Victor Hugo - the great French writer - lived a long life, during which he worked very fruitfully and left a great inheritance to his descendants. Throughout his literary career, he wrote many poems and dramatic works. In addition, Victor Hugo is an author of well-known novels "The Man Who Laughs" and "Ninety-third". But his most famous novel is "Notre Dame de Paris".
Hugo continues the traditions of the historical novel, combines historical facts with artistic fiction. The writer depicts pictures of the life of France in the 15th century. But the historical events for V. Hugo become only an occasion for reflection on the current situation in France. The novel was written at the end of the XIX century. At that time, France was disappointed in the ideals of the French bourgeois revolution, and its consequences. Many cultural figures of that time generally were disappointed in the possibility of progress. Hugo turned to the historical period when the Middle Ages ended and the Renaissance began. The writer is interested in changes in the world perception of man, and he feels that in modern France significant changes in the world perception of man are approaching. In these conditions, it is important for him to outline the main aesthetic values. Therefore, the question of good and evil, beautiful and ugly, is sharply posed in the novel.
The novel takes place during the reign of Louis XI (XIV-XV). The action takes place in Paris of the XIV-XV centuries. Hugo opposes it to modern Paris. Those buildings are man-made, and modern Paris is the embodiment of vulgarity, the lack of creative thought and labor. It's a city that loses its face. The center of the novel is a grandiose structure, the cathedral on the Sita Island - Notre Dame Cathedral. The Cathedral is not only the space where the events of the novel take place. It is an equal hero of the novel, like the poet Pierre Gringoire, Esmeralda, Quasimodo, Claude Frollo. According to Christian beliefs, the Mother of God gave her son to torment in order to save humanity. The cathedral in her honor is a tribute to her boundless love for people. In the novel it embodies the idea of goodness, justice and love. The heroes of the novel are connected with the Cathedral: for Quasimodo it is a home, and the Motherland, and the whole world. But the events portrayed by Victor Hugo and the relationship between the heroes are far from Christian. People have neither sympathy nor tolerance, their actions are guided by passions, for which they forget about duty, forget about God. Archdeacon Claude Frollo, obsessed with a passion for Esmeralda, commits a crime. In the preface to the novel, it is said that the author, going to Notre Dame, saw the word "Fate" on the wall. This gave impetus to the unfolding of the plot.
It seems that in the center of the novel is a love story and a characteristic triangle, but it is not important for Hugo. Evolution in the minds of the main characters is important. Claude Frolo is a deacon who regards himself as a true Christian, but allows himself what the church condemns - alchemy. He is a rational man. He is more responsible than passionate. A guardian of a younger brother Jean after the death of his parents. Jean is a student, rampant, dissolute. Frolo takes on the education of a small freak Quasimodo to atone for his brother's sins. Quasimodo lives in the Cathedral and does not know any life other life. He knows the cathedral well, all the alleys, the whole life of employees.
Quasimodo, an ugly hunchback, turns out to be the most humane and capable of high feelings, he is a figure characteristic of Romanticism. He is one in the novel who is capable of loving and doing something not for himself, but for the sake of a loved one. Knowing that he frightened Esmeralda with his appearance, Quasimodo gave her a whistle, so that he could always help her. But his love is so strong that, for her sake, he pushes Claude Frollo from the tower - the one person to whom he was attached. Quasimodo's love is both a passion and an ability to sacrifice oneself without demanding anything in return.
An important role is played by the people. The masses are spontaneous, they are moved by emotions, they are uncontrollable. They are depicted in different episodes. First - the mystery, the feast of fools, competition for the best grimace where Quasimodo is elected by the king. On the cathedral square there is a platform for the mystery and gypsies unfurl their spectacle on the square. The other side is the life of Parisian rabble. Gypsies find refuge there, a poet Gringoire comes there. Esmeralda saves him by marrying him according to the gypsy custom.
Esmeralda is endowed with the best female qualities. She is not only beautiful, but also has a beautiful voice that conveys all the emotional experiences of the girl, her love for the young captain Phoebe de Chateaubert reveals the best qualities, in particular the ability to love gratuitously. Nevertheless, there is no place for love in the world of Phoebe.
Victor Hugo depicts a world in which people are obsessed with passions, a world in which good exists next to evil and no one wants to notice the beautiful. Beauty does not save people, does not make them better, but on the contrary, fuels passions and pushes to commit crimes. And people who are capable of high feelings are threatened by imminent death.
Good and evil are so intertwined that people do not see the difference between them. In the world there is a constant struggle between good and evil. And the good, which turns out to be weak, is doomed to destruction, and the good that comes into force turns into evil.
