The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Book 5, Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

Frollo believes that lust is sinful and rejects sexuality to the point where he refuses to even meet a woman. Lust was widely considered to be sinful in the medieval period, so Frollo’s behavior seems, to the medieval populace, to be evidence of his extreme holiness. Frollo and Coictier are both hypocrites: they pretend to like and respect each other, when really they are enemies.

Frollo has gained a reputation as an extremely holy and blessed man because he refuses to have any contact with women. Lust and sexual desires were associated with sin in the medieval period, whereas celibacy was associated with purity and divine rewards, so women themselves were thought to be sinful—a clear sign of the misogyny of the times.

Frollo does not believe in medieval medicine because it is not based on natural science but rather on superstition. Since medieval scholars did not have access to much information about science, they could not make many of the advances in medicine that would develop over the following centuries. Jacques Coictier believes Frollo is mad because he is not superstitious, and this suggests that superstition was considered a rational way to explain the world in the medieval period.

Frollo correctly believes that medicine will improve once people have access to knowledge about the natural world. This increase in knowledge occurred gradually over the following centuries with developments in science and technology. In the meantime, Frollo feels frustrated by the limitations of his own society, which views superstition as common sense because people have no alternative way to understand the world.

Medieval society is highly superstitious and belief in astrology is considered normal and wise in this period. Frollo is ahead of his time, in this sense, as he is not a superstitious man and, instead, prefers to investigate the world scientifically and look for rational ways to explain mysterious events. Frollo’s worldview is more in line with later societies, such as the Enlightenment era, which considered rationalism and scientific discovery to be pinnacles of knowledge. It is implied that Frollo may have lost his faith and that, even though he is a priest, he does not believe in God. Atheism was considered blasphemous in the medieval period and this revelation suggests that Frollo may not be what he appears—his priest’s robe may conceal spiritual doubt.

Frollo’s approach to knowledge is sinful within a medieval context and foreshadows Frollo’s declining moral state as the novel continues. Although Frollo believes that science can reveal truth about the world more effectively than superstition can, Frollo wants to access these truths because he feels this will help him understand God. According to Christian doctrine, this is not something that people are able, or should aspire, to do; the quest for forbidden knowledge is associated with sin and damnation in Christianity.

Medieval alchemists did not have enough knowledge of the natural world to explain the presence of gold underground. Alchemists (who practiced an early form of experimental science) felt that, if they could discover how gold was made, they could explain its presence. This proved impossible, however, and led alchemists to conclude that gold was a divine substance that could only be made by God. Gold is symbolically associated with light because God was believed to be the source of all light (both literal and metaphorical) in the medieval period. The quest to make gold, however, was considered spiritually profane as, according to Christian doctrine, it is sinful for a human to aspire to be like God. Frollo, therefore, although he appears holy, flouts his apparently Christian principles in his search for gold and knowledge.

Books were rare and had to be handwritten in the medieval period. This meant that most people could not read or write. Hugo states here that books are not the only sources of knowledge; buildings are an important source of information about the past, as philosophers and artists who could not write or did not have access to books often expressed their theories and ideas in stone. Frollo predicts that the invention of the printing press, which was invented in 1440 (forty years before the novel takes place) will cause architecture to go into decline because books are cheaper and easier to make than buildings. People will no longer need to express themselves in stone and will do so in books instead.

Frollo has a fatalistic worldview and recognizes that everything in the world—even seemingly great and eternal things—are doomed to decline and decay. This supports Hugo’s thesis that time destroys beautiful buildings and suggests that change is inevitable.