Claude Frollo, Notre Dame de Paris: image, description, description

Claude Frollo - this is one of the central characters of the famous novel by Victor Hugo "Notre Dame de Paris". In the image of a priest that he is not able to fight temptation, but follows him, breaking the fate and life of others, the author's condemnation is embodied. He confronts the main character of the novel Esmeralde and contrasts with his pupil - the unfortunate hunchback Quasimodo, who turns out to be capable of true love unlike his teacher.

About the novel "Notre Dame Cathedral"

The novel "Notre Dame Cathedral" by Victor Hugo is known all over the world. First published in 1831 and since then recognized as one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century. The novel belongs to the genre of historical drama. Historical events here serve as a backdrop to reflect the dramatic fate of the main characters.

In the novel, Hugo raises many topical problems, both then and today: the opposition of law and duty, social inequality, honor and conscience, love and hatred, the beauty of external and internal, spiritual.

But one of the main themes of the work is still the theme of the cathedral. At that time, when the ideas of the novel first appeared, this authority was planned or demolished by the authorities, or modernized. Outraged by this attitude to the historical and spiritual relics, the great classic writes a novel that will be the first French historical novel.

Images of the novel

Claude Frollo, to whom our article is devoted, is one of the central images of the novel. No less interesting are other images:

• Esmeralda is the main character of the work. Very beautiful and kind, sincere girl. Once it was stolen by gypsies, and now she dances in the central square of the city with her goat. Around this heroine are concentrated the events of the novel.
• Quasimodo. A deaf hunchback, bell ringer of the cathedral. Once, in Esmeralda Square, he felt sorry for him, gave him water, the only one of hundreds of mocking Parisians. He fell in love with a girl to the core, and all his life is devoted to her.
• Phoebe de Chateaubert. Captain of the Royal Rifle Guards. Handsome and young, he will love Esmeralda.
• Claude Frollo is the abbot of the cathedral, priest. We will not dwell on his image here, since we will next devote several sections of the article to him.
• Pierre Gringoire is a free poet, named Esmeralda's husband.

Also in the novel there is a historical character - Louis XI.

The image of Claude Frollo

This priest is the sinister persecutor of Esmeralda. He, like Quasimodo, follows the girl everywhere. But the hunchback does it for a good reason, and Frollo is blinded by a passion that drives him crazy.

Let's start with the appearance of this character. The first thing that catches his eye is his "stern, reserved, gloomy face." When he first sees the girl and her dance, mixed feelings dominate him, passion and ecstasy are replaced by anger and hatred. Appearance of Claude does not have an appeal, but also does not cause a negative. This tall, stately man of about thirty-five or forty. Despite his youth, he is already gray and bald. Since his youth he has been given to science and knows that the destiny of the priest is waiting for him.

Claude Frollo, whose characteristic is ambiguous, struggles with himself all his conscious life. But apparently his spirit is not strong enough. And he falls into temptation, which he can not fight with. Instead of repenting of his weakness, the priest falls into malice, and the darkness now consumes him entirely. He is cruel and will not stop at nothing to achieve his goal.

Esmeralda and Frollo

Claude Frollo and Esmeralda are antagonists. Esmeralda is bright and clean, despite the fact that she is a street dancer. Uneducated and educated by gypsies and vagabonds. At the same time it is open, all her feelings are visible, maybe, that's why they are so sincere and crystal. Esmeralda does not hide what he feels. Selfless love of the handsome Phoebus, sympathy for Quasimodo and burning disgust and fear of the abbot - all this lies on the surface and can be seen with the naked eye.

Claude Frollo is forced from the early years to hide his essence. The role of the diligent disciple and ascetic disintegrates in the face of a scorching, all-consuming passion. This is not love (like Quasimodo, who loves a young gypsy woman with all her openly wounded heart), this is a blinding passion, the desire to own a girl, as a precious thing, to subdue her. He is not capable of self-sacrifice, rather, he will sacrifice the lives of others for his own interests and needs. Love can not find a place in its icy heart, it only burns its body and mind with fire.

Characteristics of character

Perhaps it's not even a passion for Esmeralda itself, but still in the peculiarities of Frollo's character. As we learn from the pages of the novel, the priest was absorbed in science, until he exhausted all possible variants of knowledge. Further, his alchemy attracted him as a closed science, accessible only to the elect. Maybe it would have been the same with his painful, pathological love, knowing that Frollo would have got rid of his sizzling dependence. But fate never let him comprehend real feelings. When Esmeralda is executed, in whose death he himself is guilty, Quasimodo throws him off the wall of the cathedral, and the priest is broken to death. Killed by his pupil, the abbot pays for his full of anger and a search for life. After all, even Quasimodo was brought up not from pity for the child, but from purely his motives.

Claude Frollo in the movie

Due to its popularity and the drama, the novel was not ignored by playwrights or filmmakers. A lot of films were shot, a lot of theatrical dramas were staged.

In contemporary cinema, the role of the priest was performed by Walter Hampden, Richard Harris, A. Marakulin and many other movie stars.