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| The Hunchback of Notre Dame, is a gothic novel by Victor Hugo, set in fifteenth-century Paris, about a gypsy girl named Esmeralda and the deaf and deformed bell ringer of the Notre Dame Cathedral, Quasimodo. Quasimodo has been raised by the Archdeacon Frollo, to whom alone he clings. Deformed, ugly,repulsive and grown deaf from the ringing the huge bells in the tower, savage when ridiculed, Quasimodo is an isolate who haunts the cathedral. Claude Frollo falls in love with Esmeralda, but she is in love with a Captain named Phoebus. Frollo stabs Phoebus out of jealousy, and Esmeralda is accused of the crime. Quasimodo tries to hide her in the cathedral, but Frollo finds her and tries to win her affection one last time. When that doesn't work, Frollo leaves Esmeralda to be caught and executed by the police. Finally, Quasimodo captures Frollo and throws him from the tower of the cathedral. The book ends with the later discovery of two skeletons in Esmeralda's tomb�Esmeralda's and Quasimodo's, locked in an embrace. A Quasimodo is a grotesque creature who nevertheless can feel pure love. |
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