The Description of Quasimodo in Hugo’s Novel and in Various On-screen Adaptations

English Festival April 30th, 2009

Dr. Montoneri, Dr. Huang and Dr. Chen

Outline

IntroductionI. Hugo and Notre Dame1. Hugo’s Life and Work

2. Notre Dame Cathedral and the NovelII. Notre Dame de Paris

1. Plot of the Novel2. Main Characters

3. Main ThemesIII. Quasimodo

1. Physical Description2. His Character

3. Between Love and Hate

Outline

IV. Three Hollywood Style Movies1. The Hunchback of Notre Dame 19232. The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1939

3. Notre Dame de Paris 1956V. 1996 Disney’s Cartoon

1. Description of Quasimodo2. Characterization of Quasimodo

3. A Different EndingVI. The 1998 French Musical1. Quasimodo in the Musical

2. The Songs Sung by QuasimodoConclusionReferences

A view of Paris from Notre Dame Cathedral

Introduction• Hugo was a pioneer of the Romantic movement, which stressed the

individual experience of imagination and emotions. • One of his major goals in The Hunchback of Notre Dame was to

prove that French history offered a rich variety of subjects to represent Romantic ideals and themes.

• The story is set in 1482 Paris, in and around the famous Notre Dame de Paris cathedral.

• The human drama revolves around the gypsy Esmeralda, and which of several suitors she will choose: Frollo the priest, Phoebus the captain or Quasimodo the bell-ringer.

• The romantic novel was a huge success. Notre Dame cathedral started attracting visitors and a campaign of restoration began.

• Today, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame is regarded as a standard classic. The history of Hugo's work on film goes as far back as cinema itself.

• In 1905, Alice Guy Blaché, the first female director in the motion picture industry, directed La Esmeralda, which is the first known Hugo adaptation for the screen.

I. Hugo and Notre Dame1. Hugo’s Life and Work• Victor-Marie Hugo (1802–1885) was the most influential

exponent of the Romantic movement in France.• He was not only a poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual

artist, but also a statesman and human rights campaigner.• Napoleon was proclaimed Emperor two years after Hugo's

birth. Hugo's father was a high-ranking officer in Napoleon's army, an atheist republican who considered Napoleon a hero; his mother was a staunch Catholic Royalist.

• After three unsuccessful attempts, Hugo was finally elected to the French Academy in 1841.

• He was elevated to the peerage by King Louis-Philippe in 1841 and entered the Higher Chamber as a pair de France, where he spoke against the death penalty and social injustice, and in favor of freedom of the press.

I. Hugo and Notre Dame1. Hugo’s Life and Work• Hugo started working on The Hunchback of Notre-Dame in 1829.

The novel, published in 1831, was an instant success and it soon made Hugo the most famous living writer in Europe.

• When Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III) seized complete power in 1851, establishing an anti-parliamentary constitution, Hugo openly declared him a traitor of France.

• He fled to Brussels, Jersey, and Guernsey, where he would live in exile until 1870. While in exile, Hugo published his famous political pamphlets against Napoleon III, Napoléon le Petit and Histoire d'un crime. The pamphlets were banned in France.

• When Napoleon III fell from power and the Third Republic was proclaimed, Hugo finally returned to France in 1870, where he was promptly elected to the National Assembly and the Senate.

• Two million people joined his funeral procession in Paris from the Arc de Triomphe to the Panthéon, where he was buried in 1885.

Victor Hugo

Victor Hugocomposed some of his best work during his period in

exile, including Les Misérables (1862), and

three widely praised collections of poetry (Les

Châtiments, 1853; Les Contemplations, 1856; and

La Légende des siècles, 1859).

Les Misérables musical was composed in 1980.

I. Hugo and Notre Dame

2. Notre Dame Cathedral and the Novel• Notre Dame de Paris is widely considered one of the finest

examples of French Gothic architecture in the world. The name Notre Dame means "Our Lady“ (Virgin Mary) in French.

• Construction began in 1163, during the reign of Louis VII. It was completed in 1345.

• The novel also had an effect on French architecture; pre-renaissance buildings that had been considered vulgar, were suddenly revered and a committee for the preservation of historic monuments was founded.

• Hugo started a revolution in the field of aesthetics. The old, neglected and into disrepair fallen church of Notre-Dame started to attract thousands of tourists.

• In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo makes frequent reference to the architecture of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.

• A campaign to collect funds to save the cathedral followed, culminating in the 1845 restorations. Much of the cathedral's present appearance is a result of this renovation.

Notre Dame de Paris In 1991, a major

program of maintenance and restoration was initiated, which was

intended to last 10 years but is still in progress as of 2009, the cleaning and

restoration of old sculptures being an exceedingly delicate

matter.

II. Notre Dame de Paris1. Plot of the Novel• During the 1482 Festival of Fools in Paris, Quasimodo, the

hunchback of Notre Dame, is elected the Pope of Fools for being the ugliest person in Paris.

• Archdeacon Claude Frollo appears and stops the parade and orders Quasimodo to kidnap the Gipsy girl Esmeralda.

• The King's Archers, led by Phoebus, arrive just in time and capture the hunchback.

• Quasimodo is put on trial and sentenced to two hours of torture. He begs for water; Only Esmeralda comes forth and helps him.

• Frollo has become insanely jealous of Phoebus; he stabs him and Esmeralda is accused of his murder and arrested.

• She is sentenced to hang but Quasimodo swings down on a rope from Notre Dame and carries her back to the cathedral.

• A group of vagabonds resolves to save Esmeralda, but Quasimodo, thinking they want to kill her, attacks them. Frollo seizes his chance to kidnap her.

• As she refuses to give herself to him, she is executed. Quasimodo furious, throws Frollo down to his death.

II. Notre Dame de Paris2. Main Characters• Quasimodo is found abandoned on the doorsteps of Notre Dame by Fr

ollo. He named the baby after the day he was found, the Sunday after Easter (Quasimodo Sunday). Quasimodo became the bell-ringer of the cathedral. He is deaf. In Latin “quasimodo” (“almost like”) expresses the idea that the bell-ringer is almost like a human being.

• A priest at Notre Dame, Frollo is also the novel's antagonist. However, he is not a typical evil character bent on causing pain and suffering; instead, he is very bright and compassionate.

• Esmerelda is a beautiful gypsy street dancer. Along with her goat, Djali, she charms everyone she meets with her stunning looks and magic tricks.

• Phoebus, the captain of the King's Archers, saves Esmerelda from Quasimodo. He is a womanizer. He fails to speak up when Esmerelda is sentenced to death for his murder. He marries Fleur-de-Lys.

• Gringoire is a struggling playwright and philosopher. Esmerelda saves him from being hanged and agrees to "marry" him.

II. Notre Dame de Paris

3. Main Themes• The novel is primarily concerned with the theme of revolution and

social strife. Hugo was profoundly concerned by the class differences that set the 1789 French Revolution in motion.

• The theme of determinism also dominates the novel, especially in the scene where Frollo watches a fly get caught in a spider's web. Many characters in the novel do not believe in free will.

• Hugo acknowledges that fate plays a powerful role in the novel, but implies that free will is possible. Hugo suggests that Frollo's deterministic attitude and resignation of free will is what allows him to become such a horrible person. Hugo suggests that we must all exercise our free will to retain our sense of morality and the responsibility for our actions.

• At the time Hugo was writing, Notre Dame was falling apart, and there was very little respect for its architecture. Nothing had been done to repair the damage done to it during the French Revolution. However, the Romantic literary movement seized upon the cathedral as a symbol of France's glorious Christian past.

Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral

III. Quasimodo

1. Physical Description

“…that tetrahedron nose, that horseshoe mouth, that small left eye half hidden by a bristly red eyebrow while the right eye disappeared entirely behind an enormous wart, those irregular teeth jagged here and there like the battlements of a fortress, that horny lip over which one of those teeth protruded like an elephant’s tusk, that forked chin and especially the expression spread over all this, that expression of mingled malice, amazement and sadness.” (Book I, chapter 5)

Quasimodo and the Gargoyles

Gargoyle: carved stone grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building

III. Quasimodo2. His Character

Maliciousness

“The first effect of his deformity was to confuse the view he took of things. He received almost no immediate perceptions. The external world seemed further than it does to us. The second effect was to make him malicious. He was malicious because he was savage; he was savage because he was ugly….But we must do him the justice of stating that his maliciousness was perhaps not innate. From his earliest contact with mankind he was mocked, insulted and rejected. Human speech for him was always either a jeer or a curse. As he grew up he found nothing but hatred around him; in becoming malicious he only picked up the weapon with which he had been wounded.” (Book IV, Chapter 3).

III. Quasimodo

2. His Character

Tenderness

• Descriptions about Quasimodo’s devotion to Claude Frollo:

“Quasimodo’s gratitude was therefore deep, passionate, and unbounded; and although his foster-father’s face was often dark and severe and his words were usually curt, harsh and imperious this gratitude had never wavered for a single instant.” (IV, 4)

• Descriptions about Quasimodo’s reaction to Esmeralda’s gift of a drink:

“Then from that eye, hitherto so dry and burning, was seen to roll a big tear, which fell slowly down that deformed visage so long contracted by despair. Perhaps it was the first that the unfortunate creature had ever shed.”

III. Quasimodo3. Between Love and Hate

Men who love Esmeralda

• Gringoire – Esmeralda’s nominal husband. She tells him she wants only a platonic relationship. Gringoire accepts but secretly hopes that one day he will win her love.

• Claude Frollo – Priest. Infatuated with Esmeralda, he orders Quasimodo to kidnap her.

• Quasimodo – A deformed bell-ringer, Frollo’s adopted son. He falls in love with Esmeralda after she feeds a bowel of water. He attempts to bring Phoebus to Esmeralda.

• Phoebus – A handsome knight

He is engaged with Gondelaurier (Fleur-de-Lys), but wants to sleep with Esmeralda. As he is taking off Esmeralda’s clothes, he is stabbed by Frollo.

III. Quasimodo

3. Between Love and Hate

Esmeralda’s idea about love• Friendship – It’s being brother and sister, two souls which

touch without mingling, like two fingers of a hand.• Love – It’s being two and yet being only one. A man and a

woman fused into an angel. It’s heaven.• Esmeralda tells Gringoire: “I could love only a man who can

protect me.”• Gringoire explains to Esmeralda, the word ‘Phoebus’ means

‘Sun’ in Latin. It’s a name of a handsome archer, who was a god. Esmeralda exclaimed ‘A god!’ Hugo wrote: ‘There was something pensive and passionate in her tone.’

III. Quasimodo3. Between Love and Hate

Hate

• The whole of Paris ironically enjoys Quasimodo's singing while at the same time detesting him for his ugliness.

• Despite being of noble birth and apparently very handsome, Phoebus is also vain, untrustworthy, and a womanizer. He saves Esmeralda from Quasimodo and she falls in love with him. Although Phoebus does not love her, he seduces her.

• One night when they are together, the jealous Claude Frollo attacks Phoebus by stabbing him in the back.

• As Frollo understand that he can never win Esmeralda’s heart, he sentence her to death.

• To protect Esmeralda, Quasimodo stands up to Frollo. After Esmeralds dies, he kills Frollo in the end.

Esmeralda and Quasimodo

IV. Three Hollywood Style Movies

1. The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1923 (A silent film)• Quasimodo (Lon Chaney)• Esmeralda (Patsy Ruth Miller)• Jehan Frollo becomes the scapegoat in this film. In the

original story, Claude Frollo orders Quasimodo to kidnap Esmeralda.

• Afraid to offend the Catholic Church, the filmmaker arranged Jehan, Claude Frollo’s brother to be the villain in the 1923 film adaptation.

• It took four hours of make-up to transform Chaney into Quasimodo and he had to carry a fifty-pound rubber cast to achieve his grotesque hunchback.

• The film elevated Chaney, already a well-known character actor, to full star status in Hollywood. It also helped set a standard for many later horror films, including Chaney's The Phantom of the Opera in 1925.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1923

IV. Three Hollywood Style Movies

2. The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1939• A black-and-white film

• Quasimodo (Charles Laughton)

• Esmeralda (Maureen O’Hara)

• Like the 1923 film adaptation, Jehan Frollo is the villain in this film.

• Esmeralda and Quasimodo remain alive at the end, unlike the novel, in which both die. Phoebus, who is only wounded by Frollo in the novel, is killed by him in this film version; therefore, Esmeralda is arrested and sentenced to hang for murder, not attempted murder.

• The film later strongly influenced the 1996 animated version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame produced by Walt Disney.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1939

IV. Three Hollywood Style Movies

3. Notre Dame de Paris 1956• A color film directed by Jean Delannoy

• Quasimodo (Anthony Quinn)

• Esmeralda (Gina Lollobrigida)

• Esmeralda is sexy, beautiful, and wild. She reminds me of Carmen, the gypsy girl.

• Phoebus is cunning and hypocritical.

• Frollo is cold-hearted.

• Anthony Quinn's portrayal of the hunchback Quasimodo is more human and less horrific than most other portrayals. Instead of having a huge hump and a hideously deformed face, he only has a small curve in his spine and a slightly deformed face.

Notre Dame de Paris 1956The film is the only

adaptation to use Victor Hugo's original ending;

although Esmeralda is killed by a stray arrow rather than

hanged, a voiceover narration tells us at the end that several

years afterward, an excavation group finds the

skeletons of Quasimodo and Esmeralda intertwined in an

embrace.

V. 1996 Disney’s Cartoon

1. Description of Quasimodo• The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Disney’s 34th classic animation

(1996)• Disney’s version has changed a few plots as well as the ending.• Directors: Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, directors of Beauty and

the Beast.• Dubbing: Tom Hulce (Amadeus), Demi Moore (Ghost), Kevin

Kline (A Fish Called Wanda).• Vocals: Quasimodo – Tom Hulce, Frollo – Tony Jay, Clopin – Paul

Kandel, Archdeacon – David Ogden Stiers, Esmeralda – Heidi Mollenhauer.

• Music: Alan Menken. Lyrics: Stephen Schwartz.• Quasimodo’s character• Song lyrics in Disney’s Cartoon• Portrayal of Quasimodo in selected song lyrics

V. 1996 Disney’s Cartoon

2. Characterization of Quasimodo• (foul) creature• Monster • An unholy demon • Misshapen • Deformed, ugly• Old and bent• Hideous • You’re a surprise • You’ve got a certain something more • Like a croissant • Man vs. Monster: “Who is the monster and who is the

man?”

Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame

V. 1996 Disney’s Cartoon

3. A Different Ending• Phoebus's character is considerably different. One of the

most notable changes is that he becomes one of the main heroes of the story.

• Phoebus' feelings for Esmeralda are genuine. Phoebus in the film is shown to be a man of principle and integrity, as well as a man with a sense of humor.

• After he is wounded by Frollo's soldiers for saving the miller's family and defying Frollo, Esmeralda saves Phoebus from drowning.

• She seeks Quasimodo for help and hides him in Notre Dame. After they defeat Frollo and his men, Quasimodo gives the two his blessing as a couple.

• In the second film (2002), he has a son named Zephyr, who closely resembles him.

Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame

VI. The 1998 French Musical

1. Quasimodo in the Musical• Notre Dame de Paris is a French-Canadian musical which debuted in

1998 in Paris. The music was composed by Richard Cocciante and the lyrics are by Luc Plamondon.

• According to the Guinness Book of Records, it had the most successful first year of any musical ever. The score has been recorded at least seven times to date (2007).

• Garou is a French Canadian singer born as Pierre Garand in 1972 in Quebec. He plays the role of Quasimodo.

• He even portrayed the same role in the English version given in London during the summer of 2000.

• His looks and hoarse voice, as well as the virility that he combines with a boyish charm, brought many to see him as a major modern day sex symbol.

• The Times praised the "doleful energy" of Garou's Quasimodo and the "occasional imaginative production touches: huge bells with writhing, upside-down humans for clappers".

• After the musical, Garou managed to launch a successful international pop music career, singing notably with Celine Dion.

VI. The 1998 French Musical

2. The Songs Sung by Quasimodo• The original musical in French contains 53 titles in 2 acts.• In act I, Quasimodo sings "Le pape des fous", "La sorcière",

"L’enfant trouvé", "A boire", "Belle", "Ma maison, c’est ta maison".

• In act II, he sings "Les cloches" (The Bells), "Les oiseaux qu’on met en cage" (The birds they put in cages), "Libérés", "Je te laisse un sifflet", "Dieu que le monde est injuste" (God you made the world all wrong), "Mon maître, mon sauveur", "Donnez la moi", "Danse mon Esmeralda"

• "Belle" is performed by the Patrick Fiori (Phoebus), Daniel Lavoie (Frollo), and Garou (Quasimodo). It became a huge hit, and was named Song of the Year in France, and nominated for Song of the Century.

"Les oiseaux qu’on met en cage"

Esmeralda: Will the birds they put in cages, ever ride upon the wind?Will the children life outrages, ever learn to love again?

I lived my life like a swallow; I arrived here in the springtime.All the little streets I'd follow, all the gypsy songs were mine.

Where's my friend who rings the church bells?Where are you my Quasimodo?

They will hang me as the light swells, you can break these bars I know. Quasimodo: Esmeralda have you left me? Do you hide yourself away?

I have counted every hour; I have missed you every day.Have you left upon a journey, with your handsome shining soldier?

With no marriage taking love free, like the gypsy girl you are.Have you died out in the small streets, with no prayer to get to heaven?

There's a priest who counts your heartbeat, if he comes near you must run. Esmeralda: You remember at the street fair.

Quasimodo: When they hurt me on the great wheel. Esmeralda: When you begged I gave you water.

Quasimodo: At your feet I had to kneel.Q & E: On that day our friendship started, it will last as long as we live.

Once together never parted, all we'll have to give we'll give.Will the birds they put in cages, ever ride upon the wind.Will the children life outrages, ever learn to love again?

Conclusion

• In 1830, Hugo bought ink and stuck to his desk, refusing togo out, with the exception of nightly visits to Notre-Dame, and forbidding any disturbance.

• The set of the story was the church Notre-Dame on the Île de la Cité. Hugo spent hours examining its spiral staircases, hidden chambers and inscriptions. He had also read old writings, records and law texts. He was determined to make its framework historically correct.

• He stuck by his desk for months and by the beginning of January 1831, it was finished. It was an instant success and it soon made Hugo the most famous living writer in Europe.

• Today, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame is regarded as a standard classic and it must be one of the most adapted stories for cinema and television. Quasimodo, has become a horror classic - although anyone that reads the novel realizes that Frollo represents the horror. And perhaps the English title - which Hugo himself hated - is to blame for putting too much emphasis on the hunchback.

References

• Ana Mª Rierola Puigderajols, A Linguistic Study of the Magic in Disney Lyrics, Barcelona, 2001, Dissertation.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre_Dame_Cathedral• http://www.paris-360.com• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunchback_of_Notre_Dame• http://www1.pu.edu.tw/~bmon/NotreDame.htm• http://www.readprint.com/work-845/Victor-Hugo• http://www.rfimusique.com/siteen/biographie/biographie_6255.asp• http://www.hugo-online.org/Novels/hunchback_notre_dame.html• http://www.allmusicals.com/lyrics/notredamedeparis/

birdstheyputincages.htm• http://www.hugo-online.org/Adaptations/music/verdi.html• Victor Hugo, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Penguin

Popular Classics, London, 1965.