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Book 2, Chapter 4
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Gothic Architecture, History, and Art
Lust, Sin, and Misogyny
Appearances, Alienation, and Hypocrisy
Fate and Predestination
The Supernatural, Rationalism, and Knowledge
Justice, Punishment, and Freedom
Summary
Analysis
Gringoire lies on the pavement where Quasimodo has thrown him, in front of an effigy of the Virgin Mary. At first, dazed from his fall, he daydreams about Esmeralda. He realizes after a while that he is cold and wet from lying in the gutter and thinks, miserably, that he will have to sleep there for the night. He suddenly remembers that he saw two men attacking Esmeralda and, while he knows one of them was Quasimodo, he is sure that the other was Claude Frollo.
Frollo is an Archdeacon (a high ranking official in the Church) and, therefore, is renowned for his holiness and moral purity. It is strange, therefore, that Gringoire sees him attack a young woman. This incident suggests that, beneath his holy appearance, Frollo may be corrupt and a hypocrite.
Themes
As Gringoire lies in the gutter, a group of children run down the street, dragging a mattress behind them. They have taken the mattress from the house of a blacksmith who has just died. Without seeing Gringoire, the children throw the mattress on top of him and start to set it on fire. Gringoire realizes he is about to go from one extreme to the other—too cold to too hot—and he struggles to escape.
Hugo suggests that human life is full of extremes, both emotional and physical. Gringoire is a very moderate man and tries to avoid most of these. Gringoire is a comic character, however, and this suggests that, while it may be more pleasurable and practical to avoid extremes, extremes are a part of life, and it’s essentially absurd to try and avoid them.
Themes
When Gringoire bursts up from under the mattress, the children take fright and run away: they think it is the ghost of the blacksmith come back to haunt them. The next day, the Church confiscates the mattress and puts it on display. The priest who takes it charges people to visit it and claims that the mattress was the site of a miracle—the Virgin Mary exorcised the spirit of the blacksmith, who hid in the mattress to avoid the devil.
Medieval society is extremely superstitious and belief in the supernatural is common among the characters. Before the invention of the printing press, people did not have easy access to scientific knowledge and many natural occurrences were given supernatural explanations. Hugo suggests that the Church exploits this lack of knowledge—in this case, by charging people to see an ordinary mattress because it is superstitiously believed to be the site of a miracle. Of course, readers know that no miracle occurred; the ghost was just Gringoire standing up.
Themes
