Hugo put such a bright image in the dark background of the Middle Ages, describing how the society ruled by despotism and rampant with the power of the church threatened her and persecuted her like a huge net, strangling her by horrible means. She was the darling of the vagabonds and beggars of Paris, but self-supporting and undefiled. She was steadfast in character, willing to die before Claude’s insolence. She thought the world was as pure as her, and she died in passionate love with the heartless Phoebus. When Quasimodo was whipped in the blazing sun and cried out in pain of thirst, she was the only one who sympathized with the hideous bell-ringer who had hijacked her in the middle of the night. When the peddler poet, Granger, strayed late at night into a gathering place for vagabonds and beggars in Paris, and was about to be killed, she came forward and offered to marry him, taking him under her protection, though she did not love him. The heroine Esmeralda is a kind and pure young girl. “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame” is a tragedy in which the good innocent people were tortured and persecuted under the autocratic system. The novel exposes the hypocrisy of religion, declares the bankruptcy of asceticism, praises kindness, love and self-sacrifice of the lower working people, and reflects Hugo’s humanitarian thoughts.

“The Hunchback of Notre-Dame” is a story set in 15th century France with a quirky and contrasting approach.

The hunchback of notre dame book