Quasimodo (from Quasimodo Sunday[1]) is a fictional character and the titular character of the novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831) by Victor Hugo. Quasimodo was born with a hunchback alongside several facial deformities and feared by the townspeople as a sort of monster, but he finds sanctuary in an unlikely love that is fulfilled only in death.
The deformed Quasimodo is described as "hideous" and a "creation of the devil". He was born with a severe hunchback, a bushy eyebrow covering his left eye while the right eye "disappeared entirely" behind a giant wart, and broken teeth, one of which protruded over his mouth. He was born to a tribe of Romani people (in the novel called égyptienne or 'gypsies'), but due to his monstrous appearance he was switched during infancy with an able-bodied baby girl, Agnes. One character in the novel refers to him as animalistic and un-Christian, suggesting he may be the "offspring of a Jew and a sow", and thus deserving of death.[3] After being discovered, Quasimodo is exorcised by Agnes's mother (who believed that the Romani people ate her child) and taken to Paris. He is found abandoned in Notre Dame (on the foundlings' bed, where orphans and unwanted children are left to public charity) on Quasimodo Sunday, the First Sunday after Easter, by Claude Frollo, the Archdeacon of Notre Dame, who adopts the baby, names him after the day the baby was found, and brings him up to be the bell-ringer of the cathedral. Due to the loud ringing of the bells, Quasimodo also becomes deaf causing Frollo to teach him sign language. Although he is hated for his deformity, it is revealed that he is kind at heart. Though Quasimodo commits acts of violence in the novel, these are only undertaken when he is instructed by others.
"A tear for a drop of water" Esmeralda gives a drink to Quasimodo in one of Gustave Brion's illustrations
Looked upon by the general populace of Paris as a monster, he believes that Frollo is the only one who cares for him, and frequently accompanies him when the Archdeacon walks out of Notre Dame. Frollo lusts after a beautiful Romani girl named Esmeralda, and enlists Quasimodo in trying to kidnap her. (She is later revealed to be Agnes, the baby Quasimodo was switched with.) Captain Phoebus de Châteaupers arrives to stop the kidnapping and captures Quasimodo, unaware that Quasimodo was merely following Frollo's orders. The deaf judge Florian Barbedienne sentences him to an hour of flogging and another hour of humiliation on the pillory. Phoebus ties Quasimodo up and has Pierre Torterue whip him in front of a jeering crowd. When Quasimodo calls to him for help, Frollo allows Quasimodo to be tortured as punishment for failing him. When Quasimodo calls for water, a child throws a wet rag at him. Seeing his thirst, Esmeralda approaches the public stocks and offers him a drink of water. It saves him and she captures his heart.
Esmeralda is later entangled in an attempted murder – committed by Frollo, who had stabbed Phoebus in a jealous rage after spying on Esmeralda and Phoebus having a night of passion – and is sentenced to be hanged. As she is being forced to pray at the steps of Notre Dame just before being marched off to the gallows, Quasimodo, who has been watching the occasion from an upper balcony in Notre Dame, slides down with a rope, and rescues her by taking her up to the top of the cathedral, where he poignantly shouts "Sanctuary!" to the onlookers below.
Esmeralda is terrified of Quasimodo at first, but gradually recognizes his kind heart and becomes his friend. He watches over her and protects her, and at one point saves her from Frollo when the mad priest sexually assaults her in her room. In one instance Esmeralda also sees Phoebus from the cathedral balcony and pleadingly convinces Quasimodo to go down and look for him, but Phoebus is repulsed by Quasimodo's appearance and refuses to visit Notre Dame to see her.
After an uneasy respite, a mob of Paris's Truands led by Clopin Trouillefou storms Notre Dame, and although Quasimodo tries to fend them off by throwing stones and bricks down onto the mob and even pours deadly molten lead, the mob continues attacking until Phoebus and his soldiers arrive to fight and drive off the assailants. Unbeknownst to Quasimodo, Frollo lures Esmeralda outside, where he has her arrested and hanged. When Quasimodo sees Frollo smiling cruelly at Esmeralda's execution, he turns on his master and throws him to his death from the balcony in rage.
Quasimodo cries in despair, lamenting "There is all that I ever loved!" He then leaves Notre Dame, never to return, and heads for the Gibbet of Montfaucon beyond the city walls, passing by the Convent of the Filles-Dieu, a home for 200 reformed prostitutes, and the leper colony of Saint-Lazare. After reaching the Gibbet, he lies next to Esmeralda's corpse, where it had been unceremoniously thrown after the execution. He stays at Montfaucon, and eventually dies of starvation, clutching the body of the deceased Esmeralda. Years later, an excavation group exhumes both of their skeletons, which have become intertwined. When they try to separate them, Quasimodo's bones crumble to dust.
Symbolism
In the novel, Quasimodo symbolically shows Esmeralda the difference between himself and the handsome yet self-centered Captain Phoebus, with whom the girl has become infatuated. He places two vases in her room: one is a beautiful crystal vase, yet broken and filled with dry, withered flowers; the other a humble pot, yet filled with beautiful, fragrant flowers. Esmeralda takes the withered flowers from the crystal vase and presses them passionately on her heart.[4]
In Disney's 1996 animated film adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Quasimodo is a very different character than in the novel. He was voiced by Tom Hulce and animated by James Baxter. Unlike in the novel, Quasimodo has two eyes, with his left one only partially covered. He is not deaf, and is capable of fluent speech. He has three anthropomorphic gargoyle friends named Victor, Hugo, and Laverne. Also he is much less tragic in the Disney film than in the original novel, because his mother cared for him more in the Disney film than she did in the original novel where she went as far as to actually abandon Quasimodo on the steps of Notre Dame as opposed to Frollo merely lying to Quasimodo about his mother (though this is alluded to in the Disney film).
In the beginning of the film, a Romani mother tries to bring the hunchbacked infant into Notre Dame with her for sanctuary, but the antiziganJudge Claude Frollo (Tony Jay) chases and inadvertently kills her. Frollo attempts to drown the baby in a nearby well upon seeing his deformity, but the church's Archdeacon stops him and demands that he atone for his crime by raising the child as his son. Fearing God's wrath, Frollo reluctantly agrees, and adopts the child in the hope that he will be useful to him one day. Frollo cruelly names the child Quasimodo, which in the film is Latin for "half-formed". Over the years he raises Quasimodo with cruelty, forbidding him to leave the tower and teaching him that the world is a wicked, sinful place, and that the Parisian people will reject him due to his deformity. He also lies to Quasimodo about his mother, telling him she abandoned him as a baby and that anybody else would have drowned him had Frollo not stepped in and adopted him. Quasimodo nevertheless grows up to be a kind-hearted young man who yearns to join the outside world.
Quasimodo sneaks out of the cathedral during the Festival of Fools, where he is crowned the "King of Fools". While there, he meets Esmeralda, with whom he falls in love. Two of Frollo's guards ruin the moment by throwing tomatoes at him and binding him to a wheel to torment him, rousing a crowd of onlookers to join in. Frollo refuses to help as punishment for his disobedience. Esmeralda takes pity on him and frees him after Phoebus fails to get Frollo to intervene. After Esmeralda escapes, Frollo confronts Quasimodo, who apologizes and returns to the bell tower. He later befriends Esmeralda when she claims sanctuary from Frollo in the cathedral, and he helps her flee from Frollo's men in gratitude. Though saddened to see that Esmeralda has romantic love for Captain Phoebus rather than himself, Quasimodo cares for her enough to learn to respect her choice.
Frollo eventually locates Esmeralda and Phoebus at the Court of Miracles. He sentences Esmeralda to death, and has Quasimodo chained up in the bell tower. Quasimodo breaks free, however, and rescues Esmeralda from execution. Phoebus breaks free from his cage and rallies the citizens of Paris against Frollo's tyranny. From the bell tower, Quasimodo and the gargoyles watch the citizens fighting Frollo's army. They pour molten lead onto the streets, preventing Frollo and his soldiers from breaking in. However, Frollo successfully manages to enter the cathedral. He tries to kill Quasimodo, who is mourning Esmeralda, believing her to be dead. The two struggle briefly until Quasimodo throws Frollo to the floor and denounces him, finally seeing him for what he is. Esmeralda awakens and Quasimodo rushes her to safety. He then fights the wrathful Frollo, who reveals the truth about his mother to him. Both fall from the balcony, but Phoebus catches Quasimodo and pulls him to safety, while Frollo falls to his death. Quasimodo is finally accepted into society by the citizens of Paris as they celebrate the liberation of the city from Frollo.
In the second film
In Disney's 2002 direct-to-video sequel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame II, Quasimodo (again voiced by Hulce) reappears, once again as the protagonist. He remains a bell-ringer, still living in Notre Dame with the gargoyles. This time, he is able to move around Paris freely. He finds love in a beautiful circus performer named Madellaine (voiced by Jennifer Love Hewitt), who ultimately reveals that she is aware that the gargoyles are alive. His love for Madellaine is briefly strained when he learns she was actually working on behalf of a greedy magician named Sarousch who plans to steal a particularly valuable bell called La Fidele, from Notre Dame. Madellaine's true feelings for Quasimodo overcome her reluctant loyalty to Sarousch, however, and she aids Quasimodo in bringing Sarousch to justice. Quasimodo forgives Madellaine and the two pledge their love to each other.
Later appearances
Quasimodo also made some occasional appearances on the animated series House of Mouse. At one point, Jiminy Cricket, when giving advice to the guests, consoles him by saying that some people find someone special and some people do not, poking fun at the fact that Quasimodo and Esmeralda did not fall in love at the end of the original film.
A German musical stage show Der Glöckner von Notre Dame (1999) derived from the Disney movie, restores some of the darker elements of the original novel lost in the film: Esmeralda dies from smoke inhalation at the end, Frollo is revealed to have once been a priest in his past (akin to the novel, where he was an archdeacon), and Frollo dies because Quasimodo throws him from the roof rather than falling by accident.
Quasimodo appears in the video game Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance voiced by Ari Rubin. He appears as a supporting character in a world based on the film called "La Cité des Cloches" and plays out more or less the same role as in the film.
In 2014 at the La Jolla Playhouse, Disney premiered a new adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Like the 1999 German Adaptation, the new adaptation was based on movie but it restored some of the themes, characters, and ending of Hugo's original book. It later transferred to PaperMill Playhouse in 2015, but was denied to transfer to a theater on Broadway. The musical also establishes Quasimodo as Frollo's nephew - Jehan runs off with a Gypsy girl, Florika, after being expelled from Notre Dame's sanctuary. Years later, Frollo receives a letter from him and finds him on his deathbed. It is revealed Florika had died from pox and Jehan eventually dies from it as well, entrusting his brother with his son even though he is an established Gypsy child.
Quasimodo appears in the video game Disney Magic Kingdoms as a playable character to unlock for limited time.[6]
Quasimodo appears in the 2023 live-action/animated short Once Upon a Studio with Tom Hulce returning to voice him.[7][8]
Real-life Quasimodo
In August 2010, Adrian Glew, a Tate archivist, announced evidence for a real-life Quasimodo, a "humpbacked [stone] carver" who worked at Notre Dame during the 1820s.[9] The evidence is contained in the memoirs of Henry Sibson, a 19th-century British sculptor who worked at Notre Dame at around the same time Hugo wrote the novel.[9] Sibson describes a humpbacked stonemason working there: "He was the carver under the Government sculptor whose name I forget as I had no intercourse with him, all that I know is that he was humpbacked and he did not like to mix with carvers."[9] Because Victor Hugo had close links with the restoration of the cathedral, it is likely that he was aware of the unnamed "humpbacked carver" nicknamed "Le Bossu" (French for "The Hunchback"), who oversaw "Monsieur Trajin".[9] Adrian Glew also uncovered that both the hunchback and Hugo were living in the same town of Saint Germain-des-Prés in 1833, and in early drafts of Les Misérables, Hugo named the main character "Jean Trajin" (the same name as the unnamed hunchbacked carver's employee), but later changed it to "Jean Valjean".[9]
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame is a French Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. The title refers to the Notre-Dame Cathedral, which features prominently throughout the novel. It focuses on the unfortunate story of Quasimodo, the Roma street dancer Esmeralda and Quasimodo's guardian, the Archdeacon Claude Frollo, in 15th-century Paris. All its elements—the Renaissance setting, impossible love affairs, and marginalized characters—make the work a model of the literary themes of Romanticism.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1996 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is loosely based on the 1831 novel of the same name by Victor Hugo. The film was directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise and produced by Don Hahn, from a screenplay written by Tab Murphy, Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts, and the writing team of Bob Tzudiker and Noni White. Featuring the voices of Tom Hulce, Demi Moore, Tony Jay, and Kevin Kline, the film follows Quasimodo, the deformed and confined bell-ringer of Notre Dame, and his yearning to explore the outside world and be accepted by society, against the wishes of his cruel, puritanical foster father Claude Frollo, who also wants to exterminate Paris' Roma population.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1939 American romantic drama film starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara. Directed by William Dieterle and produced by Pandro S. Berman, the film is based on Victor Hugo's 1831 novel. The film is also noted for being the first film ever shown at the Cannes Film Festival before the rest of the festival was cancelled due to the start of World War II.
Clopin Trouillefou is a fictional character first created in the 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by French author Victor Hugo, and subsequently adapted.
Pierre Gringore was a popular poet and playwright during the Renaissance in France.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1923 American drama film starring Lon Chaney, directed by Wallace Worsley, and produced by Carl Laemmle and Irving Thalberg. The supporting cast includes Patsy Ruth Miller, Norman Kerry, Nigel de Brulier, and Brandon Hurst. Distributed by Universal Pictures, the film was the studio's "Super Jewel" of 1923 and was their most successful silent film, grossing $3.5 million. The film premiered on September 2, 1923, at the Astor Theatre in New York, New York, then went into release on September 6.
Claude Frollo is a fictional Christian clergyman and the primary antagonist of Victor Hugo's 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. He is also an alchemist, Renaissance humanist, and intellectual. In his decision to choose a Roman Catholic priest as the primary villain of his novel, Hugo was very much under the influence of the anti-religious currents of the Enlightenment.
Notre-Dame de Paris is a sung-through French musical which debuted on 16 September 1998 in Paris. It is based upon the novel Notre-Dame de Paris by the French novelist Victor Hugo. The music was composed by Riccardo Cocciante and the lyrics are by Luc Plamondon.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1956 French-Italian CinemaScope film version of Victor Hugo's 1831 novel, directed by Jean Delannoy and produced by Raymond Hakim and Robert Hakim. It stars American actor Anthony Quinn and Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida. The film is the first version of the novel to be made in color.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame II is a 2002 American animated musical film directed by Bradley Raymond. It is a direct-to-video sequel to Disney's 1996 animated feature film The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The film was produced by the Japanese office of Walt Disney Animation and Walt Disney Television Animation, while it was distributed by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. Much of the actors from the original film reprise their roles, with the addition of new characters played by Jennifer Love Hewitt, Michael McKean and Haley Joel Osment. Critical reception was mostly negative.
Esmeralda, born Agnès, is a fictional character in Victor Hugo's 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. She is a French Roma girl. She constantly attracts men with her seductive dances, and is rarely seen without her clever goat Djali. She is around 16 years old and has a kind and generous heart.
CapitainePhœbus de Châteaupers is a fictional character and the secondary antagonist of Victor Hugo's 1831 novel, Notre-Dame de Paris. He is the Captain of the King Louis XI's Archers. His name comes from Phoebus, the Greek god of the sun.
Judge Claude Frollo is a fictional character and the main antagonist of Disney's 34th animated film, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996). He was based on Archdeacon Claude Frollo from Victor Hugo's 1831 novel.
The Hunchback is a 1997 made-for-television romantic drama film based on Victor Hugo's iconic 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, directed by Peter Medak and produced by Stephane Reichel. It stars Richard Harris as Claude Frollo, Salma Hayek as Esmeralda and Mandy Patinkin as Quasimodo, the titular hunchback of Notre Dame. The film premiered on March 16, 1997, on TNT.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame was a 1911 French film d'art silent film directed by Albert Capellani and produced by Pathé Frères. It was released under the name Notre-Dame de Paris. It starred Henry Krauss and Stacia Napierkowska. The film was based on the 1831 Victor Hugo novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Considering the film's brief running time, critic Christopher Workman considered it "remarkably faithful to its source material" but it "contains no discernible humor, unlike most other horror films of the period, and thus represents a bellwether of sorts for the genre....(Henry Krauss as Quasimodo) "looks remarkably like Charles Ogle in (Thomas) Edison's 1910 Frankenstein."
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a British feature length adaptation of the 1831 novel by Victor Hugo, produced for television by the BBC in 1976 and aired on December 30 the same year. Directed by Alan Cooke and written by Robert Muller, the film stars Kenneth Haigh as Claude Frollo, Warren Clarke as Quasimodo and Michelle Newell as Esmeralda, and features the visual effects by Ian Scoones and the original music by Wilfred Josephs.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1986 Australian/American fantasy animated film and an adaptation of the 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo.
La Esmeralda is a grand opera in four acts composed by Louise Bertin. The libretto was written by Victor Hugo, who had adapted it from his 1831 novel Notre-Dame de Paris. The opera premiered at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique in Paris on 14 November 1836 with Cornélie Falcon in the title role. Despite the lavish production, the premiere was a failure, and La Esmeralda proved to be the last opera composed by Bertin, although she lived for another 40 years.
Esmeralda is an opera in four acts composed by Arthur Goring Thomas to an English-language libretto by Theo Marzials and Alberto Randegger based on Victor Hugo's 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. It premiered in London on 26 March 1883 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane with Georgina Burns in the title role and Barton McGuckin as her lover, Phoebus.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a Disney media franchise, commencing in 1996 with the release of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The franchise is based on the 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo.
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