Quasimodo

Quasimodo is a fictional character in the novel Notre Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) (1831) by Victor Hugo.

In the novel

Quasimodo and Esmeralda

Quasimodo was born with physical deformities, which Hugo describes as a huge wart that covers his left eye and a severely hunched back. He is found abandoned in Notre Dame (on the foundlings' bed, where orphans and unwanted children are left to public charity) on a Quasimodo Sunday, the first Sunday after Easter, by the archdeacon Claude Frollo, 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.

Looked upon by the general populace of Paris as a monster, Quasimodo later falls in love with the beautiful Gypsy girl Esmeralda and rescues her when she is entangled in an attempted murder. However, Quasimodo is never loved by Esmeralda, the main theme of the book being the cruelty of social injustice; although she recognizes his kindness toward her, she is nonetheless terrified of him, however unfairly. (In the 1982 made-for-television film of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, she kisses him goodbye at the end; something that does not occur in either the book, nor any other film version of the novel.) Quasimodo murders his former benefactor, Frollo, who has sealed Esmeralda's doom in hopes of quelling his lust for her. He later goes to the mass grave where the bodies of the condemned are dumped and dies clutching Esmeralda's body; years later, their skeletons are found intertwined.

Quasimodo's name can be considered a pun. Frollo finds him on the cathedral's doorsteps on Quasimodo Sunday and names him after the holiday, the Latin, quasimodo, meaning "almost like". Possibly Hugo hoped to subtly evoke a visceral reaction from readers that the hunchback was "almost like" a human being.

In the novel, he symbolically shows Esmeralda the difference between himself and the handsome yet superficial Captain Phoebus with whom the girl is 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.^[1]

A small sculpture of Quasimodo can be found on Notre Dame, on the exterior of the north transept along the Rue de Cloître Notre Dame.

Adaptations

Many film adaptations of The Hunchback of Notre Dame have been made, which take various degrees of liberty with the novel. Among the actors who have played him over the years are:

In the Disney film

Quasimodo also stars in Disney's version of the story, where he is a very different character than in the novel. He is not one-eyed or deaf, is capable of fluent sppech, and longs to live in the world outside the belltower. He comes from a family of gypsies, like in the novel, but in a dramatic change, his mother doesn't abandon him, but she is rather killed by Frollo. Quasimodo in this version is kind-hearted, not frightening, and is, at first, loyal to Frollo, but becomes rebellious after encouragement from his gargoyle friends and Captain Phoebus. Soon, he discovers from Esmeralda that the world isn't as dark and cruel a place as Frollo makes it out to be. Quasimodo soon realizes that Frollo is evil, and does not consider him a fatherly figure, like in the novel. In a corresponding change, when Frollo dies at the film's climax, Quasimodo does not show any sorrow. In a drastically different ending, Quasimodo remains alive at the end of the film, and is finally accepted into society. Quasimodo was voiced by Tom Hulce and animated by James Baxter.

Other Appearances

He reappears in Disney's sequel film The Hunchback of Notre Dame II, where he finds a love interest, a circus girl named Madellaine. He also made some occasional appearances on the Disney Channel series, House of Mouse. At one point, Jiminy Cricket, when giving advice to the guests, consolled him by saying that some people find someone special and some people don't, poking fun at the fact that Quasimodo and Esmeralda didn't fall in love at the end of the original film. Quasimodo is also a very rare meetable character at Walt Disney World Resort.

References and notes

v • d • e The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo Characters Esmeralda • Claude Frollo • Quasimodo • Captain Phoebus • Clopin Trouillefou • Pierre Gringore • Madellaine Films Esmeralda (1905) • The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1911) • The Darling of Paris (1917) • The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1922) • The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) • The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) • Notre Dame de Paris (1956) • The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1966) • The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1977) • The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1982) • The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1986) • Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) • The Hunchback (1997) • Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame II (2002) Other Adaptations La Esmeralda (1844 ballet) • Notre Dame de Paris (1998 musical) • Der Glöckner von Notre Dame (1999 musical)