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Who are Quasimodo and Esmeralda in Notre-Dame de Paris?
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Victor Hugo
French poet, novelist, and dramatist Victor Hugo, photograph by Nadar (Gaspard-Félix Tournachon). Hugo's best-loved works are the novels Notre-Dame de Paris (1831; The Hunchback of Notre-Dame) and Les Misérables (1862).
In Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Quasimodo and Esmeralda are central figures whose lives intersect within 15th-century Paris.
- Quasimodo is the novel’s protagonist, a deaf and physically deformed man who serves as the bell ringer of Notre-Dame Cathedral. Though often perceived by society as a monster, he is defined by his courageous heart and his deep, unrequited love for Esmeralda, whom he attempts to protect from harm.12
- Esmeralda is a beautiful dancer who lives among the Roma. Although she is treated as an exotic outsider and falsely accused of witchcraft, she is actually a kidnapped child named Agnès. Her tragic fate is sealed by the jealousy of others, including the archdeacon Dom Claude Frollo, leading to her execution despite Quasimodo’s efforts to save her.2
Hugo uses these characters to condemn a society that marginalizes the vulnerable, ultimately suggesting that the true monsters of the story are those who abuse their power, rather than those who are merely perceived as different.2