Riddles of Notre Dame Cathedral and details that readers often forget

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Not just one of the most famous works of French classical literature. It is, for example, the first historical novel in its country. It is also a source of inspiration for the creators of 14 films, 1 cartoon, 2 operas, ballet and musical. are familiar with the plot of the novel, but even those who read it once excitedly do not pay attention or do not remember some interesting details.

There is definitely something in the novel, although it seems to many that there is

Esmeralda is a gypsy for many readers, although the book clearly states that she is a French woman stolen as a child. It seems to a modern person that this does not matter, because in this case the girl was brought up as a gypsy. But at the beginning of the nineteenth century in Europe they believed in innate qualities, including those inherent in different races and peoples. So for Hugo there was a direct connection between Esmeralda's noble behavior and the fact that she is French by blood.

Notre Dame Cathedral is often called a love novel. But in fact, if you read carefully, few characters are capable of love. Actually, Esmeralda and Quasimodo. All the other men surrounding Esmeralda think only of their carnal desires. Even the poet saved by her from the gallows, instead of just humanly experiencing gratitude to the girl, immediately tries to "enter into marital rights." Fortunately, he is not a rapist.

What Frollo is obsessed with has little to do with love, although it is customary for us to sing such a dark passion. With Phoebus, everything is clear too. He hardly ever loved in his life. For Fleur-de-Lys, he does not feel a single drop of tenderness and at some point, out of boredom, thinks to rape her, but she, guessing his thoughts, runs out of the room onto the balcony, where both of them will be visible.

In fact, Esmeralda is tortured and killed because of someone else's lust, just broken, like a strange toy that for some reason did not want to participate in the game.

Not everyone remembers where Frollo got Quasimodo from. Initially, the hunchback boy was thrown to Esmeralda's mother in exchange for the stolen girl. Then the woman herself threw him to the cathedral. Judging by the fact that Quasimodo is a redhead, the gypsies and he was once, according to the author's idea, stolen or picked up - in the villages of Europe, they often carried children born with disabilities out of the village to die. If we turn to another novel by Hugo, The Man Who Laughs, one might suspect that they wanted to teach the boy some simple tricks or dance, so that he would amuse the audience with his performances. In the Middle Ages (and even in Hugo's time), this was perhaps the best life for a disabled child, considering how many were simply left to die.

There is not a single hint as to why the gypsies eventually threw the baby into someone else's children's bed. This will forever remain a mystery.

Frollo brings up Quasimodo not just out of philanthropy, but in order to win God's forgiveness to an unlucky younger brother, a student and an ugly person with his kindness to a disabled person.

The custom that gypsies marry for as many years as the jug will fly in pieces at their wedding, in fact, hardly ever existed. Even in Byzantium, Gypsies were already Christians and got married (or married in front of the community) for life.

Gypsies in the plot of the novel

As you know, Hugo wrote his novel to draw the attention of the French to the historical value of Notre Dame Cathedral. It is almost impossible to imagine it now, but they were going to demolish it or, in extreme cases, modernize it. Hugo, a big fan of the architecture and history of Paris, decided to make readers love the cathedral as he loves it himself. And sat down at the book.

Why did he choose the end of the fifteenth century as the time of events? Why didn't you describe, for example, the history of the creation of the cathedral?

The fact is that in the nineteenth century, Europeans began to change their attitude towards small peoples from utilitarian to humanistic. Unfortunately, this did not concern the politics of governments, but now the indigenous inhabitants of the colonies, for example, were recognized for their own culture and the right to be proud of their history. The turn also influenced the attitude of Europeans towards the Roma. If in the same France the anti-Romani laws, adopted in the Middle Ages and later, were executed so zealously that all the local gypsies were destroyed, now the gypsies arriving from Spain, Italy, Hungary, Bohemia aroused curiosity. On the farms, Roma began to be hired for seasonal work, Catholic pastors remembered that even the Inquisition considered Roma to be good Christians, and some young ladies and gentlemen tried to talk with Roma about morality.

If you look back at history, then all the most famous literary works about Gypsies were created precisely in the nineteenth century: Notre Dame Cathedral, Pushkin's Gypsies, and Carmen by Merimee. They began to be actively painted, used as an image in songs and poetry. Gypsies seemed to Europeans people, somehow especially close to nature and full of its original strength.

So getting the gypsies into the story was almost a win-win way to get the audience interested. And Hugo, from the entire history of the Middle Ages, chose the moment when the gypsies first appeared in Europe, fleeing the Ottomans, which were capturing Byzantium. The procession of the camp with the duke at the head was written off by him from the chronicles. I must say, it is still unclear who were the people who called themselves Gypsy dukes. They knew many languages and possessed court-level manners. They could well have been representatives of the Byzantine nobility, but how did they manage to lead the gypsies? Mystery.

In some ways, Hugo was wrong. The Gypsies at that time did not have close contacts with the French criminal world and did not stay in the Courtyard of Miracles, but outside the city gates, in the field. So it was more convenient to set up a camp, and the gypsies had no need to hide especially until the adoption of widespread laws against vagabonds and nomads. On the contrary, it was in their interests to attract the curiosity of the public: after all, they earned money through performances. Including, like the heroine of Hugo, with trained animals.

I must say that Hugo was not only a hardworking and talented writer, but also an artist … for coffee.