The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Book 2, Chapter 7 Summary & Analysis

Gringoire feels that he has experienced several strange twists of fate, which he could neither have predicted nor controlled. Esmeralda aggressively defends herself against Gringoire’s advances and this suggests that she strongly desires control over her own body—something that women were often misogynistically denied in the medieval period.

Gringoire is not a passionate or an amorous man and quickly gives up on his lust for Esmeralda. This reinforces the idea that he avoids extreme emotions and prefers to enjoy things in moderation and remain philosophical about life. All he wanted earlier in the night was food and a place to stay, and now that he has those things, he’s content.

Esmeralda is sexually innocent and, although she is aware of a difference between familial and sexual love, she still believes sexual love can be pure and holy. This is at odds with medieval Christian doctrine, which taught that sex was sinful while non-sexual love was pure. Esmeralda is a gypsy, however, and not a Christian. Still, she believes that purity is a protective or magical force, and that men and women should be married before they have sex, which suggests that these views were pervasive even outside the Church in the medieval period.

Esmeralda is innocent in terms of knowledge, as well as sexual experience. Although she was raised by gypsies, she does not know who her parents are and, therefore, she knows little about her identity. This supports the idea that Esmeralda is pure and saintly because, in the Christian Bible, innocence is associated with goodness and holiness, whereas knowledge is associated with sin.

Gringoire has no specific calling in life—he does not consider himself fated to be anything in particular and, instead, is inclined to see where life takes him. Frollo’s behavior towards Gringoire is generous, and this suggests that Frollo was a charitable man in his youth. Esmeralda’s attraction to Phoebus is symbolic because Esmeralda is drawn to the natural world, which is associated with sunlight. In the medieval period, God was believed to be the source of all light in the world, so Esmeralda’s attraction to Phoebus indicates that, metaphorically, she is on the side of light rather than darkness. She is taken in by Phoebus’s heroic appearance—he is a soldier—and connects him to the idea of a godlike warrior who can protect her. However, it will later become clear that Phoebus isn’t really the beacon of goodness that she imagines him to be.

Esmeralda is clearly used to avoiding unwanted attention and uses the bracelet to distract Gringoire. This suggests that Esmeralda’s beauty causes her to stand out and that she is often persecuted or harassed because of misogynistic attitudes towards women in the medieval period.