Personal Reflection

Beth Luttenberger
Ms. Raleigh
ENG 3UE
11 May 2011

Personal Reflection – The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Overall, I found Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, though very tragic and unfortunate, to be inspiring. This novel, I felt, inspired me to love and appreciate what is in front of me more than anything else I’ve ever experienced. It made me realize just how good I have it in life, and how I should just embrace all the good things I have. This novel really made me think actually about one of the themes in the novel- human initiative vs. fate. It really made me consider how much of the story – and how much of our lives in general – are determined by our actions and how much of what is left is truly inevitable. In addition, I often found myself feeling a great amount of pity for not only Quasimodo and Esmeralda (as I’m sure was Hugo’s intention) because they could not be with whom they wanted, but also I found myself feeling pity for Frollo, because he was just truly in a terrible situation and nothing could have really been helped much.

One quotation that resounded in me for minutes after reading it is when Quasimodo, after all of his futile attempts to save La Esmeralda , finds her hanging, dead,

"Quasimodo then lifted his eye to look upon the gypsy girl, whose body, suspended from the gibbet, he beheld quivering afar, under its white robes, in the last struggles of death; then again he dropped it upon the archdeacon, stretched a shapeless mass at the foot of the tower, and he said with a sob that heaved his deep breast to the bottom, 'Oh-all that I've ever loved!" (Hugo 455).

I felt this quotation truly exemplified the tragedy of this story, because it demonstrated how good of a heart Quasimodo had, all he wanted to do is care for the people he loved. He tried to serve his master Frollo, but also to protect Esmeralda, and once the two conflicted with one another, he was literally helpless. The passage fully exemplifies the sorrow that I can imagine would have filled Quasimodo at that moment, because he tried to protect both of the people he loved and in the end both were sacrificed and he lost both of them.

I am truly grateful that I had the opportunity to read The Hunchback of Notre Dame, it was wonderful yet sad, but I found it still had great meaning. It has inspired me now to pursue Les Miserables, Hugo’s other major work of literature, as well as to look into some of his poetry, which I’ve heard is quite beautiful.