The Hunchback of Notre Dame

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

by

Victor Hugo

Pierre Gringoire is a writer and philosopher and a comic figure throughout the novel. Gringoire is a mildly ambitious man who is commissioned to write a play for the arrival of a Flemish princess in Paris. This play is performed during the “Feast of Fools” and is not popular with the crowd. Gringoire is arrogant and self-aggrandizing and believes that the play’s reception shows that the Parisian public is too stupid to appreciate his art. Gringoire meets and becomes married to Esmeralda after he wanders into the “Court of Miracles,” a notorious den of thieves, and is almost hung as a trespasser. Esmeralda saves Gringoire’s life and agrees to marry him so he will not be killed. Although Gringoire believes he is a great artist, he is oblivious to great beauty and immune to extreme emotions—he prefers all things in moderation. While he is attracted to Esmeralda, who is widely considered to be extremely beautiful, Gringoire prefers Djali, Esmeralda’s pet goat, whom he finds very pretty and endearing. Gringoire ultimately chooses to save Djali, rather than Esmeralda, at the novel’s end and this demonstrates that he is a petty, ignorant man who does not truly appreciate beauty or goodness. Gringoire is also a cowardly figure and is not willing to risk his life to save Esmeralda, even though she saved him from being killed. Although Gringoire generally means well, he is self-interested and likes to lead an easy life. He gives up his artistic career when he realizes that he can make more money as a street performer and he often gives things up as soon as they start to bore him. In this sense, Gringoire is the opposite of characters like Frollo, who grow obsessive about certain things to the point of madness. Although he is an extremely ignoble character and gets Esmeralda and many of the “truants” killed with his thoughtless actions (he organizes a riot against Notre Dame which gets out of hand), Gringoire is one of the only characters in the novel who does not meet a tragic end, which suggests that his approach to life may be somewhat wise after all.

Pierre Gringoire Quotes in The Hunchback of Notre Dame

The The Hunchback of Notre Dame quotes below are all either spoken by Pierre Gringoire or refer to Pierre Gringoire. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Gothic Architecture, History, and Art Theme Icon
).
Book 1, Chapter 2 Quotes

Hanged by the populace for waiting, hanged by the cardinal for not waiting; either way he could see only the abyss, that is a gallows.

Related Characters: Pierre Gringoire, The Cardinal
Page Number: 46
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 1, Chapter 3 Quotes

Gringoire was what today we would call a true eclectic, one of those elevated, steady, moderate, calm spirits who manage always to steer a middle course […] and are full of reason and liberal philosophy, while yet making due allowance for cardinals […] They are to be found, quite unchanging, in every age, that is, ever in conformity with the times.

Related Characters: Esmeralda, Claude Frollo, Pierre Gringoire, The Cardinal
Related Symbols: Notre Dame
Page Number: 53
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 1, Chapter 4 Quotes

We should add that Coppenole was of the people, just as the crowd around him was of the people. Thus the contact between him and it had been prompt, electric and, as it were, on level terms. The Flemish hosier’s haughty quip had humiliated the courtiers and aroused, in all these plebian souls, some sense of dignity as yet, in the fifteenth century, dim and uncertain. This hosier who had just answered the cardinal back was an equal: a sweet thought indeed for poor devils used to showing respect and obedience to the servants of the serjeants of the bailiff of the Abbot of Sainte-Genevive, the cardinal’s train-bearer.

Related Characters: Pierre Gringoire, Jacques Coppenole, The Cardinal
Page Number: 60
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 2, Chapter 3 Quotes

Around her, all eyes were fixed and all mouths agape; and as she danced, to the drumming of the tambourine she held above her head in her two pure, round arms, slender, frail, quick as a wasp, with her golden, unpleated bodice, her billowing, brightly-colored dress, her bare shoulders, her slender legs, uncovered now and again by her skirt, her black hair, her fiery eyes, she was indeed a supernatural creature.

Related Characters: Esmeralda, Pierre Gringoire
Page Number: 82
Explanation and Analysis:

[…] it was lit by the harsh red light of the bonfire, which flickered brightly on the encircling faces of the crowd and on the dark forehead of the girl, while at the far end of the square it cast a pale glimmer, mingled with the swaying of the shadows, on the black and wrinkled old facade of the Maison-aux-Piliers on one side and the stone arms of the gallows on the other.

Related Characters: Esmeralda, Claude Frollo, Pierre Gringoire
Page Number: 83
Explanation and Analysis:

Neither crust nor resting-place; he found necessity crowding in on him from all sides and thought necessity mighty churlish. He had long ago discovered this truth, that Jupiter created man in a fit of misanthropy and that, throughout his life, the sage’s destiny lays siege to his philosophy.

Related Characters: Pierre Gringoire, The Cardinal
Page Number: 85
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 2, Chapter 4 Quotes

Such voluntary abdication of one’s free will, such a subjection of one’s own fancy to that of some unsuspecting other person, has about it a mixture of whimsical independence and blind obedience, a sort of compromise between servitude and freedom which appealed to Gringoire, whose mind was essentially a mixed one, both complex and indecisive, holding gingerly on to all extremes, constantly suspended between all human propensities.

Related Characters: Esmeralda, Pierre Gringoire
Page Number: 90
Explanation and Analysis:

Had Gringoire lived in our own day, how beautifully he would have bisected the Classics and Romantics!

Related Characters: Pierre Gringoire
Page Number: 91
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 2, Chapter 6 Quotes

In this city, the boundaries between races and species seemed to have been abolished, as in a pandemonium. Amongst this population, men, women, animals, age, sex, health, sickness, all seemed communal; everything fitted together, was merged, mingled and superimposed; everyone was part of everything.

Related Characters: Esmeralda, Pierre Gringoire
Page Number: 100-101
Explanation and Analysis:

As you use our kind among you, so we use your kind among us. The law you apply to the truants, the truants apply to you. If it’s a vicious one, that’s your fault. We need now and again to see a respectable face above a hempen collar; it makes the whole thing honorable.

Related Characters: Clopin Trouillefou (speaker), Pierre Gringoire
Page Number: 105
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Hunchback of Notre Dame LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame PDF

Pierre Gringoire Quotes in The Hunchback of Notre Dame

The The Hunchback of Notre Dame quotes below are all either spoken by Pierre Gringoire or refer to Pierre Gringoire. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Gothic Architecture, History, and Art Theme Icon
).
Book 1, Chapter 2 Quotes

Hanged by the populace for waiting, hanged by the cardinal for not waiting; either way he could see only the abyss, that is a gallows.

Related Characters: Pierre Gringoire, The Cardinal
Page Number: 46
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 1, Chapter 3 Quotes

Gringoire was what today we would call a true eclectic, one of those elevated, steady, moderate, calm spirits who manage always to steer a middle course […] and are full of reason and liberal philosophy, while yet making due allowance for cardinals […] They are to be found, quite unchanging, in every age, that is, ever in conformity with the times.

Related Characters: Esmeralda, Claude Frollo, Pierre Gringoire, The Cardinal
Related Symbols: Notre Dame
Page Number: 53
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 1, Chapter 4 Quotes

We should add that Coppenole was of the people, just as the crowd around him was of the people. Thus the contact between him and it had been prompt, electric and, as it were, on level terms. The Flemish hosier’s haughty quip had humiliated the courtiers and aroused, in all these plebian souls, some sense of dignity as yet, in the fifteenth century, dim and uncertain. This hosier who had just answered the cardinal back was an equal: a sweet thought indeed for poor devils used to showing respect and obedience to the servants of the serjeants of the bailiff of the Abbot of Sainte-Genevive, the cardinal’s train-bearer.

Related Characters: Pierre Gringoire, Jacques Coppenole, The Cardinal
Page Number: 60
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 2, Chapter 3 Quotes

Around her, all eyes were fixed and all mouths agape; and as she danced, to the drumming of the tambourine she held above her head in her two pure, round arms, slender, frail, quick as a wasp, with her golden, unpleated bodice, her billowing, brightly-colored dress, her bare shoulders, her slender legs, uncovered now and again by her skirt, her black hair, her fiery eyes, she was indeed a supernatural creature.

Related Characters: Esmeralda, Pierre Gringoire
Page Number: 82
Explanation and Analysis:

[…] it was lit by the harsh red light of the bonfire, which flickered brightly on the encircling faces of the crowd and on the dark forehead of the girl, while at the far end of the square it cast a pale glimmer, mingled with the swaying of the shadows, on the black and wrinkled old facade of the Maison-aux-Piliers on one side and the stone arms of the gallows on the other.

Related Characters: Esmeralda, Claude Frollo, Pierre Gringoire
Page Number: 83
Explanation and Analysis:

Neither crust nor resting-place; he found necessity crowding in on him from all sides and thought necessity mighty churlish. He had long ago discovered this truth, that Jupiter created man in a fit of misanthropy and that, throughout his life, the sage’s destiny lays siege to his philosophy.

Related Characters: Pierre Gringoire, The Cardinal
Page Number: 85
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 2, Chapter 4 Quotes

Such voluntary abdication of one’s free will, such a subjection of one’s own fancy to that of some unsuspecting other person, has about it a mixture of whimsical independence and blind obedience, a sort of compromise between servitude and freedom which appealed to Gringoire, whose mind was essentially a mixed one, both complex and indecisive, holding gingerly on to all extremes, constantly suspended between all human propensities.

Related Characters: Esmeralda, Pierre Gringoire
Page Number: 90
Explanation and Analysis:

Had Gringoire lived in our own day, how beautifully he would have bisected the Classics and Romantics!

Related Characters: Pierre Gringoire
Page Number: 91
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 2, Chapter 6 Quotes

In this city, the boundaries between races and species seemed to have been abolished, as in a pandemonium. Amongst this population, men, women, animals, age, sex, health, sickness, all seemed communal; everything fitted together, was merged, mingled and superimposed; everyone was part of everything.

Related Characters: Esmeralda, Pierre Gringoire
Page Number: 100-101
Explanation and Analysis:

As you use our kind among you, so we use your kind among us. The law you apply to the truants, the truants apply to you. If it’s a vicious one, that’s your fault. We need now and again to see a respectable face above a hempen collar; it makes the whole thing honorable.

Related Characters: Clopin Trouillefou (speaker), Pierre Gringoire
Page Number: 105
Explanation and Analysis: