The animation and camerawork used makes the statues appear to be sentiently judging Frollo's actions. At the beginning of the film, Frollo refuses to spare baby Quasimodo's life until he realizes the church's statues of the saints are staring at him. And symbolically, the Cathedral of Notre Dame is hinted to have a personality and force of will all to its own. Hugo, Victor, and Laverne are treated ambiguously throughout the whole movie, so animate gargoyles are plausibly part of the story's setting.
If Quasimodo invented the gargoyles out of his loneliness and isolation, then Frollo losing his mind to the point of having similar hallucinations makes his comeuppance that much more karmic.īy another interpretation, there are reasonable thematic reasons to believe the gargoyle Frollo saw was indeed alive. This is especially because they relate to the parallel discussion of whether Hugo, Victor, and Laverne, Quasimodo's three gargoyle friends, are truly alive or merely Quasimodo's imagination. The gargoyle is alive and passing judgement on Frollo.īoth of these theories tie into the rest of the movie neatly.Since its initial release, the book has gone on to spawn a host of adaptations, though perhaps one of the best known is Disney’s 1996 animated take. Instead, The Hunchback of Notre Dame was actually written to renew interest and respect for French architecture, particularly the enormous Notre Dame cathedral, which Hugo felt was at risk of being forever altered by newer architectural styles. Oddly enough, however, Quasimodo’s difficult life and the subsequent care that Esmeralda showed for him were not at the forefront of Hugo’s intent when he wrote the novel.
Since then, the character of Quasimodo and his devotion to its protagonist Esmeralda has made The Hunchback of Notre Dame one of the most widely known tales of all time. Originally titled Notre Dame de Paris, it wasn’t until 1833 when author Victor Hugo’s tale about the famous Parisian cathedral and its hunchbacked bell ringer Quasimodo was translated into English, officially becoming The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame has risen in popularity after the titular cathedral's fire.
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