Notre-Dame de Paris is a novel written by the French writer Victor Hugo and first published on January 14, 1831. The story is set in Notre Dame de Paris in 1482, and the story revolves around a gypsy girl (La Esmeralda) and the hunchbacked bell ringer of Notre Dame who was raised by the archdeacon (Claude Forroneau). (Quasimodo). This story has been adapted into movies, TV series and musicals many times.
Story outline
On April Fool's Day in Paris in 1482, Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre Dame, was elected as the King of Fools because he was the ugliest-looking person in Paris. He was elected to the throne by the crowd and paraded throughout the city. Gringoire was a poor poet who launched a religious satire on April Fool's Day, but the audience only watched the parade and not his play. In order to get food, the penniless Gringoire followed a Gypsy street dancer, La Esmeralda, and was fascinated by her beauty. But when she turned a corner, she was suddenly attacked by Quasimodo and Frollo, the vice-president of Notre Dame. Gringoire tries to save her but is knocked down by Quasimodo, while Frollo escapes. Phoebus, captain of the royal archery team, arrived in time and captured Quasimodo. Later that night, a gang of beggars and thieves prepare to hang Gringoire, but Gringoire is saved when Esmeralda appears and offers him a four-year "marriage." Une larme pour une goutte d'eau ?
The next day, Quasimodo was pushed to court and later sentenced to two hours of torture in the Place de Gebre. He was tortured on the gallows, laughed at by the crowd, and was humiliated both physically and mentally. He begs for a drink of water, but is ignored until Esmeralda steps forward and gives him some water. Baggett, a reclusive nun nearby, sees this and screams that Esmeralda is a gypsy thief, blaming her for her daughter's kidnapping fifteen years ago.
Two months later, Esmeralda was walking on the street when she was discovered by Flech Gondrosier and her friends from the balcony. Froeh (hereinafter referred to as Sayuri) is a noble lady and Phoebus's fiancée. She is jealous of Esmeralda's beauty and pretends not to see her, but her friend calls Esmeralda in. When Esmeralda stepped into the room, the aristocratic ladies were immediately dwarfed. Although they are also beautiful, they are not as beautiful as Esmeralda. The aristocratic ladies realized that Esmeralda was more beautiful than other beauties, so they turned to ridicule her clothes. Phoebus tries to make Esmeralda feel better, but Sayuri takes her bag and opens it, falling out several wooden boards with letters written on them. Spelled "Phoebus". Sayuri realizes she has a love rival and thinks Esmeralda is a witch. After Esmeralda leaves, Phoebus follows her.
Later that month, Esmeralda met with Phoebus and confessed her love to him. Phoebus took the opportunity to kiss her and pretended that he loved her too. Phoebus has no intention of marrying her, which makes Esmeralda sad. Phoebus pretends to be sad and says that Esmeralda will no longer love him, and Esmeralda says that she truly loves him and is willing to do anything for him. Phoebus began to undress her and kiss her again. Frollo, who had been watching them from behind the door, burst into the room jealously, stabbed Phoebus and escaped. When Esmeralda wakes up from a coma, she discovers that she was charged with murder, and due to some misunderstanding, the jury thought Phoebus was dead. Esmeralda claimed that she was innocent, but was tortured to extract a confession. Her feet were locked in iron boots tighter and tighter. Unable to bear the severe pain, she confessed that she was the murderer of Phoebus. The court sentenced her to death for murder and witchcraft (the court had seen the spelling tricks of Gary the Lamb), and Esmeralda was locked in a single cell. Frollo came to visit her, but she hid in a corner. Frollo tells Esmeralda of his deep desire for her and gives her an ultimatum: give her to him or die. Esmeralda rejected him. Frollo became mad and left the city.
The next day, a few minutes before Esmeralda was to be hanged, Quasimodo dramatically came from Notre Dame, took Esmeralda away, and shouted "Sanctuary" as he ran back to Notre Dame (someone said: The version is translated as "Holy Land" because according to the law at the time, judges had no right to enter the church and arrest people) (sanctuary).
When Esmeralda stayed at Notre Dame, she slowly became friends with Quasimodo and saw beyond his deformed appearance to his heart. Quasimodo gave her a high-pitched whistle, one of the things he could hear, and told her to use it if she needed his help. One day Esmeralda found Phoebus walking past Notre Dame. She asked Quasimodo to follow Phoebus, but Quasimodo saw Phoebus leaving his fiancée's house. Quasimodo tells Phoebus that Esmeralda is still alive, but Phoebus believes Esmeralda is dead and tells Quasimodo to go away. Quasimodo returned and said he could not find Phoebus. Esmeralda and Quasimodo lived a peaceful life for a few weeks, but Frollo suddenly came back and was furious to see Esmeralda and Quasimodo getting along well. He hid secretly from them, and Frollo spent several days hiding in his cell to plan his next move. One night, he used the master key to open Esmeralda's room. When Esmeralda wakes up, Frollo presses her with his body and wants to rape her. She is extremely frightened. Unable to resist Frollo, Esmeralda took out her whistle and blew it as hard as she could. By the time Frollo realized what she was doing, Quasimodo had picked him up, flung him against the wall, and beat him with enough force to kill him. When Quasimodo was about to beat him to death, Frollo staggered into the moonlight streaming in from the window. Quasimodo is shocked to find that it was he who attacked Esmeralda. Frollo was extremely angry, and before leaving Notre Dame, he told Esmeralda that if he couldn't get her, neither could anyone else.
Froneau found Gringoire and lied to him, saying that the Parliament would order soldiers to forcefully enter Notre Dame and take away Esmeralda. Believing that he can save Esmeralda, Gringoire hatches a plan with Frollo. One night, Gringoire leads the Parisian gypsies to Notre Dame to rescue Esmeralda. Quasimodo thought they were going to capture Esmeralda, so he used Notre Dame's defenses to fight back against the gypsies. When the king's advisors see the fighting at Notre Dame, the council votes to remove Esmeralda from the sanctuary. At the same time, Quasimodo discovered that he was about to win, but the Royal Archery Team came to Notre Dame to help. Archers cleared the streets of gypsies. Quasimodo ran to Esmeralda's room to find her, but was horrified to find that she had disappeared.
During the attack, Gringoire and a stranger in a cloak sneak into Notre Dame to find Esmeralda, trying to steal her away. (Esmeralda hears the sound of the attack and is afraid that the soldiers will take her away.) When Gringoire says that he will save her, Esmeralda agrees to leave with the two. They rowed to the Seine in a small boat, and when Esmeralda heard people repeatedly saying that she was going to die, she fainted. When she woke up, she found that Gringoire had gone, and the stranger was Frollo. Frollo gave her another chance to choose: stay with him or hand her over to the soldiers. Esmeralda chooses to be executed. Frollo became angry and threw her to Sister Baggett. Baggett hated gypsies, and before the soldiers arrived, she held Esmeralda tightly. The moment the soldiers arrived, they discovered that Esmeralda was Baggett's lost child, but it was too late, and Esmeralda had no time to escape. Baggett followed the guards to the gallows, kicking and biting him along the way. A guard pushed her away, causing a head injury and her death.
In Notre Dame, Quasimodo is still frantically looking for Esmeralda. He walked to the top of the north tower, where he found Forono. He saw Frollo's crazy face, and Quasimodo followed his gaze and saw Esmeralda in a white dress on the gallows. In a fit of rage, Quasimodo threw Frollo from Notre Dame.
When he saw the hanging of La Esmeralda and the remains of Forono, Quasimodo shouted: "There is everything I ever loved!" (There is everything I ever loved!) From then on, Quasimodo shouted Mordo never appeared again.
Main characters
* Pierre Gringoire: a poor troubadour. Stumbled into Miracle Street, a secret lair of gypsies. To prevent him from telling the truth, Gringoire was either hanged or married to a gypsy. Although Esmeralda did not love him and thought he was a coward rather than a real man (because unlike Phoebus, he could not save her from Quasimodo), she married him out of sympathy. , but she refused Gringoire to touch her, and the two became a couple in name only. Later, he went to rescue Esmeralda with the gypsies, and took over as the Beggar King after Clobbin died.
* La Esmeralda: a gypsy dancer. She started out as an entertainer, but later came to be viewed as a witch and murderer. Both Quasimodo and Frollo fell in love with her, but she fell in love with Phoebus, the captain of the royal archery team.
* Djali: Esmeralda’s pet sheep. The tricks it performs lead people to believe that Esmeralda is a witch. It can spell the letters into "Phoebus" and beat the time to tell people the month and time.
* Clopin Trouillefou: The Beggar King of Miracle Street. Esmeralda died fighting to save her after being imprisoned.
* Quasimodo: The abandoned baby adopted by Knod. One-eyed, hunchbacked, with a speech impediment, he grew up in Notre Dame and was responsible for ringing the bells. He also fell in love with Esmeralda. When she was executed, he wanted to save her, but was a step too late.
* Claude Frollo: The director of Notre Dame. He became obsessed with Esmeralda when he saw her dancing. In order to retaliate, he falsely accused her of being a witch and trapped her in Unjust.
* Phoebus Ch?teaupers: A knight who was originally engaged to his girlfriend Fleur-de-lys, but fell in love with Esmeralda immediately after seeing her. she.
Evaluation of the novel
In the star-studded French literary world of the 19th century, Victor Hugo can be said to be the brightest star. He is a great poet, well-known playwright, novelist, and the standard-bearer and leader of the French Romantic literary movement. This great work "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" is his first romantic novel that caused a sensation. Its literary value and profound social significance make it still popular after nearly two centuries. Today it has been reprinted and reprinted over and over again, and has come into our hands.
While reading this book, I can feel the strong "contrast between beauty and ugliness". The characters and events in the book, even if they originate from real life, have been greatly exaggerated and intensified. Under the author's strong ink and color, they constitute a gorgeous and strange picture, forming a sharp and even incredible story of kindness and kindness. The contrast between evil, beauty and ugliness.
Bohemian girl Esmeralda is the darling of Parisian homeless people and makes a living by performing on the streets. She is innocent, compassionate and willing to help people. Because she couldn't bear to see an innocent man executed, she accepted the poet Gringoire as her nominal husband to save his life; when she saw Quasimodo being flogged under the scorching sun, only she would sympathize with him and bring him water. to the lips of the bell-ringer who cries out of thirst. Such a noble-hearted girl was slandered as a "witch" and a "murderer" by the church and the court, and was sentenced to hanging. It highlighted the irresponsibility of the church and courts at that time, and used false accusations to calm the people's anger. The author portrays the character of Esmeralda as the embodiment of beauty and kindness, completely unifying her inner beauty with her external beauty, so as to arouse readers' infinite sympathy for her, thus generating strong resentment against the feudal church and royal power. .
As for the Archdeacon Claude and the bell-ringer Quasimodo, these are two completely opposite images. On the surface, Claude is sanctimonious and lives a life of austere and ascetic practice, but in his heart he longs for sexual pleasure and is full of envy of worldly enjoyment. He is selfish, insidious, and unscrupulous. And Quasimodo, this hunchbacked, one-eyed, deaf and lame deformed man, has been discriminated against and bullied by the world since he was a child. It was with Esmeralda that he experienced the warmth of people's hearts for the first time. This weirdo with a vulgar and savage appearance has since then placed all his life and passion on Esmeralda, and can go through fire and water for her. Sacrificing everything for her happiness.
This extreme contrast between beauty and ugliness, the absolute opposition between nobility and evil, gives the novel a shocking power that can sweep away all our thoughts and emotions. This may be the charm of romantic novels.
In "Notre Dame de Paris", the author describes the lowest class people, vagrants and beggars in Paris with great sympathy. Their clothes are ragged and their manners are rough, but they possess virtues that far exceed those of people in the so-called educated and civilized world: mutual help and friendship, integrity, courage and self-sacrifice. In the novel, the scene in which the homeless people in Paris attack Notre Dame to save Esmeralda is tragic, intense, generous and thrilling. It highlights the solidarity and mutual help of homeless people.
As a milestone in romantic literature, one of the most obvious signs of this novel is Hugo's sharp contrast between good and evil, beauty and ugliness. But this kind of contrast is not based on the traditional way of focusing on two different types of characters, beauty and goodness, ugliness and evil, or avoiding the ugly side at all, but letting them intersect with each other: what is beautiful on the outside may not necessarily be beautiful on the inside. Kind; what is ugly on the outside may not be unbeautiful or unkind on the inside.
Notre Dame de Paris, majestic and majestic, with its immortal wisdom, has silently watched the rolling river and all living beings during its more than 800 years of existence. It has been a witness to many human tragedies and human comedies! In Hugo's novel, it seems to have the breath of life, protecting Esmeralda, confirming Claude's crime, lamenting the heroic sacrifice of all heroes trying to fight the dark rule, and praising Quasimo This "insignificant particle of dust" trampled all the wolves, tigers, leopards, and all executioners under its feet; it even became one with Quasimodo, being both the master of the deformed man's soul and his monstrous body. reliance. Under Hugo's wonderful pen, it comes alive. At the same time, it also adds to the glory of the great writer with the symphony of fate that it inscribes, records and performs majestically. The beautiful Notre Dame de Paris is a treasure of Gothic architectural art. As early as his boyhood, Hugo had a strong interest in architectural art, especially Gothic architectural art. As a young man, he made at least three years of preparation to become familiar with medieval French society, especially visiting Notre Dame Cathedral many times. At the same time, he read extensively about relevant materials and mastered all the mysteries of this building that the French were proud of, so that he could start writing the manuscript in July 1830. He pretended to be in a dark corner of one of the two towering bell towers and found a Greek word carved by a medieval figure on the wall: Destiny! It is said that this is the destiny that controls mankind. In fact, it is the dark power that controls all people in that ignorant era, that is, the devil. Its omnipresent meaning of fate deeply moved the author. Indeed, the book "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" was written to describe the word "fate". What the great humanitarian Hugo sought was the true meaning of fate. Whether it is Claude or Quasimodo, in the final analysis they are social beings, and their inner divisions and conflicts reflect the huge and heavy dark system and struggle between theocracy and human rights, ignorance and the pursuit of knowledge in their time. The divisions and conflicts between fragile individuals finally led to the tragic ending in which all characters in the tragedy were sacrificed. The destiny we see in this masterpiece is to exert its sweeping power in a specific environment, that is, the capital of France in the Middle Ages, a society where ignorance, superstition, and barbaric rule were rampant.
"Notre Dame de Paris" is a masterpiece of romanticism, precisely because the author strives to conform to the original appearance of nature and depict the real life of French society in the Middle Ages. With excellent techniques and romantic form, based on the development of the touching plot, it is condensed and refined in this film. Their vivid features and rich connotations are presented in the masterpieces, winning another victory for romanticism to break the rigid model of classicism after "Ainani". This is an angry and tragic symphony of fate.
Work Appreciation and Work Thoughts
Among Victor Hugo's numerous works, the novel "Notre Dame de Paris" occupies a very important position. It established Hugo's lofty status as a world-famous novelist.
The novel is set in Paris during the Louis XI era in the 15th century. At the beginning of the work, the Parisian crowd enthusiastically celebrates April Fools' Day and Epiphany. People held up torches, played instruments that made strange sounds, and carried the newly selected "King of Fools" - the bell ringer of Notre Dame and the ugly Quasimodo for fun. At this time, the gypsy girl Esmeralda came, leading the little goat to dance a beautiful and moving exotic dance. Amidst the bursts of warm cheers, there were mixed the gloomy voices of Archdeacon Rosen and Father Claude of Notre Dame de Paris: "There is evil here!" "This is sacrilegious!" But he defended Ace Fascinated by Meralda's beauty, she tries to take advantage of her. So he ordered his adopted son, Quasimodo, the bell ringer of Notre Dame, to block the road and kidnap him at night. The girl shouted for help and was rescued by Phoebus, the captain of the royal guard. She fell in love with this handsome-looking officer at first sight. After being arrested, Quasimodo was sentenced to be whipped in public. He was hot, thirsty and in pain under the scorching sun, shouting for water. The citizens retaliated with abuse and teasing, but Esmeralda repaid evil with kindness and gave him water, which moved the poor bell-ringer to tears for the first time in his life.
Soon, Garrod discovered that Esmeralda had another love, and turned his love into hatred. He hid in the hotel where the girl and Phoebus had a tryst, waiting for an opportunity to stab his love rival Phoebus, and colluded with him. In court, Esmeralda was falsely accused of colluding with the demon monk to use magic to murder the officer. She surrendered and was sentenced to hanging. On the day of execution, Quasimodo punched the executioner and carried the gypsy girl into the "sacred place" where the military and police could not just enter and arrest people - Notre Dame Cathedral for protection. King Louis XI decided to send troops to capture her and ordered her to be hanged within three days. After hearing the news, homeless people and beggars in Paris besieged Notre Dame at night to rescue their sisters. Taking advantage of the chaos, Claude used a trick to kidnap Esmeralda, brought her to the gallows, and forced her to make a choice: either go to the gallows, or submit to him. When Claude refused, he handed her over to the pursuing officers and soldiers, then returned to the top floor of Notre Dame and gave a devilish smile to Esmeralda with a noose around her neck. Quasimodo was so indignant that he pushed him down from the attic and threw him to death. He also rushed to the grave and died holding the body of the gypsy girl.
Through the tragic experience of the heroine Esmeralda, the novel angrily exposes the darkness of the feudal church and the cruelty of the autocratic regime; condemns the hypocrisy and cruelty of priests, judges, and kings; and praises the lower class civilians. Integrity, kindness and rebellious spirit.
Garrod, the vice-president of Notre Dame de Paris, is a sanctimonious and well-dressed hypocrite with a dirty soul and as poisonous as a snake or scorpion. On the surface, he believes in religion, is stoic, stays away from women, and despises all material enjoyment and pleasure in life. But deep down, he is selfish, greedy, insidious, and cold-blooded. He appeared like a ghost inside and outside Notre Dame, deliberately plotting to maintain religious order and suppress people's resistance. On the one hand, he cursed the gypsy woman for being obscene and degenerate, but on the other hand, he was obsessed with lust and tried to occupy Esmeralda. To this end, he used all kinds of despicable tricks: sending people to kidnap him, assassinating his love rival, and framing the girl. In prison, in Notre Dame, and in front of the gallows, they were either threatened with death or tempted with tears and sweet words. When both soft and hard tactics failed, he viciously colluded with the government to execute the kind girl. He who harms others will harm himself. Garrod's fate of being shattered into pieces shows the author's deep hatred for this representative figure of the church.
The novel gives an exquisite description of the style of Paris in the Middle Ages, especially the majestic Notre Dame, pointing out that it was the heart of Paris in the Middle Ages, a symbol of the authority of the feudal state, and the convergence point of all contradictions in the plot. The author also uses anthropomorphic techniques to treat the reliefs of humans and animals and the emperor's shrines in Notre Dame as witnesses to the vicissitudes of the world, adding to the romantic atmosphere of the novel.
About the aesthetic reflection reflected in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame".
First of all, the author did not observe from a secular perspective, but calmly thought about beauty and ugliness from a specific artistic perspective. Of the four characters created in the article, Esmeralda, Quasimodo, Vice-Bishop Garrod, and the young officer, the author first puts forward the traditional beauty, which is the beauty of Esmeralda. This is a woman who looks like a fairy, and everyone is attracted by her. What's more important is that she has an extremely pure and beautiful heart. This beauty is reflected in the inner value. The author arranged a goat as a foil. But it is precisely because of the beauty of the girl Esmeralda that she attracted the attention of three people, one was a young officer, one was a priest, and the other was Quasimodo. The first is the young officer, who is a typical example of the same ugliness as the rest of us. He is clean on the outside, but so ugly on the inside. Even though he has a fiancée, when he sees Esmeralda, he still cannot withstand the desire in his heart. Deceive, seduce, and try to possess Esmeralda. The second one is Garrod, who wears a holy coat, but inside is wrapped in an incomparably ugly heart. He threatened, framed, etc. Esmeralda. The third person is Quasimodo. His appearance is so terrifying that everyone calls him a beast, but it is precisely because this beast contains a holy and pure heart. The specific manifestations are: first, his fatherly love for the priest, secondly, his love for Esmeralda, and then his devout love for his profession or God (he rings the church bell every day), all of which are highlighted. of his extremely noble soul.
This is the rethinking of beauty caused by a perfect woman. The death of Esmeralda and Quasimodo is arranged at the end of the story, which proves that the thought the author wants to convey is a deep thinking and reflection on the beauty of the world, and that Quasimodo removes the priest from Notre Dame de Paris. Throw it down upstairs, this is where the inherent virtue and value lies. This novel has influenced one generation after another. The reason is that as the world changes, there will always be different aesthetics and value orientations, and there will always be different values ??of beauty, but beauty always comes from the inner beauty of human beings. Such beauty is not only Thinking about life, but also thinking about the meaning of life and everything in the world.