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Key Examples in The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Foil
Explanation and Analysis—Fleur de Lys/Esmeralda:
The Hunchback of Notre Dame’s feminine ideals take shape through Fleur de Lys and Esmeralda, who differ from each other as much as they manage to capture men’s hearts. The novel sets Fleur de Lys—the portrait of conventional beauty and propriety—against Esmeralda’s alluringly exotic charms. With her “two beautiful and reproachful eyes,” the charming and wealthy damsel wears her “blonde hair in ravishing plaits.” She gossips among her friends and desperately solicits Phoebus’s attention.
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Foil
Explanation and Analysis—Phoebus vs. Claude Frollo:
Phoebus and Claude Frollo vie—passionately and violently—for Esmeralda’s heart. As one of the novel’s most memorable foil pairs, they create a dramatic series of contrasts, too.
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Foil
Explanation and Analysis—Quasimodo vs. Frollo:
The Notre Dame’s two inhabitants create a pair of foil-like inverses. Claude Frollo adopted Quasimodo, and Quasimodo serves his master—their relationship alone positions them as opposites. The Hunchback of Notre Dame contrasts a man of incredible power and authority against another who hardly rises above a beast-like state of intelligence.
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