How Does The Hunchback of Notre-Dame End? Victor Hugo's Novel, Not the Disney Version

Victor Hugo's novel ends in tragedy: Esmeralda is hanged, Quasimodo watches from the tower of Notre-Dame and pushes Archdeacon Claude Frollo to his death, and then Quasimodo disappears. Years later a deformed skeleton is found embracing another in a charnel house, and when guards try to separate them, it crumbles to dust. If you know the story from the 1996 Disney film, that may come as a shock, because several adaptations, including the 1939 film and the Disney version, give it a happy ending. The book, published in 1831, is far darker and far stranger.

The title is about a building, not a man

In French the novel is called Notre-Dame de Paris, "Our Lady of Paris", and the title refers to the cathedral, which dominates the whole book. The English title The Hunchback of Notre-Dame comes from Frederic Shoberl's 1833 translation. Hugo was reportedly upset that it put the focus on one character, because he saw the novel as a broader plea to preserve France's Gothic architecture.

That plea was serious. In Hugo's time, Gothic buildings were often neglected, destroyed or "updated"; even Notre-Dame's medieval stained glass had been replaced with plain white glass to let in more light. Hugo had already published an essay called War on the Demolishers to defend medieval Paris.

Who are the main characters?

The story is set in Paris in 1482, under King Louis XI. At its centre is Esmeralda, a sixteen-year-old street dancer who is kind and compassionate, and who is loved by several men at once. Quasimodo is the cathedral's bell-ringer, twenty years old, half-blind and almost completely deaf from years of ringing the bells. He was abandoned as a baby and adopted by Claude Frollo.

Frollo, the Archdeacon of Notre-Dame, is the novel's main antagonist. His sour manner and experiments in alchemy make Parisians think he is a sorcerer. The handsome Captain Phoebus is vain and untrustworthy, already engaged to another woman, and the struggling poet Pierre Gringoire wanders in and out of the story.

What happens in the story?

Frollo is torn between his obsessive desire for Esmeralda and his duties as a priest. He orders Quasimodo to kidnap her, but Quasimodo is caught by Phoebus and his guards. The next day Quasimodo is flogged and displayed on the pillory. He begs for water, and only Esmeralda comes forward to give him a drink. That small act wins his heart.

Meanwhile Gringoire wanders into the Court of Miracles, the hidden world of beggars and outcasts, where he is about to be hanged until Esmeralda agrees to marry him to save his life. She never lets him touch her.

Frollo discovers that Esmeralda loves Phoebus. He secretly follows them to a meeting and, burning with jealousy, stabs Phoebus. Esmeralda is found near the body, arrested and sentenced to death. As she is led to the gallows, Quasimodo swings down from the cathedral and carries her inside, where the law of sanctuary protects her for a while.

The siege of Notre-Dame

The outcasts of the Court of Miracles, led by Clopin Trouillefou, attack the cathedral to rescue Esmeralda after hearing that her right to sanctuary will be removed. Quasimodo wrongly believes they want to hurt her and drives them away. The king, misinformed about the riot, orders Esmeralda's immediate execution. It is one of the bitterest ironies in the book: the hero defends her against the very people trying to save her.

In the chaos, Frollo and Gringoire take Esmeralda out of the cathedral, and Frollo again demands her love; she says she would rather die. He leaves her with Sister Gudule, a recluse who hates the Roma, and then comes the twist: Esmeralda is Gudule's long-lost daughter, stolen as a baby. Their reunion lasts only moments before the king's men arrive.

How does it end?

From the tower, Frollo and Quasimodo watch Esmeralda being hanged. Quasimodo pushes Frollo from the cathedral to his death and, with nothing left to live for, disappears. The skeletons found years later suggest that he went to the charnel house at Montfaucon, found Esmeralda's body, and lay down to die holding her. Even Phoebus, who survived the stabbing, gets no happy ending; he is condemned to an unhappy marriage.

The 1956 French film is one of the few versions to end almost exactly like the novel.

"This will kill that"

The novel is also an argument about books and buildings. In one famous moment, Frollo looks from a printed book to the cathedral and says, "This will kill that." Hugo's idea was that before printing, architecture was the great way to record human thought, and that the printing press would end that era. The preface also introduces the Greek word "ANANKE", fate, which hangs over every character.

How the novel saved a cathedral

The book's enormous popularity in France helped launch the country's historical preservation movement, encouraged Gothic revival architecture, and ultimately led to major 19th-century renovations of Notre-Dame led by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. It was also the first novel to make beggars its protagonists. And Quasimodo's name has come to mean a courageous heart beneath a grotesque exterior. A legend even says Hugo locked himself in his room without his clothes, so he could not go out until he finished writing.

Learn with The Hunchback of Notre-Dame: English phrases

Phrase	Meaning	Example
a heart of gold	a very kind nature	Quasimodo has a heart of gold.
to seek sanctuary	to look for a safe place	She sought sanctuary in the cathedral.
a cruel twist of fate	an unlucky turn of events	Finding her mother was a cruel twist of fate.
don't judge a book by its cover	don't judge by appearance	The novel says: don't judge a book by its cover.
to fall on deaf ears	to be ignored	His warnings fell on deaf ears.

Try this: Write three English sentences about someone who was kinder than they looked, using "a heart of gold" and "don't judge a book by its cover".