The first two volumes because the names of the characters appear long and many, I am a little confused and the story of the twist with the author to describe the long string of scenes interspersed together, a few times put down the book feel uninterested. Two nights ago, before going to bed, I remembered it again, perhaps the tranquility of the middle of the night to give a calm actually slowly read down. After clearing up the story clues and character relationships, I realized that I had flipped to the top.
The story is simply about what happens between a young girl and three men, and through their ways of doing things and their character traits, it is a metaphor for the beauty and ugliness, the good and the bad in the world. The location is always around Notre Dame, Quasimodo, the hunchback who rings the bells in Notre Dame, Claude, the vicar general who adopts Quasimodo, Esmeralda, the gypsy girl who likes to dance in the square below Notre Dame, and Vorbes, the captain of the ship whom Esmeralda loves. Let's sort out the character traits and the relationships between them:
? ♀? Character traits
Gypsy girl Esmeralda: beautiful and charming, daring, righteous and kind, cheerful and affectionate
Carchimodo: ugly on the outside, deaf and mute, hunchbacked and one-eyed, kind-hearted and grateful
Claude. Frollo: a moralist, evil-minded man
Forbes. Captain Chateaupre: Hypocritical. Captain Xanadu Pere: hypocritical and sentimental, cowardly and selfish
? ♂? Relationships
Claude, the Vice-Archbishop of Notre Dame, has the appearance of a serpent and the heart of a snake. He tried to possess the gypsy girl Esmeralda, and after killing, but failing to kill, Esmeralda's beloved captain, Forbes, the plot did not succeed, he tried to kill Esmeralda. The bell-ringer, Carchimodo, is Claude's adopted son, ugly and deaf and dumb on the outside but kind-hearted and usually respectful to the bishop, but after recognizing the bishop's ugly face, he pushes him down from the bell tower. When the vagabonds learn that Esmeralda is about to be tried and imprisoned, they take it upon themselves to rescue her. However, they are eventually suppressed by the king's army and suffer heavy deaths and injuries. Eventually, Carchimodo carries the body of his beloved Esmeralda with him into the cemetery, where their remains are found a few years later.
Looking at a novel with a satirical twist often has to be seen in conjunction with the society, the political and economic culture, in which the author was living at the time. The novel "Notre Dame de Paris" reproduces the historical reality of the reign of King Louis XI more than four hundred years ago, how the court and the Church worked together to oppress the people, and how the people fought bravely with the two forces.
In the novel, the rebel gypsy Esmeralda and the ugly disabled man Caccimodo are presented to the readers as the embodiment of true beauty, whereas what people see in the vice bishop and the noble soldiers is cruelty, emptiness of the heart, and sinful lust. Each character portrayed in the novel represents a class in the society at that time, and through the string of emotional stories to expose the hidden ugliness of the society, vivid and rich dramatic scenes make the novel highly readable, using a sharp contrasting writing technique and strong romanticism.
? There is a detailed description and a plot arrangement in the novel that struck a chord with me. "Although Esmeralda did not see Carchimodo again, she felt that a kind spirit was at her side. An unseen hand brought her new food while she slept. One morning she woke up and saw two vases full of flowers in the window: one was a crystal vase, very beautiful and brightly colored, but it was cracked. The full water had leaked out and the flowers inside had withered; the other was a clay pot, crude and plain, but full of water and the flowers were still bright and red. I do not know whether this was done on purpose, but Esmeralda took up the withered bouquet, and held it to her breast all day long"
The two bottles and the flowers in them represent Forbes and Quasimodo, and the maiden chooses Forbes, the heartless man, from the beginning to the end. The plot of the novel never arranges for Esmeralda and Forbes to meet for a second time after the accident, and the beautiful maiden dies without knowing the character of her beloved, without anyone telling or letting her know that her perseverance is not worth it. I think perhaps that was the last bit of false belief that kept this little person, who had tasted the malice of the world, afloat.
I knew this novel was a tragedy before I read it, and I still felt an overwhelming sense of anger after I finished it. Although this series of things is not only a person's goodness can prevent the result of things happen, is the whole society and class oppression, as well as the invisible wind caused. But one has a choice about goodness, ah, the negative Forbes can still end up married, while two innocent people have to end it all by ending their lives.
Beauty and ugliness, good and evil are always coexisting, in this complex society, but I hope that you and I are in the heart is filled with tenderness and kindness.