of which have recluses living in them. Many women, especially widows, come to pray at the window of Tour-Roland.
Women lacked basic rights in the medieval period and, without the financial protection of their husbands, were often left destitute and vulnerable. Sites of prayer were popular with women, therefore, as women were often powerless to protect themselves and instead had to ask for spiritual protection.
Themes
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