FREE ESSAY ON HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME

HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME

In this novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831), Victor Hugo talks about the life of his
characters in the city of Paris. This story takes place in the late-fourteenth century.
With inequality all around it was hard for a person to gain respect without good looks or
social status. In this paper I will mainly discuss the story of Quasimodoe Esmeralda, and
their struggle in this story Quasimodoe's mother was a gypsy. She could not take care of
him any longer so she left him in front of a church. Gypsies were not liked at this time,
but the church was highly respected. Being it that Quasimodo's mom had left him on front
steps of the church the king could do almost nothing. Quasimodoe could not leave the
church due to the fact that he was deformed and ugly. Quasimodo grew very lonely and
bored up in that bell tower all by him self. He was looking down one day and set eyes
upon a young woman named Esmerelda. On the day of fools Quasimodo saw this young lady and
decided to go down and take a closer look at this woman. It was a holiday, feast of
fools, when he decided to go down. When the people saw him they were horrified. He got
whipped and lectured by his master. Well, to make a long story short Esmerelda ends up
dyeing, and Quaismodo runs away and is never seen or heard of again. They state that in
the end they find two skeletons lying in each others arms. One the body of a lady
(Esmerelda), and the other the body of a man who was deformed (Quaismodo). It also states
that the woman was hung, but the man died because he had come there by himself and died
there.There are many examples of Historical Significance in this book. One of which is
the power of the church. The church mostly controlled everything back then. My second
example is the way that they talked. They sounded more sophisticated back then. It states
on page 139, Sunday in the year of my lord 1467. My third fact is the fact that they
didn't like gypsies back then. They wanted to kill all of the gypyses. It states in the
end that they end up killing Esmerelda. My fourth fact is the way that they dressed. My
fifth fact is that it states on page 65 that America had not yet been discovered. My
sixth fact is the food that they had back then. It states on pages 98-99 the next minute,
there was on the table a loaf of rye bread, a slice of bacon, some wrinkled apples, and a
jug of beer. My seventh fact is the jobs that the people had. The mail characters had
jobs like poets, bell ringers, popes, kings, and so on as it lists the kings servants on
page 45. My eighth statement is the fact that when the people saw Quasimodo the women had
to turn their heads. The transportation was mostly horses back then. The printing press
was a big fear back then as it states on page 174, it was the fear of an ecclesiastic
before a new force, the printing press. My ninth fact is the architecture had back then
with all the cathedrals and what not.(fifth paragraph on page 10) My tenth statement is
the fact that social inequality was a big factor back then. My eleventh and final fact is
that all of this takes place during the restoration and romanticism and revolution period
(1815-1850) as it states in our world history book.This book was a very good book. It
only had a few problems. The author used to much detail and that made the story boring.
He would also wander off and start describing something else more vividly. Victor Hugo
should have kept just on the story of Esmerelda and Quasimodo. The end of the story was
the best part. In all the book was an ok book.This book was a good novel after all. It
was an action and romance story that mainly consisted of two people, Quasimodo and
Esmerelda. It reminded me of the short story Beauty and the Beast.