Essay/Term paper: The hunchback of notre-dame

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Book Reports

In this novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831), Victor

Hugo talks about the life of his characters in the city of Paris.

This story takes place in the late-fourteenth century. With

inequality all around it was hard for a person to gain respect

without good looks or social status. In this paper I will

mainly discuss the story of Quasimodoe Esmeralda, and

their struggle in this story Quasimodoe`s mother was a

gypsy. She could not take care of him any longer so she left

him in front of a church. Gypsies were not liked at this time,

but the church was highly respected. Being it that

Quasimodo`s mom had left him on front steps of the church

the king could do almost nothing. Quasimodoe could not

leave the church due to the fact that he was deformed and

ugly. Quasimodo grew very lonely and bored up in that bell

tower all by him self. He was looking down one day and set

eyes upon a young woman named Esmerelda. On the day of

fools Quasimodo saw this young lady and decided to go do!

wn and take a closer look at this woman. It was a holiday,

feast of fools, when he decided to go down. When the

people saw him they were horrified. He got whipped and

lectured by his master. Well, to make a long story short

Esmerelda ends up dyeing, and Quaismodo runs away and

is never seen or heard of again. They state that in the end

they find two skeletons lying in each others arms. One the

body of a lady (Esmerelda), and the other the body of a man

who was deformed (Quaismodo). It also states that the

woman was hung, but the man died because he had come

there by himself and died there. There are many examples of

Historical Significance in this book. One of which is the

power of the church. The church mostly controlled

everything back then. My second example is the way that

they talked. They sounded more sophisticated back then. It

states on page 139, "Sunday in the year of my lord 1467."

My third fact is the fact that they didn"t like gypsies back

then. They wanted to kill all of the gypyses. It states in the

end that they end up killing Esmerelda. My fourth fact is the

way that they dressed. My fifth fact is that it states on page

65 that America had not yet been discovered. My sixth fact

is the food that they had back then. It states on pages 98-99

"the next minute, there was on the table a loaf of rye bread,

a slice of bacon, some wrinkled apples, and a jug of beer."

My seventh fact is the jobs that the people had. The mail

characters had jobs like poets, bell ringers, popes, kings,

and so on as it lists the kings servants on page 45. My eighth

statemen! t is the fact that when the people saw Quasimodo

the women had to turn their heads. The transportation was

mostly horses back then. The printing press was a big fear

back then as it states on page 174, "it was the fear of an

ecclesiastic before a new force, the printing press." My ninth

fact is the architecture had back then with all the cathedrals

and what not.(fifth paragraph on page 10) My tenth

statement is the fact that social inequality was a big factor

back then. My eleventh and final fact is that all of this takes

place during the restoration and romanticism and revolution

period (1815-1850) as it states in our world history book.

This book was a very good book. It only had a few

problems. The author used to much detail and that made the

story boring. He would also wander off and start describing

something else more vividly. Victor Hugo should have kept

just on the story of Esmerelda and Quasimodo. The end of

the story was the best part. In all the book was an ok book.

This book was a good novel after all. It was an action and

romance story that mainly consisted of two people,

Quasimodo and Esmerelda. It reminded me of the short

story Beauty and the Beast.