The compositional role of the image of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. "Notre Dame Cathedral": analysis (problems, characters, artistic features). Esmeralda and Quasimodo seem to represent two different faces of this polyphonic crowd

The death of heroes serves as a moral judgment against evil in the novel Notre Dame (1831). Evil in “The Cathedral” is the “old order” with which Hugo fought during the years of the creation of the novel, during the era of the revolution of 1830, the “old order” and its foundations, namely (according to the writer) the king, justice and the church. The action in the novel takes place in Paris in 1482. The writer often talks about the “era” as the subject of his depiction. And in fact, Hugo appears fully armed with knowledge. Romantic historicism is clearly demonstrated by the abundance of descriptions and discussions, sketches about the morals of the era, its “color”.

In accordance with the tradition of the romantic historical novel, Hugo creates an epic, even grandiose canvas, preferring the depiction of large, open spaces rather than interiors, crowd scenes, and colorful spectacles. The novel is perceived as a theatrical performance, as a drama in the spirit of Shakespeare, when life itself, powerful and multicolored, enters the stage, breaking all sorts of “rules.” The scene is all of Paris, painted with amazing clarity, with amazing knowledge of the city, its history, its architecture, like a painter’s canvas, like the creation of an architect. Hugo seems to be composing his novel from gigantic boulders, from powerful building parts - just as Notre Dame Cathedral was built in Paris. Hugo's novels are generally similar to the Cathedral - they are majestic, ponderous, harmonious more in spirit than in form. The writer does not so much develop the plot as lay stone by stone, chapter by chapter.

Cathedral— main character novel, which corresponds to the descriptive and picturesque nature of romanticism, the nature of the writing style of Hugo - an architect - through the style of considering the features of the era. The cathedral is also a symbol of the Middle Ages, the enduring beauty of its monuments and the ugliness of religion. The main characters of the novel - the bell ringer Quasimodo and the archdeacon Claude Frollo - are not only inhabitants, but creatures of the Cathedral. If in Quasimodo the Cathedral completes his ugly appearance, then in Claude it creates spiritual ugliness.

Quasimodo- another embodiment of Hugo’s democratic and humanistic idea. In the “old order” with which Hugo fought, everything was determined by appearance, class, and costume - the soul of Quasimodo appears in the shell of an ugly bell-ringer, an outcast, an outcast. This is the lowest link in the social hierarchy, crowned by the king. But the highest is in the hierarchy of moral values ​​established by the writer. Quasimodo's selfless, selfless love transforms his essence and turns into a way of evaluating all the other heroes of the novel - Claude, whose feelings are disfigured by religion, the simpleton Esmeralda, who idolizes the magnificent uniform of an officer, this officer himself, an insignificant veil in a beautiful uniform.

In the characters, conflicts, and plot of the novel, what became a sign of romanticism was established—exceptional characters in extraordinary circumstances. Each of the main characters is the fruit of romantic symbolization, the extreme embodiment of one or another quality. There is relatively little action in the novel, not only due to its ponderous descriptiveness, but also due to the romantic nature of the characters: emotional connections are established between them; instantly, with one touch, with one glance from Quasimodo, Claude, Esmeralda, currents of extraordinary power arise, and they outstrip the action . The aesthetics of hyperbole and contrasts enhance emotional tension, bringing it to the limit. Hugo puts his heroes in the most extraordinary, exceptional situations, which are generated both by the logic of exceptional romantic characters and by the power of chance. So, Esmeralda dies as a result of the actions of many people who love her or wish her well - an entire army of vagabonds attacking the Cathedral, Quasimodo defending the Cathedral, Pierre Gringoire leading Esmeralda out of the Cathedral, her own mother, who detained her daughter until the soldiers appeared.

These are romantic emergencies. Hugo calls them "rock". Rock- is not the result of the writer's willfulness, he, in turn, formalizes romantic symbolization as a way of unique knowledge of reality. Behind the capricious randomness of the fate that destroyed the heroes, one sees the pattern of typical circumstances of that era, which doomed to death any manifestation of free thought, any attempt by a person to defend his right. The chain of accidents that kill heroes is unnatural, but the “old order”, the king, justice, religion, all the methods of suppressing the human personality with which Victor Hugo declared war are unnatural. The revolutionary pathos of the novel concretized the romantic conflict between high and low. The low appeared in the concrete historical guise of feudalism, royal despotism, the high - in the guise of commoners, in the writer’s now favorite theme of the outcasts. Quasimodo remained not just the embodiment of the romantic aesthetics of the grotesque - the hero who snatches Esmeralda from the clutches of “justice” and kills the archdeacon became a symbol of rebellion. Not only the truth of life, but the truth of the revolution was revealed in the romantic poetics of Hugo.

Hugo’s ballads, such as “The Tournament of King John,” “The Hunt of the Burgrave,” “The Legend of the Nun,” “The Fairy,” and others are rich in signs of national and historical flavor. Already in the early period of his work, Hugo addressed one of the most pressing problems of romanticism, what a renewal of dramaturgy, the creation of a romantic drama became. As an antithesis to the classicist principle of “ennobled nature,” Hugo develops the theory of the grotesque: this is a means of presenting the funny, the ugly in a “concentrated” form. These and many other aesthetic guidelines concern not only drama, but, essentially, romantic art in general, which is why the preface to the drama “Cromwell” became one of the most important romantic manifestos. The ideas of this manifesto are implemented in Hugo’s dramas, which are all written on historical subjects, and in the novel “Notre Dame Cathedral.”

The idea of ​​the novel arises in an atmosphere of fascination with historical genres, which began with the novels of Walter Scott. Hugo pays tribute to this passion both in drama and in the novel. At the end of the 1820s. Hugo plans to write a historical novel, and in 1828 he even enters into an agreement with the publisher Gosselin. However, the work is complicated by many circumstances, and the main one is that his attention is increasingly attracted by modern life.

Hugo began working on the novel only in 1830, literally a few days before the July Revolution. His thoughts about his time are closely intertwined with the general concept of human history and with ideas about the fifteenth century, about which he writes his novel. This novel is called Notre-Dame de Paris and is published in 1831. Literature, whether it be a novel, a poem or a drama, depicts history, but not in the same way as historical science does. Chronology, the exact sequence of events, battles, conquests and the collapse of kingdoms are only the external side of history, Hugo argued. In the novel, attention is concentrated on what the historian forgets or ignores - on the “wrong side” of historical events, that is, on the inner side of life.

Following these new ideas for his time, Hugo creates “Notre Dame Cathedral.” The writer considers the expression of the spirit of the era to be the main criterion for the veracity of a historical novel. This is how a work of art fundamentally differs from a chronicle, which sets out the facts of history. In a novel, the actual “outline” should serve only as a general basis for the plot, in which fictional characters can act and events woven by the author’s imagination can develop. The truth of a historical novel is not in the accuracy of the facts, but in fidelity to the spirit of the times. Hugo is convinced that in the pedantic retelling of historical chronicles one cannot find as much meaning as is hidden in the behavior of the nameless crowd or “Argotines” (in his novel this is a kind of corporation of vagabonds, beggars, thieves and swindlers), in the feelings of the street dancer Esmeralda, or the bell ringer Quasimodo , or in a learned monk, in whose alchemical experiments the king also shows interest.

The only immutable requirement for the author's fiction is to respond to the spirit of the era: the characters, the psychology of the characters, their relationships, actions, the general course of events, the details of everyday life - all aspects of the depicted historical reality should be presented as they actually could have been. To have an idea of ​​a long-gone era, you need to find information not only about official realities, but also about the morals and way of everyday life of ordinary people, you need to study all this and then recreate it in a novel. Traditions, legends and similar folklore sources existing among the people can help the writer, and the writer can and should fill in the missing details in them with the power of his imagination, that is, resort to fiction, always remembering that he must correlate the fruits of his imagination with the spirit of the era.

The Romantics considered imagination the highest creative ability, and fiction an indispensable attribute of a literary work. Fiction, through which it is possible to recreate the real historical spirit of the time, according to their aesthetics, can be even more truthful than the fact itself.

Artistic truth is higher than factual truth. Following these principles of the historical novel of the Romantic era, Hugo not only combines real events with fictional ones, and genuine historical characters with unknown ones, but clearly gives preference to the latter. All the main characters of the novel - Claude Frollo, Quasimodo, Esmeralda, Phoebus - are fictional by him. Only Pierre Gringoire is an exception: he has a real historical prototype - he lived in Paris in the 15th - early 16th centuries. poet and playwright. The novel also features King Louis XI and the Cardinal of Bourbon (the latter appears only occasionally). The plot of the novel is not based on any major historical event, and only detailed descriptions of Notre Dame Cathedral and medieval Paris can be attributed to real facts.

Unlike the heroes of literature of the 17th - 18th centuries, Hugo's heroes combine contradictory qualities. Widely using the romantic technique of contrasting images, sometimes deliberately exaggerating, turning to the grotesque, the writer creates complex, ambiguous characters. He is attracted by gigantic passions and heroic deeds. He extols the strength of his character as a hero, his rebellious, rebellious spirit, and his ability to fight against circumstances. In the characters, conflicts, plot, and landscape of “Notre Dame Cathedral,” the romantic principle of reflecting life—exceptional characters in extraordinary circumstances—has triumphed. The world of unbridled passions, romantic characters, surprises and accidents, the image of a brave man who does not succumb to any dangers, this is what Hugo glorifies in these works.

Hugo argues that there is a constant struggle between good and evil in the world. In the novel, even more clearly than in Hugo’s poetry, the search for new moral values ​​was outlined, which the writer finds, as a rule, not in the camp of the rich and powerful, but in the camp of the dispossessed and despised poor. All the best feelings - kindness, sincerity, selfless devotion - are given to them by the foundling Quasimodo and the gypsy Esmeralda, who are the true heroes of the novel, while the antipodes, standing at the helm of secular or spiritual power, like King Louis XI or the same archdeacon Frollo, are different cruelty, fanaticism, indifference to the suffering of people.

Hugo tried to substantiate the main principle of his romantic poetics—the depiction of life in its contrasts—even before the “Preface” in his article about W. Scott’s novel “Quentin Dorward.” “Isn’t life,” he wrote, “a bizarre drama in which good and evil, beautiful and ugly, high and low are mixed—a law that operates throughout creation?”

The principle of contrasting oppositions in Hugo's poetics was based on his metaphysical ideas about the life of modern society, in which the determining factor in development is supposedly the struggle of opposing moral principles - good and evil - that have existed from eternity.

Hugo devotes a significant place in the “Preface” to the definition of the aesthetic concept of the grotesque, considering it a distinctive element of medieval and modern romantic poetry. What does he mean by this concept? “The grotesque, as the opposite of the sublime, as a means of contrast, is, in our opinion, the richest source that nature reveals to art.”

Hugo contrasted the grotesque images of his works with the conventionally beautiful images of epigone classicism, believing that without introducing into literature phenomena both sublime and base, both beautiful and ugly, it is impossible to convey the fullness and truth of life. With all the metaphysical understanding of the category “grotesque” Hugo's substantiation of this element of art was nevertheless a step forward on the path of bringing art closer to the truth of life.

In the novel there is a “character” who unites all the characters around him and wraps almost all the main plot lines of the novel into one ball. The name of this character is included in the title of Hugo's work - Notre Dame Cathedral.

In the third book of the novel, entirely dedicated to the cathedral, the author literally sings a hymn to this wonderful creation of human genius. For Hugo, the cathedral is “like a huge stone symphony, a colossal creation of man and people... a wonderful result of the union of all the forces of the era, where from each stone splashes the imagination of a worker, taking hundreds of forms, disciplined by the genius of the artist... This creation of human hands is powerful and abundant, like a creation God, from whom it seemed to borrow a dual character: diversity and eternity ... "

The cathedral became the main scene of action; the fates of Archdeacon Claude, Frollo, Quasimodo, and Esmeralda are connected with it. The stone sculptures of the cathedral bear witness to human suffering, nobility and betrayal, and just retribution. By telling the history of the cathedral, allowing us to imagine how they looked in the distant 15th century, the author achieves a special effect. The reality of the stone structures that can be observed in Paris to this day confirms in the eyes of the reader the reality of the characters, their destinies, and the reality of human tragedies.

The destinies of all the main characters of the novel are inextricably linked with the Council, both by the external outline of events and by the threads of internal thoughts and motivations. This is especially true of the inhabitants of the temple: Archdeacon Claude Frollo and the bell ringer Quasimodo. In the fifth chapter of book four we read: “...A strange fate befell the Cathedral of Our Lady in those days - the fate of being loved so reverently, but in completely different ways, by two such dissimilar creatures as Claude and Quasimodo. One of them - a semblance of a half-man, wild, submissive only to instinct, loved the cathedral for its beauty, for its harmony, for the harmony that this magnificent whole radiated. Another, gifted with an ardent imagination enriched with knowledge, loved its inner meaning, the meaning hidden in it, loved the legend associated with it, its symbolism hidden behind the sculptural decorations of the facade - in a word, loved the mystery that has remained for the human mind from time immemorial Notre Dame Cathedral."

For Archdeacon Claude Frollo, the Cathedral is a place of residence, service and semi-scientific, semi-mystical research, a container for all his passions, vices, repentance, throwing, and, ultimately, death. The clergyman Claude Frollo, an ascetic and alchemical scientist personifies a cold rationalistic mind, triumphing over all good human feelings, joys, and affections. This mind, which takes precedence over the heart, inaccessible to pity and compassion, is an evil force for Hugo. The base passions that flared up in Frollo’s cold soul not only lead to his own death, but are the cause of the death of all the people who meant something in his life: the archdeacon’s younger brother Jehan dies at the hands of Quasimodo, the pure and beautiful Esmeralda dies on the gallows, handed over by Claude to the authorities, the pupil of the priest Quasimodo, first tamed by him and then, in fact, betrayed, voluntarily commits himself to death. The cathedral, being, as it were, an integral part of the life of Claude Frollo, even here acts as a full participant in the action of the novel: from its galleries the archdeacon watches Esmeralda dancing in the square; in the cell of the cathedral, equipped by him for practicing alchemy, he spends hours and days in studies and scientific research, here he begs Esmeralda to take pity and give him love. The cathedral ultimately becomes the site of his terrible death, described by Hugo with stunning power and psychological authenticity.

In that scene, the Cathedral also seems almost an animated being: only two lines are devoted to how Quasimodo pushes his mentor from the balustrade, the next two pages describe Claude Frollo’s “confrontation” with the Cathedral: “The bell-ringer retreated a few steps behind the archdeacon and suddenly, rushing at him in a fit of rage, he pushed him into the abyss, over which Claude bent... The priest fell down... The drainpipe over which he stood stopped his fall. In despair, he clung to it with both hands... An abyss yawned beneath him... In this terrible situation, the archdeacon did not utter a word, did not utter a single groan. He just wriggled, making superhuman efforts to climb up the chute to the balustrade. But his hands slid along the granite, his legs, scratching the blackened wall, searched in vain for support... The Archdeacon was exhausted. Sweat rolled down his bald forehead, blood oozed from under his nails onto the stones, and his knees were bruised. He heard how with every effort he made, his cassock, caught on the gutter, cracked and tore. To top off the misfortune, the gutter ended in a lead pipe that bent under the weight of his body... The soil gradually disappeared from under him, his fingers slid along the gutter, his arms weakened, his body became heavier... He looked at the impassive sculptures of the tower, hanging like him , over the abyss, but without fear for himself, without regret for him. Everything around was stone: right in front of him were the open mouths of monsters, below him, in the depths of the square, was the pavement, above his head was a crying Quasimodo.”

A man with a cold soul and a heart of stone in the last minutes of his life found himself alone with a cold stone - and did not expect any pity, compassion, or mercy from him, because he himself did not give anyone compassion, pity, or mercy.

The connection with the Cathedral of Quasimodo - this ugly hunchback with the soul of an embittered child - is even more mysterious and incomprehensible. Here is what Hugo writes about this: “Over time, strong ties connected the bell-ringer with the cathedral. Forever cut off from the world by the double misfortune that weighed on him - his dark origin and physical deformity, closed since childhood in this double insurmountable circle, the poor fellow was accustomed to not noticing anything that lay on the other side of the sacred walls that sheltered him under their canopy. While he grew and developed, the Cathedral of Our Lady served for him as an egg, then a nest, then a home, then a homeland, then, finally, the universe.

There was undoubtedly some kind of mysterious predestined harmony between this creature and the building. When, still quite a baby, Quasimodo, with painful efforts, made his way at a galloping pace under the gloomy arches, he, with his human head and animal body, seemed like a reptile, naturally arising among the damp and gloomy slabs...

Thus, developing under the shadow of the cathedral, living and sleeping in it, almost never leaving it and constantly experiencing its mysterious influence, Quasimodo eventually became like him; it seemed to have grown into the building, turned into one of its constituent parts... It is almost without exaggeration to say that it took the form of a cathedral, just as snails take the form of a shell. This was his home, his lair, his shell. Between him and the ancient temple there was a deep instinctive attachment, a physical affinity...”

Reading the novel, we see that for Quasimodo the cathedral was everything - a refuge, a home, a friend, it protected him from the cold, from human malice and cruelty, it satisfied the need of a freak rejected by people for communication: “Only with extreme reluctance did he turn his gaze to of people. A cathedral populated by marble statues of kings, saints, bishops, who at least did not laugh in his face and looked at him with a calm and benevolent gaze, was quite enough for him. The statues of monsters and demons also did not hate him - he was too similar to them... The saints were his friends and protected him; the monsters were also his friends and protected him. He poured out his soul to them for a long time. Squatting in front of a statue, he talked with it for hours. If at this time anyone entered the temple, Quasimodo would run away, like a lover caught in a serenade.”

Only a new, stronger, hitherto unfamiliar feeling could shake this inextricable, incredible connection between a person and a building. This happened when a miracle, embodied in an innocent and beautiful image, entered the life of an outcast. The name of the miracle is Esmeralda. Hugo endows this heroine with all the best traits inherent in representatives of the people: beauty, tenderness, kindness, mercy, simplicity and naivety, incorruptibility and loyalty. Alas, in cruel times, among cruel people, all these qualities were more disadvantages than advantages: kindness, naivety and simplicity do not help to survive in the world of anger and self-interest. Esmeralda died, slandered by her lover, Claude, betrayed by her loved ones, Phoebus, and not saved by Quasimodo, who worshiped and idolized her.

Quasimodo, who managed, as it were, to turn the Cathedral into the “killer” of the archdeacon, earlier, with the help of the same cathedral - his integral “part” - tries to save the gypsy by stealing her from the place of execution and using the cell of the Cathedral as a refuge, i.e. a place, where criminals persecuted by law and authority were inaccessible to their pursuers, behind the sacred walls of the refuge the condemned were inviolable. However, the evil will of people turned out to be stronger, and the stones of the Cathedral of Our Lady did not save Esmeralda’s life.

The idea for the novel “Notre Dame de Paris” arose from Hugo in the early 20s and was finally formed by mid-1828. The prerequisites for the creation of an epoch-making work were the natural cultural processes that took place in the first third of the 19th century in France: popularity in literature historical topics, the writers’ appeal to the romantic atmosphere of the Middle Ages and the public struggle for the protection of ancient architectural monuments, in which Hugo took a direct part. That is why we can say that one of the main characters of the novel, along with the gypsy Esmeralda, the bell ringer Quasimodo, the archdeacon Claude Frollo, the captain of the royal riflemen Phoebus de Chateaupert and the poet Pierre Gringoire, is Notre Dame Cathedral itself - the main scene and an invisible witness to the key events of the work.

In working on the book, Victor Hugo relied on the literary experience of Walter Scott, a recognized master of historical novels. At the same time, the French classic already understood that society needed something more vibrant than his English colleague, operating with typical characters and historical events, could offer. According to Victor Hugo, it should have been “...at the same time a novel, a drama and an epic, of course, picturesque, but at the same time poetic, real, but at the same time ideal, truthful, but at the same time at the same time majestic" (magazine "French Muse", 1823).

“Notre Dame de Paris” became exactly the novel the French writer dreamed of. He combined the features of a historical epic, a romantic drama and a psychological novel, telling the reader the incredible private lives of different people, taking place against the backdrop of specific historical events of the 15th century.

Chronotope novel, organized around Notre Dame Cathedral - a unique architectural monument that combines the features of Romanesque and Gothic architecture - includes Parisian streets, squares and districts running from it in all directions (Cathedral and Grève Square, Cité, University, City, " Courtyard of Miracles”, etc.). Paris in the novel becomes a natural continuation of the Cathedral, towering over the city and protecting its spiritual and social life.

Notre Dame Cathedral, like most ancient architectural monuments, according to Hugo, is the Word embodied in stone - the only restraining force for the rude, uneducated Parisian people. The spiritual authority of the Catholic church is so great that it easily turns into a refuge for Esmeralda, accused of witchcraft. The inviolability of the temple of the Mother of God is violated by the royal archers only on the orders of Louis XI, who asked for prayerful permission for this act from his heavenly patroness and promised to bring her a beautiful silver statue as a gift. The French king has nothing to do with Esmeralda: he is only interested in the revolt of the Parisian mob, who, in the opinion of Louis XI, decided to kidnap the witch from the Cathedral in order to put her to death. The fact that people are striving to free their sister and get rich at the expense of church riches does not occur to either the king or his entourage, which is an excellent illustration of the political isolation of the authorities from the people and lack of understanding of their needs.

The main characters of the novel are closely connected with each other not only by the central love theme, but also by his affiliation with Notre Dame Cathedral: Claude Frollo is the archdeacon of the temple, Quasimodo is a bell ringer, Pierre Gringoire is a student of Claude Frollo, Esmeralda is a dancer performing on Cathedral Square, Phoebe de Chateaupert is the groom of Fleur-de-Lys de Gondelaurier, living in a house whose windows overlook the Cathedral.

At the level of human relationships, characters intersect with each other through Esmeralda, whose artistic image is the plot-forming element for the entire novel. The beautiful gypsy in “Notre Dame Cathedral” attracts everyone’s attention: Parisian townspeople enjoy watching her dances and tricks with the snow-white goat Djali, the local mob (thieves, prostitutes, imaginary beggars and cripples) reveres her no less than the Mother of God, the poet Pierre Gringoire and the captain of the royal riflemen Phoebus experience physical attraction to her, the priest Claude Frollo has a passionate desire, Quasimodo has love.

Esmeralda herself - a pure, naive, virgin child - gives her heart to the outwardly beautiful, but internally ugly Phoebus. The girl's love in the novel is born out of gratitude for salvation and freezes in a state of blind faith in her lover. Esmeralda is so blinded by love that she is ready to blame herself for Phoebus’s coldness, having confessed under torture to the murder of the captain.

Young handsome man Phoebe de Chateaupert- a noble man only in the company of ladies. Alone with Esmeralda - he is a deceitful seducer, in company with Jehan the Miller (Claude Frollo's younger brother) - he is a fair foul-mouthed man and a drinker. Phoebus himself is an ordinary Don Juan, brave in battle, but cowardly when it comes to his good name. The complete opposite of Phoebus in the novel is Pierre Gringoire. Despite the fact that his feelings for Esmeralda are not particularly sublime, he finds the strength to recognize the girl as a sister rather than a wife, and over time, to fall in love with her not so much as a woman, but as a person.

The unusually terrible bell ringer of Notre Dame Cathedral sees the personality in Esmeralda. Unlike other heroes, he pays attention to the girl no earlier than she shows concern for him by giving water to Quasimodo standing at the pillory. Only after getting to know the gypsy’s kind soul does the hunched freak begin to notice her physical beauty. External discrepancy between yourself and Esmeralda Quasimodo worries quite courageously: he loves the girl so much that he is ready to do everything for her - not to show himself, to bring another man, to protect her from an angry crowd.

Archdeacon Claude Frollo- the most tragic character in the novel. The psychological component of “Notre Dame de Paris” is connected with it. A well-educated, fair, God-loving priest, falling in love, turns into a real Devil. He wants to achieve Esmeralda's love at any cost. There is a constant struggle within him between good and evil. The archdeacon either begs the gypsy for love, then tries to take her by force, then saves her from death, then he himself gives her into the hands of the executioner. A passion that finds no outlet ultimately kills Claude himself.

“Notre Dame de Paris” is a novel by V. Hugo. The novel was conceived in 1828, when historical themes were prevalent in French literature. On November 15, 1828, Hugo signed an agreement with the publisher Goslin for a two-volume novel, which was to be completed on April 15, 1829. Already on November 19, 1828, in the “Journal de Debs,” Goslin announced the publication of “Cathedral.” But at this time Hugo was passionate about creating other works and, in order not to pay a penalty for unfulfilled obligations, he had to ask for a delay until December 1, 1830. Hugo began writing the novel on July 25, 1830 and even wrote several pages, but the events of the July Revolution again distracted writer from work. A new delay - until February 1, 1831, there was no hope for further. By mid-September, Hugo, in his words, was “up to his neck in the Cathedral.” The novel was completed on January 15, and on March 16, 1831, the book went on sale. But even after this, the work continued: the second edition, published in October 1832, was replenished with three new chapters - “Abbas beat! Martini”, “This Will Kill That” (in the fifth book) and “Dislike of the People” (in the fourth).

Long before the text itself appeared, the novel was titled after an architectural monument, and this is no coincidence. Having read mountains of books, thoroughly studied medieval France, old Paris, its heart - Notre Dame Cathedral, Hugo created his own philosophy of medieval art, calling the cathedral in the novel “the great book of humanity”, which preserves the people's memory and its traditions (the construction of the cathedral lasted three centuries from the XII to the XV centuries). Hugo’s discussions about architecture are filled with philosophical and historical ideas in the spirit of his time, explaining what the stone chronicle of the cathedral tells: “Every civilization begins with theocracy and ends with democracy. This law, according to which freedom replaces unity, is written in architecture.” Thus, the idea of ​​historical progress, the continuous movement of humanity from slavery to freedom, from aristocracy to democracy, widespread in the theories of the 1820s, received artistic expression.

Notre Dame Cathedral turned out to be the symbol and core of the novel: it personifies the spiritual life of the people, but also embodies all the dark forces arising from feudal oppression, religious superstitions and prejudices. In an effort to reveal the dependence of the man of the Middle Ages on religion, the power of dogmas that enslaved his consciousness, Hugo makes the cathedral a symbol of this power. The temple, as it were, directs the fate of the heroes of the novel. That is why the chapters dedicated to him are so significant (books three, five, chapter four from book ten). Stained glass windows of “flaming Gothic” decorated the cathedral in the 15th century, and a new spirit penetrated inside the temple, which spoke of the birth of a new time. It was not by chance that Hugo turned to the 15th century, to the end of the Middle Ages: he needed to show the historical mission of this century for the further development of the history of France. Depicting the most important process of the era - during the struggle against the feudal lords, the royal power was forced to seek support for its actions in the strength of the people - Hugo sharpened the historical conflict and gave it a modern political meaning.

Louis XI is glad that he can undermine the power of the feudal lords with the help of his “good people,” but is frightened when he learns that the rebellion is directed against him, the king. The Parisian mob will be exterminated by the king's close associate Tristan, and the meaning of the rebellion will be explained to him by Dutch envoys who have experience in how uprisings are carried out. So in the king’s bedchamber, in the Bastille, the stronghold of feudalism, Hugo brought together different social forces, different views on the rebellion of the plebs. The storming of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is a prediction of the future storming of the Bastille. With the help of the fictitious siege of the cathedral, Hugo introduces a rebellious people into the novel, which he presents as a declassed mob: these are vagabonds, thieves, homeless people from the “Court of Miracles,” a kingdom within a kingdom, with its king Trulf, its laws and justice. The Parisian goal is rude, cruel, ignorant, but in its own way humane in an inhuman world where witches were burned and free-thinking was punished (therefore, the symbolic role of the Place de Greve in the novel is great - the place of executions and festivities). There are no representatives of the middle class among the “people” - they are immersed in their trade affairs and willingly compromise with the authorities.

The crowd also plays an important role in the novel because it ties the action together. With the crowd, the reader enters the Palace of Justice for the performance of a mystery on a festive January day in 1482 (the marriage of Margaret of Flanders with the French Dauphin), with a procession of fools he enters the exotic streets of Paris, admires them from a “bird's eye view”, marveling at the picturesqueness and musicality of this “city” orchestra”, visits the hermit’s kennel, houses, shacks - everything that connects various events and many characters into one knot. It is these descriptions that should help the reader believe in the writer’s fiction and penetrate the spirit of the era.

The strength of Hugo's novel Notre Dame de Paris lies not in its historical authenticity, but in the free imagination of the romantic artist. Hugo the narrator constantly reminds himself. By commenting on the events or actions of a character, he explains the oddities of that era, which is so distant from us, thereby creating a special method of historical depiction. History seems to be relegated to the background, and the novel arises from the passions and feelings possessing fictional characters: Esmeralda, a street dancer, Claude Frollo, the archdeacon of the cathedral, his slave Quasimodo, the poet Gringoire, the hermit Gudula. Their destinies collide by chance, and a dramatic conflict ensues, the intrigue of which sometimes resembles an adventure novel. And yet the characters in Notre-Dame de Paris think, act, love, hate in the spirit of the time in which they live.

Claude Frollo, a monk who lost his faith and became a villain, was prompted by living reality. Hugo sees in him not only a criminal who destroyed an innocent soul, he shows the tragedy of a man who gave his strength and life to the comprehension of the truth. Freed from the shackling dogmatic shackles and left alone with himself and the diverse world, his restless consciousness, in conflict with old concepts, could not accept simple life, understand Esmeralda’s simple love. Having turned good into evil, freedom into dependence, Frollo fights against nature itself, which defeats him. He is a victim and an instrument of fate. Phoebus de Chateaupert, a frivolous handsome man, turns out to be happier in love. But both Chateaupert and Frollo find themselves on the same moral level in relation to love. Another thing is Quasimodo, a freak opposed to the handsome Phoebus, a simpleton opposed to the smart Claude; thanks to his love for a gypsy, he turns from a slave into a person. Esmeralda stands outside of society, she is a gypsy (interest in these “free” people occupied the minds of writers in the first third of the 19th century), which means that only she has the highest morality. But since the world in which the heroes of “Notre Dame Cathedral” lived was in the grip of blind and cruel fate, therefore the bright beginning was doomed to death: all the main characters perish, the old world perishes. “Phoebus de Chateaupert also ended tragically,” the author ironically notes. - He got married".

In the 1830s, despite the fact that the fashion for the historical novel had passed, Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris was a great success. Hugo's ingenuity amazed readers. Indeed, he managed to animate his “archaeological” novel: “local color” helped him carefully describe Frollo’s dark cloak and Esmeralda’s exotic outfit, Chateaupert’s shiny jacket and Gudula’s pitiful rags; The brilliantly developed language of the novel reflected the speech of all strata of society in the 11th century. (art terminology, Latin, argot). Metaphors, comparisons, antitheses, techniques of grotesque, contrast, painting method - all this gave the novel that degree of “ideal and sublime” that the writer so strived for. Hugo's work has always attracted attention in Russia. “Notre Dame Cathedral” was translated into Russian in 1866, in 1847 by A.S. Dargomyzhsky wrote the opera Esmeralda.

Composition

The novel “Notre Dame de Paris”, which we are considering in this work, provides convincing evidence that all the aesthetic principles set forth by Hugo are not just a theorist’s manifesto, but the foundations of creativity deeply thought out and felt by the writer.

The basis, the core of this legendary novel is the view of the historical process, unchanged throughout the entire creative career of the mature Hugo, as an eternal confrontation between two world principles - good and evil, mercy and cruelty, compassion and intolerance, feelings and reason. The field of this battle in different eras attracts Hugo to an immeasurably greater extent than the analysis of a specific historical situation. Hence the well-known supra-historicism, the symbolism of the heroes, the timeless nature of psychologism. Hugo himself frankly admitted that history as such did not interest him in the novel: “The book has no claims to history, except perhaps to describe with a certain knowledge and a certain care, but only briefly and in fits and starts, the state of morals, beliefs, laws , arts, finally, civilization in the fifteenth century. However, this is not the main thing in the book. If it has one virtue, it is that it is a work of imagination, whim and fancy.” However, it is reliably known that to describe the cathedral and Paris in the 15th century, depicting the morals of the era, Hugo studied considerable historical material. Researchers of the Middle Ages meticulously checked Hugo’s “documentation” and could not find any serious errors in it, despite the fact that the writer did not always draw his information from primary sources.

The main characters of the novel are fictitious by the author: the gypsy Esmeralda, the archdeacon of Notre Dame Cathedral Claude Frollo, the cathedral bell ringer the hunchback Quasimodo (who has long since become a literary type). But there is a “character” in the novel who unites all the characters around him and wraps almost all the main plot lines of the novel into one ball. The name of this character is included in the title of Hugo's work. This name is Notre Dame Cathedral.

The author's idea to organize the action of the novel around Notre Dame Cathedral is not accidental: it reflected Hugo's passion for ancient architecture and his activities in defense of medieval monuments. Hugo visited the cathedral especially often in 1828 while walking through old Paris with his friends - the writer Nodier, the sculptor David d'Angers, and the artist Delacroix. He met the first vicar of the cathedral, Abbot Egge, the author of mystical works that were later recognized as heretical by the official church, and he helped him understand the architectural symbolism of the building. Without a doubt, the colorful figure of Abbot Egge served as the writer’s prototype for Claude Frollo. At the same time, Hugo studied historical works, made numerous extracts from books such as “History and Study of the Antiquities of the City of Paris” by Sauval (1654), “Review of the Antiquities of Paris” by Du Brel (1612), etc. The preparatory work on the novel was such in a thorough and scrupulous manner; none of the names of the minor characters, including Pierre Gringoire, were invented by Hugo; they were all taken from ancient sources.

Hugo's concern about the fate of architectural monuments of the past, which we mentioned above, is more than clearly visible throughout almost the entire novel.

The first chapter of book three is called “The Cathedral of Our Lady.” In it, Hugo talks in poetic form about the history of the creation of the Cathedral, very professionally and in detail characterizes the building’s belonging to a certain stage in the history of architecture, describes its greatness and beauty in a high style: “First of all - to limit ourselves to the most striking examples - it should be pointed out that it is unlikely in the history of architecture there is a more beautiful page than the facade of this cathedral... It is like a huge stone symphony; a colossal creation of both man and people, united and complex, like the Iliad and the Romancero, to which it is related; a wonderful result of the combination of all the forces of an entire era, where from every stone splashes the imagination of the worker, taking hundreds of forms, guided by the genius of the artist; in a word, this creation of human hands is powerful and abundant, like the creation of God, from whom it seems to have borrowed its dual character: diversity and eternity.”

Along with admiration for the human genius who created the majestic monument to the history of mankind, which Hugo sees as the Cathedral, the author expresses anger and sorrow that such a beautiful building is not preserved and protected by people. He writes: “Notre Dame Cathedral is still a noble and majestic building. But no matter how beautiful the cathedral remains, decrepit, it is impossible not to mourn and be indignant at the sight of the countless destruction and damage that both years and people have inflicted on the venerable monument of antiquity... On the forehead of this patriarch of our cathedrals, next to the wrinkle, you invariably see a scar... .

On its ruins one can distinguish three types of more or less deep destruction: first of all, those that are inflicted by the hand of time, inconspicuously gouging and covering the surface of buildings with rust, are striking; then hordes of political and religious unrest, blind and furious in nature, rushed at them randomly; completed the destruction of fashion, more and more pretentious and absurd, replacing one another with the inevitable decline of architecture...

This is exactly what they have been doing for two hundred years with the wonderful churches of the Middle Ages. They will be mutilated in any way - both inside and outside. The priest repaints them, the architect scrapes them; then the people come and destroy them”

The image of Notre Dame Cathedral and its inextricable connection with the images of the main characters of the novel

We have already mentioned that the fates of all the main characters of the novel are inextricably linked with the Council, both by the external outline of events and by the threads of internal thoughts and motivations. This is especially true of the inhabitants of the temple: Archdeacon Claude Frollo and the bell ringer Quasimodo. In the fifth chapter of book four we read: “...A strange fate befell the Cathedral of Our Lady in those days - the fate of being loved so reverently, but in completely different ways, by two such dissimilar creatures as Claude and Quasimodo. One of them - a semblance of a half-man, wild, submissive only to instinct, loved the cathedral for its beauty, for its harmony, for the harmony that this magnificent whole radiated. Another, gifted with an ardent imagination enriched with knowledge, loved its inner meaning, the meaning hidden in it, loved the legend associated with it, its symbolism hidden behind the sculptural decorations of the facade - in a word, loved the mystery that has remained for the human mind from time immemorial Notre Dame Cathedral."

For Archdeacon Claude Frollo, the Cathedral is a place of residence, service and semi-scientific, semi-mystical research, a container for all his passions, vices, repentance, throwing, and, ultimately, death. The clergyman Claude Frollo, an ascetic and alchemical scientist personifies a cold rationalistic mind, triumphing over all good human feelings, joys, and affections. This mind, which takes precedence over the heart, inaccessible to pity and compassion, is an evil force for Hugo. The base passions that flared up in Frollo’s cold soul not only lead to his own death, but are the cause of the death of all the people who meant something in his life: the archdeacon’s younger brother Jehan dies at the hands of Quasimodo, the pure and beautiful Esmeralda dies on the gallows, handed over by Claude to the authorities, the pupil of the priest Quasimodo, first tamed by him and then, in fact, betrayed, voluntarily commits himself to death. The cathedral, being, as it were, an integral part of the life of Claude Frollo, even here acts as a full participant in the action of the novel: from its galleries the archdeacon watches Esmeralda dancing in the square; in the cell of the cathedral, equipped by him for practicing alchemy, he spends hours and days in studies and scientific research, here he begs Esmeralda to take pity and give him love. The cathedral ultimately becomes the site of his terrible death, described by Hugo with stunning power and psychological authenticity.

In that scene, the Cathedral also seems almost an animated being: only two lines are devoted to how Quasimodo pushes his mentor from the balustrade, the next two pages describe Claude Frollo’s “confrontation” with the Cathedral: “The bell-ringer retreated a few steps behind the archdeacon and suddenly, rushing at him in a fit of rage, he pushed him into the abyss, over which Claude bent... The priest fell down... The drainpipe over which he stood stopped his fall. In despair, he clung to it with both hands... An abyss yawned beneath him... In this terrible situation, the archdeacon did not utter a word, did not utter a single groan. He just wriggled, making superhuman efforts to climb up the chute to the balustrade. But his hands slid along the granite, his legs, scratching the blackened wall, searched in vain for support... The Archdeacon was exhausted. Sweat rolled down his bald forehead, blood oozed from under his nails onto the stones, and his knees were bruised. He heard how with every effort he made, his cassock, caught on the gutter, cracked and tore. To top off the misfortune, the gutter ended in a lead pipe that bent under the weight of his body... The soil gradually disappeared from under him, his fingers slid along the gutter, his arms weakened, his body became heavier... He looked at the impassive sculptures of the tower, hanging like him , over the abyss, but without fear for himself, without regret for him. Everything around was stone: right in front of him were the open mouths of monsters, below him, in the depths of the square, was the pavement, above his head was a crying Quasimodo.”

A man with a cold soul and a heart of stone in the last minutes of his life found himself alone with a cold stone - and did not expect any pity, compassion, or mercy from him, because he himself did not give anyone compassion, pity, or mercy.

The connection with the Cathedral of Quasimodo - this ugly hunchback with the soul of an embittered child - is even more mysterious and incomprehensible. Here is what Hugo writes about this: “Over time, strong ties connected the bell-ringer with the cathedral. Forever cut off from the world by the double misfortune that weighed on him - his dark origin and physical deformity, closed since childhood in this double insurmountable circle, the poor fellow was accustomed to not noticing anything that lay on the other side of the sacred walls that sheltered him under their canopy. While he grew and developed, the Cathedral of Our Lady served for him as an egg, then a nest, then a home, then a homeland, then, finally, the universe.

There was undoubtedly some kind of mysterious predestined harmony between this creature and the building. When, still quite a baby, Quasimodo, with painful efforts, made his way at a galloping pace under the gloomy arches, he, with his human head and animal body, seemed like a reptile, naturally arising among the damp and gloomy slabs...

Thus, developing under the shadow of the cathedral, living and sleeping in it, almost never leaving it and constantly experiencing its mysterious influence, Quasimodo eventually became like him; it seemed to have grown into the building, turned into one of its constituent parts... It is almost without exaggeration to say that it took the form of a cathedral, just as snails take the form of a shell. This was his home, his lair, his shell. Between him and the ancient temple there was a deep instinctive attachment, a physical affinity...”

Reading the novel, we see that for Quasimodo the cathedral was everything - a refuge, a home, a friend, it protected him from the cold, from human malice and cruelty, it satisfied the need of a freak rejected by people for communication: “Only with extreme reluctance did he turn his gaze to of people. A cathedral populated by marble statues of kings, saints, bishops, who at least did not laugh in his face and looked at him with a calm and benevolent gaze, was quite enough for him. The statues of monsters and demons also did not hate him - he was too similar to them... The saints were his friends and protected him; the monsters were also his friends and protected him. He poured out his soul to them for a long time. Squatting in front of a statue, he talked with it for hours. If at this time anyone entered the temple, Quasimodo would run away, like a lover caught in a serenade.”

Only a new, stronger, hitherto unfamiliar feeling could shake this inextricable, incredible connection between a person and a building. This happened when a miracle, embodied in an innocent and beautiful image, entered the life of an outcast. The name of the miracle is Esmeralda. Hugo endows this heroine with all the best traits inherent in representatives of the people: beauty, tenderness, kindness, mercy, simplicity and naivety, incorruptibility and loyalty. Alas, in cruel times, among cruel people, all these qualities were more disadvantages than advantages: kindness, naivety and simplicity do not help to survive in the world of anger and self-interest. Esmeralda died, slandered by her lover, Claude, betrayed by her loved ones, Phoebus, and not saved by Quasimodo, who worshiped and idolized her.

Quasimodo, who managed, as it were, to turn the Cathedral into the “killer” of the archdeacon, earlier, with the help of the same cathedral - his integral “part” - tries to save the gypsy by stealing her from the place of execution and using the cell of the Cathedral as a refuge, i.e. a place, where criminals persecuted by law and authority were inaccessible to their pursuers, behind the sacred walls of the refuge the condemned were inviolable. However, the evil will of people turned out to be stronger, and the stones of the Cathedral of Our Lady did not save Esmeralda’s life.

At the beginning of the novel, Hugo tells the reader that “several years ago, while examining the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, or, more precisely, examining it, the author of this book discovered in a dark corner of one of the towers the following word inscribed on the wall:

These Greek letters, darkened with time and quite deeply carved into the stone, are some features characteristic of Gothic writing, imprinted in the shape and arrangement of the letters, as if indicating that they were inscribed by the hand of a medieval man, and especially the gloomy and fatal meaning in them concluded, deeply struck the author.

He asked himself, he tried to comprehend whose suffering soul did not want to leave this world without leaving this stigma of crime or misfortune on the forehead of the ancient church. This word gave birth to this book.”

This word means "Rock" in Greek. The destinies of the characters in “Cathedral” are directed by fate, which is announced at the very beginning of the work. Rock here is symbolized and personified in the image of the Cathedral, to which all the threads of action somehow converge. It can be considered that the Council symbolizes the role of the church more broadly: the dogmatic worldview - in the Middle Ages; this worldview subjugates a person just as the Council absorbs the destinies of individual characters. Thus, Hugo conveys one of the characteristic features of the era in which the novel takes place.

It should be noted that if the romantics of the older generation saw in the Gothic temple an expression of the mystical ideals of the Middle Ages and associated with it their desire to escape from everyday suffering into the bosom of the religion of otherworldly dreams, then for Hugo medieval Gothic is a wonderful folk art, and the Cathedral is an arena of non-mystical, but the most everyday passions. and otherworldly dreams, then for Hugo medieval Gothic is a wonderful folk art, and the Cathedral is an arena not of mystical, but of the most everyday passions.

Hugo's contemporaries reproached him for not being Catholic enough in his novel. Lamartine, who called Hugo “the Shakespeare of the novel” and his “Cathedral” “a colossal work,” wrote that in his temple “there is everything you want, but there is not a bit of religion in it.” Using the example of the fate of Claude Frollo, Hugo strives to show the failure of church dogmatism and asceticism, their inevitable collapse on the eve of the Renaissance, which was the end of the 15th century for France, depicted in the novel.

There is such a scene in the novel. Before the archdeacon of the cathedral, the stern and learned guardian of the shrine, lies one of the first printed books to come out of Gutenberg's printing press. It happens in Claude Frollo's cell at night. Outside the window rises the gloomy bulk of the cathedral.

“For some time the archdeacon silently contemplated the huge building, then with a sigh he extended his right hand to the open printed book lying on the table, and his left hand to the Cathedral of Our Lady and, turning his sad gaze to the cathedral, said:

Alas! This will kill that.”

The thought attributed by Hugo to the medieval monk is the thought of Hugo himself. She gets his rationale. He continues: “...So a sparrow would have been alarmed at the sight of the angel of the Legion, spreading his six million wings before him... That was the fear of a warrior watching the copper ram and announcing: “The tower will collapse.”

The poet-historian found a reason for broad generalizations. He traces the history of architecture, treating it as “the first book of humanity,” the first attempt to consolidate the collective memory of generations in visible and meaningful images. Hugo unfolds before the reader a grandiose procession of centuries - from primitive society to ancient society, from ancient society to the Middle Ages, stops at the Renaissance and talks about the ideological and social revolution of the 15th-16th centuries, which was so helped by printing. Here Hugo's eloquence reaches its apogee. He composes a hymn to the Seal:

“This is some kind of anthill of minds. This is the hive where the golden bees of the imagination bring their honey.

This building has thousands of floors... Everything here is full of harmony. From Shakespeare's Cathedral to Byron's Mosque...

However, the wonderful building still remains unfinished.... The human race is all on scaffolding. Every mind is a mason.”

Using Victor Hugo's metaphor, we can say that he built one of the most beautiful and majestic buildings to be admired. his contemporaries, and more and more new generations never tire of admiring him.

At the very beginning of the novel, you can read the following lines: “And now nothing remained either of the mysterious word carved into the wall of the gloomy tower of the cathedral, or of that unknown fate that this word so sadly denoted - nothing except the fragile memory that the author of this dedicates books to them. Several centuries ago, the person who wrote this word on the wall disappeared from the living; the word itself disappeared from the cathedral wall; perhaps the cathedral itself will soon disappear from the face of the earth.” We know that Hugo’s sad prophecy about the future of the cathedral has not yet come true, and we would like to believe that it will not come true. Humanity is gradually learning to treat the works of its own hands more carefully. It seems that the writer and humanist Victor Hugo contributed to the understanding that time is cruel, but it is human duty to resist its destructive onslaught and protect the soul of the creator people embodied in stone, in metal, in words and sentences from destruction.