The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Content Warning: This section of the guide describes and discusses the novel’s depiction of racism and discrimination against Romany people. The novel also includes pejorative terms to refer to Romany people, which this guide includes in direct quotes only. In addition, the text depicts ableism and contains portrayals of people with disabilities and visible differences that might be considered offensive.

Although Claude Frollo is not the protagonist of The Hunchback Notre-Dame, he is the central figure, drawing together the various narratives as they play out in Medieval Paris. He is the adoptive father of both Jehan and Quasimodo, as well as the consultant to the king’s doctor. His fierce desire for Esmeralda sets her story in motion: His failed kidnapping attempt leads to her falling in love with Phoebus, and his successful kidnapping attempt reunites her with her long-lost mother yet condemns her to the gallows. Frollo is the thread that connects the lives of these disparate characters. Importantly, the novel begins in the early stages of his obsession regarding Esmeralda. Until then, he is a respected scholar and generally a good man. Frollo is an arrogant and ambitious intellectual, but he performs good deeds: He desperately tries to raise Jehan to be a good man after their parents’ deaths, taking a job in the priesthood to help support his brother’s studies.