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Esmeralda’s shoe is a symbol of her innocence throughout the novel. Esmeralda was separated from her mother when she was stolen by gypsies as a baby. Her baby shoe is all that she has left to connect her to her parents and she wears it as an amulet, which she considers magical and protective. Esmeralda’s shoe is also associated with her dancing and her lightness on her feet. Before her persecution, Esmeralda is associated with lightness, joy, and freedom, which are symbolized by her profession as a dancer. She is compared to things that fly—a dragonfly, a bird, and a wasp—and this suggests that, like the baby shoe which has never touched the ground, Esmeralda is almost unearthly in her innocence, virtue, and beauty. When Esmeralda’s shoe is taken from her—when she is reunited with her mother, Sister Gudule, at the novel’s end—this represents the end of her innocence and her imminent death, which happens almost immediately after. Throughout the novel, Esmeralda’s shoe represents her attempts to flee from the powers of darkness that pursue her, as well as her desire to be joyful and free.
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Esmeralda’s Shoe Symbol Timeline in The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The timeline below shows where the symbol Esmeralda’s Shoe appears in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book 6, Chapter 3
...for the baby. Among these gifts, Paquette makes her daughter a beautiful pair of pink shoes. She is obsessed with her baby’s pretty little feet and she constantly thanks God for...
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...Rheims, Paquette finds no trace of her daughter—all that is left is one little pink shoe. That night, when Paquette returns from her search, her neighbors tell her that they saw...
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...her hair turns white and she falls to her knees and cries over the little shoe—all that she has left of her baby. Not long after this, she disappears from Rheims...
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...As they look, they realize that the recluse’s eyes are fixed on a tiny pink shoe in the corner of the cell.
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Book 8, Chapter 5
...Paquette la Chantefleurie laments the loss of her daughter and cries over the little pink shoe. The shoe, which once symbolized all the joy that her baby brought her, now torments...
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Book 11, Chapter 1
...in the Place de Grève, Paquette will show her the gallows. Paquette holds a baby’s shoe through the bars and says that this belonged to her baby. Esmeralda cries out and...
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