Literary Criticism Analysis

Literary Criticisms

      The criticism by Frank T. Marzials relates to the explanation of my topic because it thoroughly describes the themes and vivid descriptions of Hugo’s writing. He analyzes the type of world that the characters live in which greatly affects their how they life their lives and the morals they believe in. “Victor Hugo’s world in ‘Notre Dame’ is as a world seen in fever-vision, or suddenly illumined by great flashes of lightning. The medieval city is before us in all its picturesque huddle of irregular buildings. We are in it; we see it: the narrow streets with their glooms and gleams, their Rembrandt effects of shadow and light” (Marzials). Because Marzials sees the setting of this novel as very bleak and gloomy, but in a dark and ornate fashion, he discusses the city’s hidden beauty. From afar, Paris at this time may seem like “a horror of darkness and evil deeds” (Marzials), but from within the novel, the audience is able to see how beauty, both visible and unseen, can greatly affect the decisions of an individual.

The critical essay by Scott Yearsley titled “Sexuality In Hugo’s Notre-Dame de Paris” is significant to my explanation because sexuality combines both beauty and desires that affect the life of an individual. For example, Frollo’s intense desires for La Esmerelda, spurred from her beauty, cause Frollo to make rash decisions, which he believes to be caused by fate. In addition, the belief that Quasimodo has no beauty caused him to experience intense feelings toward his bells because he “has never experienced true compassion” (Yearsley). This lack of compassion and a sexual nature affects Quasimodo’s actions, especially around La Esmerelda. He respects and honors her wishes while Frollo invades her privacy. La Esmerelda’s beauty causes different experiences for both characters, thus altering their decisions and thoughts while contrasting them greatly.

The critical approach titled “Book Review - The Classics - The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo ‘What makes a monster and what makes a man?’” greatly influences my explanation because it discusses the time period from which the book was written and how those characteristics affected the novels creation. Hugo believed that “Romanticism, rather than finding itself in the subjects of antiquity, stressed the importance of individual interpretation and the profound marriage of imagination and emotion” (Literary Corner Café). In addition to using these Romantic ideals, Hugo also believed in listening to the past. That is why he chose to set The Hunchback of Notre-Dame in a medieval time period and make Notre-Dame the center of it all. Thus bring into discussion important ideals of the Romantic period such as fate and the effects of beauty.

       The critical essay titled “Victor Hugo 1802–1885” describes Hugo’s early life and the experiences that affected his work. I found this essay to be essential for the explanation of my topic because all of his past experiences are the hindrances and the influences that affected his writing. For example, his work titled Les contemplations is divided into two poems. “‘Autarefois’ celebrates innocence, youth, love, and creation, while ‘Aujourd'hui’ reveals Hugo's grief over the drowning death of his daughter Léopoldine in 1843” (enotes). This example can specifically contribute to the loss of Sister Gedule’s daugher in The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Hugo reflects his own occurrences onto his characters which therefore advance not only how hindrances and influences affect himself, but his characters as well.

      The critical essay by Richard B. Grant is important to my explanation because it talks in depth about the metaphor of the spider and the fly whose subject is prevalent throughout the novel. In The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Claude Frollo has a moment of epiphany where he relates fate, specifically the fate of himself and La Esmerelda, to a spider ensnaring a fly in its web. This metaphor is very important to my explanation because it is one of the main examples of how fate can control one’s life. After all, Grant believes that “the individual fates of the separate characters are all expressed with the same images interlocked in intricate patterns” (Grant). If Frollo hadn’t seen the spider, he might not have made the decisions that he did because he thought fate was controlling his life.