Victor Hugo "Notre Dame Cathedral": description, characters, analysis of the work. Romantic historical novel B

ROMANTIC PRINCIPLES IN V. HUGO’S NOVEL
"THE CATHEDRAL OF THE MOTHER OF PARIS"
INTRODUCTION
A true example of the first period of development of romanticism, its textbook example remains Victor Hugo’s novel “The Cathedral” Notre Dame of Paris”.
In his work, Victor Hugo created unique romantic images: Esmeralda is the embodiment of humanity and spiritual beauty, Quasimodo, in whose ugly body there is a responsive heart.
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 hero's strength of character, rebellious, rebellious spirit, and ability to deal with circumstances. In the characters, conflicts, plot, landscape of “Notre Dame Cathedral” the romantic principle of reflecting life - exceptional characters in extraordinary circumstances - triumphed. A 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 sings in these works.
Hugo argues that there is a constant struggle in the world between good and evil. 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 distinguished by cruelty and fanaticism , indifference to people's suffering.
It is significant that it was precisely this moral idea of Hugo’s first novel that F. M. Dostoevsky highly appreciated. Proposing “Notre Dame de Paris” for translation into Russian, he wrote in the preface, published in 1862 in the magazine “Time”, that the idea of this work is “the restoration of a lost person, crushed by the unjust oppression of circumstances... This idea is the justification of the humiliated and all-scorned pariahs of society.” . “Who wouldn’t think,” Dostoevsky further wrote, “that Quasimodo is the personification of the oppressed and despised medieval people... in whom love and thirst for justice finally awaken, and with them the consciousness of their truth and their as yet unexplored infinite powers.”

Chapter 1.
ROMANTICISM AS A LITERARY DEVELOPMENT
1.1 Cause
Romanticism as an ideological and artistic movement in culture appeared at the end of the 18th century. At that time, the French word romantique meant “strange,” “fantastic,” “picturesque.”
In the 19th century, the word “Romanticism” became a term to designate a new literary movement, opposite to Classicism.
In the modern understanding, the term “Romanticism” is given a different, expanded meaning. It denotes a type of artistic creativity that is opposed to Realism, in which the decisive role is played not by the perception of reality, but by its re-creation, the embodiment of the artist’s ideal. This type of creativity is characterized by demonstrative conventionality of form, fantasy, grotesqueness of images, and symbolism.
The event that served as the impetus for realizing the inconsistency of the ideas of the 18th century and for changing the worldview of people in general was the Great French Bourgeois Revolution of 1789. Instead of the expected result - “Freedom, Equality and Fraternity” - it brought only hunger and devastation, and with them disappointment in the ideas of the Enlightenment. Disappointment in the revolution as a way of changing social existence caused a sharp reorientation of social psychology itself, a turn of interest from the external life of a person and his activities in society to the problems of the spiritual, emotional life of the individual.
In this atmosphere of doubt, changes in views, assessments, judgments, and surprises, at the turn of the 18th–19th centuries, a new phenomenon of spiritual life arose - romanticism.
Romantic art is characterized by: aversion to bourgeois reality, a decisive rejection of the rationalistic principles of bourgeois enlightenment and classicism, distrust of the cult of reason, which was characteristic of the enlighteners and writers of the new classicism.
The moral and aesthetic pathos of romanticism is associated primarily with the affirmation of the dignity of the human personality, the intrinsic value of its spiritual and creative life. This found expression in the images of heroes of romantic art, which is characterized by the depiction of extraordinary characters and strong passions, and a striving for boundless freedom. The revolution proclaimed individual freedom, but the same revolution gave rise to the spirit of acquisitiveness and selfishness. These two sides of personality (the pathos of freedom and individualism) manifested themselves very complexly in the romantic concept of the world and man.

1.2. Main distinctive features
Disappointment in the power of reason and in society gradually grew to “cosmic pessimism”; it was accompanied by moods of hopelessness, despair, and “world sorrow”. Internal theme “scary world”, with its blind power of material relations, the melancholy of the eternal monotony of everyday reality, has passed through the entire history of romantic literature.
The romantics were sure that “here and now” is the ideal, i.e. a more meaningful, rich, fulfilling life was impossible, but they did not doubt its existence - this is the so-called romantic dual world. It was the search for an ideal, the desire for it, the thirst for renewal and perfection that filled their lives with meaning.
The romantics resolutely rejected the new social order. They put forward their own “romantic hero” - an exceptional, spiritually rich personality who felt lonely and restless in the emerging bourgeois world, mercantile and hostile to man. Romantic heroes either turned away from reality in despair, or rebelled against it, painfully feeling the gap between ideal and reality, powerless to change the life around them, but preferring to die rather than come to terms with it. The life of bourgeois society seemed so vulgar and prosaic to the romantics that they sometimes refused to depict it at all and colored the world with their imagination. Romantics often portrayed their heroes as being in a hostile relationship with the surrounding reality, dissatisfied with the present and guilt-ridden about the world in their dreams.
The Romantics denied the need and possibility of an objective reflection of reality. Therefore, they proclaimed the subjective arbitrariness of the creative imagination to be the basis of art. The plots for romantic works were chosen to include exceptional events and extraordinary settings in which the heroes acted.
Romantics were attracted to everything unusual (the ideal may be there): fantasy, the mystical world of otherworldly forces, the future, distant exotic countries, the originality of the peoples inhabiting them, past historical eras. The requirement for a faithful recreation of place and time is one of the most important achievements of the era of romanticism. It was during this period that the genre of the historical novel was created.
But the heroes of their works themselves were exceptional. They were interested in all-consuming passions, strong feelings, secret movements of the soul, they talked about the depth and inner infinity of personality and the tragic loneliness of a real person in the world around them.
The romantics were truly alone among people who did not want to notice the vulgarity, prosaicness and lack of spirituality of their lives. Rebels and seekers they despised these people. They preferred to be unaccepted and misunderstood than, like most of those around them, to wallow in mediocrity, dullness and ordinariness of a colorless and prosaic world. Loneliness is another trait of a romantic hero.
Along with increased attention to the individual characteristic feature Romanticism had a sense of the movement of history and the involvement of man in it. A feeling of instability and variability of the world, complexity and contradiction human soul determined the dramatic, sometimes tragic perception of life by the romantics.
In the field of form, romanticism contrasted the classical “imitation of nature” with the creative freedom of the artist, who creates his own special world, more beautiful, and therefore more real, than the surrounding reality.

Chapter 2.
VICTOR HUGO AND HIS WORK
2.1 Romantic principles of Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) went down in literary history as the head and theoretician of French democratic romanticism. In the preface to the drama “Cromwell,” he gave a vivid statement of the principles of romanticism as a new literary movement, thereby declaring war on classicism, which still had a strong influence on all French literature. This preface was called the “Manifesto” of the romantics.
Hugo demands absolute freedom for drama and poetry in general. “Down with all kinds of rules and patterns! “- he exclaims in the “Manifesto”. The poet’s advisers, he says, should be nature, truth and his own inspiration; besides them, the only laws obligatory for the poet are those that in every work flow from its plot.
In the “Preface to Cromwell,” Hugo defines main topic of all modern literature - a depiction of social conflicts in society, a depiction of the intense struggle of various social forces rebelling against each other
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.” “Didn’t eat,” wrote he is life a bizarre drama in which good and evil, beautiful and ugly, high and low are mixed - a law that operates in all creation?
The principle of contrasting oppositions in Hugo's poetics was based on his metaphysical ideas about life 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”, the rationale for this element of art Hugo was nevertheless a step forward on the path of bringing art closer to the truth of life.
Hugo considered the work of Shakespeare to be the pinnacle of poetry of modern times, for in Shakespeare’s work, in his opinion, there was a harmonious combination of elements of tragedy and comedy, horror and laughter, the sublime and the grotesque - the amalgamation of these elements constitutes drama, which “is a creation typical of the third era of poetry, for modern literature."
Hugo the romantic proclaimed free, unrestricted imagination in poetic creativity. He considered the playwright to have the right to rely on legends, and not on genuine historical facts, and to neglect historical accuracy. According to him, “one should not look for pure history in drama, even if it is “historical.” She sets out legends, not facts. This is a chronicle, not a chronology.”
The “Preface to Cromwell” persistently emphasizes the principle of a truthful and multifaceted portrayal of life. Hugo speaks of “truthfulness” (“le vrai”) as the main feature of romantic poetry. Hugo argues that drama should not be an ordinary mirror giving a flat image, but a concentrating mirror, which “not only does not weaken the colored rays, but, on the contrary, collects and condenses them, turning flicker into light, and light into flame.” Behind this metaphorical definition lies the author’s desire to actively choose the most characteristic bright phenomena of life, and not just copy everything he saw. The principle of romantic typification, which boils down to the desire to select from life the most striking features, images, and phenomena that are unique in their originality, enabled romantic writers to effectively approach the reflection of life, which distinguished their poetics from the dogmatic poetics of classicism.
The features of a realistic comprehension of reality are contained in Hugo’s discussion of “local color,” by which he means the reproduction of the true setting of the action, historical and everyday features of the era chosen by the author. He condemns the widespread fashion of hastily adding touches of “local color” to the finished work. The drama, in his opinion, should be imbued with the color of the era from within, it should appear on the surface, “like the sap that rises from the root of a tree to its very last leaf.” This can only be achieved through a careful and persistent study of the era depicted.
Hugo advises the poets of the new, romantic school to portray a person in the inextricable connection of his external life and inner world, requires a combination in one picture of “the drama of life with the drama of consciousness.”
The romantic sense of historicism and the contradiction between ideal and reality were uniquely refracted in Hugo’s worldview and work. He sees life as full of conflicts and dissonances, because there is a constant struggle in it between two eternal moral principles - Good and Evil. And the screaming “antitheses” (contrasts) are intended to convey this struggle - the main artistic principle of the writer, proclaimed in the “Preface to Cromwell”, in which the images of the beautiful and the ugly are contrasted, whether he draws. he is a picture of nature, the soul of man or the life of humanity. In history, the element of Evil, the “grotesque,” is raging; images of the collapse of civilizations, the struggle of peoples against bloody despots, pictures of suffering, disasters and injustice run through all of Hugo’s work. And yet, over the years, Hugo became increasingly stronger in his understanding of history as a rigorous movement from Evil to Good, darkness to light, from slavery and violence to justice and freedom. This historical optimism, unlike most romantics, Hugo inherited from the Enlightenmentists of the 18th century.
Attacking the poetics of classicist tragedy, Hugo rejects the principle of unity of place and time, incompatible with artistic truth. The scholasticism and dogmatism of these “rules,” Hugo argues, hinder the development of art. However, he preserves the unity of action, that is, the unity of the plot, as consistent with the “laws of nature” and helping to give the development of the plot the necessary dynamics.
Protesting against the affectation and pretentiousness of the style of the epigones of classicism, Hugor advocates for simplicity, expressiveness, sincerity of poetic speech, enriching its vocabulary by including folk sayings and successful neologisms, because “language does not stop in its development. The human mind is always moving forward, or, if you like, changing, and language changes along with it.” Developing the position about language as a means of expressing thought, Hugo notes that if each era brings something new to language, then “every era must have words expressing these concepts.”
Hugo's style is characterized by detailed descriptions; Long digressions are not uncommon in his novels. Sometimes they are not directly related to the plot line of the novel, but almost always they are distinguished by their poetry or educational value. Hugo's dialogue is lively, dynamic, colorful. His language is replete with comparisons and metaphors, terms related to the profession of the heroes and the environment in which they live.
The historical significance of the “Preface to Cromwell” lies in the fact that Hugo dealt a crushing blow to the school of classicism with his literary manifesto, from which it could no longer recover. Hugo demanded the depiction of life in its contradictions, contrasts, in the clash of opposing forces, and thereby brought art, in fact, closer to a realistic display of reality.

Chapter 3.
NOVEL-DRAMA “THE CATHEDRAL OF THE CATHEDRAL OF OUR GOD OF PARIS”
The July Revolution of 1830, which overthrew the Bourbon monarchy, found an ardent supporter in Hugo. There is no doubt that Hugo's first significant novel, Notre-Dame de Paris, begun in July 1830 and completed in February 1831, also reflected the atmosphere of social upsurge caused by the revolution. Even more so than in Hugo's dramas, Notre-Dame de Paris “embodied the principles of advanced literature formulated in the preface to “Cromwell.” The aesthetic principles set out by the author are not just a manifesto of theory, but the fundamentals of creativity deeply thought out and felt by the writer.
The novel was conceived in the late 1820s. It is possible that the impetus for the idea was Walter Scott’s novel “Quentin Durward,” where the action takes place in France in the same era as in the future “Cathedral.” However, the young author approached his task differently than his famous contemporary. Back in an article in 1823, Hugo wrote that “after the picturesque but prosaic novel of Walter Scott, another novel will have to be created, which will be both drama and epic, picturesque, but also poetic, filled with reality, but at the same time ideal, truthful.” This is exactly what the author of “Notre Dame de Paris” tried to accomplish.
As in his dramas, Hugo turns to history in Notre Dame; At this point, his attention was drawn to the late French Middle Ages, Paris at the end of the 15th century. The interest of the Romantics in the Middle Ages largely arose as a reaction to the classicist focus on antiquity. The desire to overcome the disdainful attitude towards the Middle Ages, which spread thanks to the enlightenment writers of the 18th century, for whom this time was a kingdom of darkness and ignorance, useless in the history of the progressive development of mankind, played a role here. And finally, almost mainly, the Middle Ages attracted romantics with their unusualness, as opposed to the prose of bourgeois life, dull everyday existence. Here one could meet, the romantics believed, with solid, great characters, strong passions, exploits and martyrdom in the name of convictions. All this was still perceived in an aura of a certain mystery associated with insufficient knowledge of the Middle Ages, which was compensated by turning to folk tales and legends that had special significance for romantic writers. Subsequently, in the preface to the collection of his historical poems “The Legend of the Ages,” Hugo paradoxically stated that legend should be given equal rights with history: “The human race can be considered from two points of view: from the historical and the legendary. The second is no less true than the first. The first is no less fortune-telling than the second.” The Middle Ages appear in Hugo's novel in the form of a history-legend against the backdrop of a masterfully recreated historical flavor.
The basis, the core of this legend is, in general, unchanged for the entire creative path of the mature Hugo, the view of the historical process 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 and different eras attracts attention Hugo to an immeasurably greater extent than an analysis of a specific historical situation. Hence the well-known historicalism, the symbolism of Hugo’s heroes, the timeless nature of his psychologism. Hugo himself openly 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 overview and in fits and starts, the state of morals, beliefs, laws, arts, and 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 fantasy.”
It is known that for descriptions of the cathedral and Paris in the 15th century, depictions of the morals of the era, Hugo studied considerable historical material and allowed himself to show off his knowledge, as he did in his other novels. Medieval researchers 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.
And nevertheless, the main thing in the book, if we use Hugo’s terminology, is “whim and fantasy,” that is, something that was entirely created by his imagination and can very little be connected with history. The widest popularity of the novel is ensured by the eternal ethical problems posed in it and the fictional characters of the foreground, who have long since passed (primarily Quasimodo) into the category of literary types.

3.1. Plot organization
The novel is built on a dramatic principle: three men seek the love of one woman; the gypsy Esmeralda is loved by the archdeacon of Notre Dame Cathedral Claude Frollo, the cathedral bell ringer the hunchback Quasimodo and the poet Pierre Gringoire, although the main rivalry arises between Frollo and Quasimodo. At the same time, the gypsy gives her feelings to the handsome but empty nobleman Phoebus de Chateaupert.
Hugo's novel-drama can be divided into five acts. In the first act, Quasimodo and Esmeralda, not yet seeing each other, appear on the same stage. This scene is Place de Greve. Here Esmeralda dances and sings, and here a procession passes, carrying the pope of the jesters, Quasimodo, on a stretcher with comic solemnity. The general merriment is embarrassed by the gloomy threat of the bald man: “Blasphemy! Blasphemy! Esmeralda’s enchanting voice is interrupted by the terrible cry of the recluse of Roland’s Tower: “Will you get out of here, Egyptian locust?” The game of antitheses closes on Esmeralda, all plot threads are drawn to her. And it is no coincidence that the festive bonfire, illuminating her beautiful face, also illuminates the gallows. This is not just a spectacular juxtaposition - it is the beginning of a tragedy. The action of the tragedy, which began with Esmeralda's dance on Grevsky Square, will end here - with her execution.
Every word uttered on this stage is filled with tragic irony. The threats of the bald man, the archdeacon of Notre Dame Cathedral Claude Frollo, are dictated not by hatred, but by love, but such love is even worse than hatred. Passion turns the dry scribe into a villain, ready to do anything to take possession of his victim. In the cry: “Witchcraft!” - a harbinger of Esmeralda’s future troubles: rejected by her, Claude Frollo will relentlessly pursue her, bring her before the Inquisition, and condemn her to death.
Surprisingly, the recluse’s curses were also inspired great love. She became a voluntary prisoner, grieving for her only daughter, who was stolen by gypsies many years ago. Calling heavenly and earthly punishments on Esmeralda’s head, the unfortunate mother does not suspect that the beautiful gypsy is the daughter she mourns. Curses will come true. At the decisive moment, the tenacious fingers of the recluse will not allow Esmeraldes to escape, they will detain her out of revenge on the entire gypsy tribe, which deprived the mother of her beloved daughter. To increase the tragic intensity, the author will force the recluse to recognize her child in Esmeralda - by memorial signs. But recognition will not save the girl: the guards are already close, a tragic outcome is inevitable.
In the second act, the one who yesterday was a “triumphant” - the pope of jesters, becomes “condemned” (contrast again). After Quasimodo was punished with whips and left in the pillory to be mocked by the crowd, two people appear on the stage of the Place de Greve, whose fate is inextricably linked with the fate of the hunchback. First, Claude Frollo approaches the pillory. It was he who picked up the once deformed child thrown into the temple, raised him and made him the bell ringer of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. Since childhood, Quasimodo has become accustomed to reverence for his savior and now expects him to come to the rescue again. But no, Claude Frollo walks by, his eyes treacherously downcast. And then Esmeralda appears at the pillory. There is an initial connection between the destinies of the hunchback and the beauty. After all, it was him, the freak, who the gypsies put in the manger where they stole her, the adorable little one. And now she climbs the stairs to the suffering Quasimodo and, the only one in the whole crowd, taking pity on him, gives him water. From this moment, love awakens in Quasimodo's chest, filled with poetry and heroic self-sacrifice.
If in the first act voices are of particular importance, and in the second - gestures, then in the third - glances. The point of intersection of views is the dancing Esmeralda. The poet Gringoire, who is next to her in the square, looks at the girl with sympathy: she recently saved his life. The captain of the royal riflemen, Phoebe de Chateaupert, with whom Esmeralda fell madly in love at their first meeting, looks at her from the balcony of a Gothic house - this is a look of voluptuousness. At the same time, from above, from the northern tower of the cathedral, Claude Frollo looks at the gypsy - this is the look of gloomy, despotic passion. And even higher, on the bell tower of the cathedral, Quasimodo froze, looking at the girl with great love.
In the fourth act, the dizzying swing of antitheses swings to the limit: Quasimodo and Esmeralda must now switch roles. Once again the crowd gathered on Grevskaya Square - and again all eyes were fixed on the gypsy. But now she, accused of attempted murder and witchcraft, faces the gallows. The girl was declared the murderer of Phoebus de Chateaupert - the one she loves more life. And it is professed by the one who actually wounded the captain - the true criminal Claude Frollo. To complete the effect, the author makes Phoebus himself, who survived the wound, see the gypsy tied up and going to execution. "Phoebus! My Phoebus!” - Esmeralda shouts to him “in a burst of love and delight.” She expects that the captain of the shooters, in accordance with his name (Phoebus - “sun”, “beautiful shooter who was a god”), will become her savior, but he cowardly turns away from her. Esmeralda will be saved not by a beautiful warrior, but by an ugly, rejected bell-ringer. The hunchback will go down the steep wall, snatch the gypsy from the hands of the executioners and lift her up - the bell tower of Notre Dame Cathedral. So, before ascending to the scaffold, Esmeralda, a girl with a winged soul, will find temporary refuge in the sky among singing birds and bells.
In the fifth act, the time for the tragic denouement approaches - the decisive battle and execution on Grevskaya Square. Thieves and swindlers, inhabitants of the Parisian Court of Miracles, besiege the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, and only Quasimodo heroically defends it. The tragic irony of the episode is that both sides are fighting each other to save Esmeralda: Quasimodo does not know that the army of thieves has come to free the girl, the besiegers do not know that the hunchback, defending the cathedral, is protecting the gypsy.
“Ananke” - rock - the novel begins with this word, read on the wall of one of the cathedral towers. At the behest of fate, Esmeralda will give herself away by again shouting out the name of her beloved: “Phoebus!” Come to me, my Phoebus!” - and thereby destroy himself. Claude Frollo will inevitably fall into that “fatal knot” with which he “tightened the gypsy.” Fate will force the pupil to kill his benefactor: Quasimodo will throw Claude Frollo from the balustrade of Notre Dame Cathedral. Only those whose characters are too shallow for tragedy will escape tragic fate. About the poet Gringoire and the officer Phoebe de Chateaupere, the author will say with irony: they “ended tragically” - the first will only return to drama, the second will get married. The novel ends with the antithesis of the petty and the tragic. The usual marriage of Phoebus is contrasted with a fatal marriage, a marriage to death. Many years later, dilapidated remains will be found in the crypt - the skeleton of Quasimodo hugging the skeleton of Esmeralda. When they want to separate them from each other, Quasimodo's skeleton will become dust.
Romantic pathos appeared in Hugo already in the very organization of the plot. The story of the gypsy Esmeralda, the archdeacon of the Cathedral of Notre Dame of Paris Claude Frollo, the bell ringer Quasimodo, the captain of the royal riflemen Phoebus de Chateaupert and other characters associated with them is full of secrets, unexpected turns actions, fatal coincidences and accidents. The fates of the heroes intricately intersect. Quasimodo tries to steal Esmeralda on the orders of Claude Frollo, but the girl is accidentally saved by guards led by Phoebus. Quasimodo is punished for the attempt on Esmeralda's life. But it is she who gives the unfortunate hunchback a sip of water when he stands at the pillory, and with her kind deed transforms him.
There is a purely romantic, instant break in character: Quasimodo turns from a brute animal into a man and, having fallen in love with Esmeralda, objectively finds himself in confrontation with Frollo, who plays a fatal role in the girl’s life.
The destinies of Quasimodo and Esmeralda turn out to be closely intertwined and in the distant past. Esmeralda was kidnapped by gypsies as a child and among them received her exotic name (Esmeralda translated from Spanish means “emerald”), and they left an ugly baby in Paris, who was then raised by Claude Frollo, calling him in Latin (Quasimodo translates as “unfinished”), but also in France Quasimodo is the name of the Red Hill holiday, on which Frollo picked up the baby.
Hugo brings the emotional intensity of the action to the limit, depicting Esmeralda’s unexpected meeting with her mother, the recluse of Roland’s Tower Gudula, who always hates the girl, considering her a gypsy. This meeting takes place literally a few minutes before the execution of Esmeralda, whom the mother is trying in vain to save. But what is fatal at this moment is the appearance of Phoebus, whom the girl loves dearly and whom, in her blindness, she trusts in vain. It is impossible not to notice, therefore, that the reason for the tense development of events in the novel is not only chance, an unexpected combination of circumstances, but also the emotional impulses of the characters, human passions: passion forces Frollo to pursue Esmeralda, which becomes the impetus for the development of the central intrigue of the novel; love and compassion for the unfortunate girl determine the actions of Quasimodo, who temporarily manages to steal her from the hands of the executioners, and a sudden insight, indignation at the cruelty of Frollo, who greeted Esmeralda’s execution with hysterical laughter, turns the ugly bell-ringer into an instrument of just retribution.

3.2. System of character images in the novel
The action in the novel “Notre Dame Cathedral” takes place at the end of the 15th century. The novel opens with a picture of a noisy national holiday in Paris. Here is a motley crowd of townsmen and townswomen; and Flemish merchants and artisans who arrived as ambassadors to France; and the Cardinal of Bourbon, also university students, beggars, royal archers, street dancer Esmeralda and the fantastically ugly bell-ringer of the cathedral, Quasimodo. That's how wide circle images that appear before the reader.
As in other works of Hugo, the characters are sharply divided into two camps. The writer’s democratic views are also confirmed by the fact that he finds high moral qualities only in the lower classes of medieval society - the street dancer Esmeralda and the bell-ringer Quasimodo. While the frivolous aristocrat Phoebus de Chateaupert, the religious fanatic Claude Frollo, the noble judge, the royal prosecutor and the king himself embody the immorality and cruelty of the ruling classes.
“The Cathedral of Notre Dame of Paris” is a romantic work in style and method. In it one can find everything that was characteristic of Hugo’s dramaturgy. It contains exaggeration and play with contrasts, poeticization of the grotesque, and an abundance of exceptional situations in the plot. The essence of the image is revealed in Hugo not so much on the basis of character development, but in contrast to another image.
The system of images in the novel is based on the theory of the grotesque developed by Hugo and the principle of contrast. The characters are lined up in clearly defined contrasting pairs: the freak Quasimodo and the beautiful Esmeralda, also Quasimodo and the outwardly irresistible Phoebus; the ignorant bell-ringer is a learned monk who has learned all the medieval sciences; Claude Frollo is also opposed to Phoebus: one is an ascetic, the other is immersed in the pursuit of entertainment and pleasure. The gypsy Esmeralda is opposed to the blond Fleur-de-Lys - Phoebe's bride, a rich girl, educated and belonging to high society. The relationship between Esmeralda and Phoebus is based on contrast: the depth of love, tenderness and subtlety of feeling in Esmeralda - and the insignificance, vulgarity of the foppish nobleman Phoebus.
The internal logic of Hugo's romantic art leads to the fact that the relationships between sharply contrasting heroes acquire an exceptional, exaggerated character.
Quasimodo, Frollo and Phoebus all three love Esmeralda, but in their love each appears as the antagonist of the other. Phoebus needs a love affair for a while, Frollo burns with passion, hating Esmeralda for this as the object of his desires. Quasimodo loves the girl selflessly and unselfishly; he confronts Phoebus and Frollo as a man devoid of even a drop of selfishness in his feelings and, thereby, rises above them. Embittered with the whole world, the embittered freak Quasimodo is transformed by love, awakening the good, human principle in him. In Claude Frollo, love, on the contrary, awakens the beast. The contrast between these two characters determines the ideological sound of the novel. According to Hugo, they embody two basic human types.
Thus, a new level of contrast arises: the external appearance and internal content of the character: Phoebus is beautiful, but internally dull, mentally poor; Quasimodo is ugly in appearance, but beautiful in soul.
Thus, the novel is constructed as a system of polar oppositions. These contrasts are not just artistic device for the author, but a reflection of his ideological positions and concept of life. The confrontation between polar principles seems to Hugo’s romance to be eternal in life, but at the same time, as already mentioned, he wants to show the movement of history. According to the researcher of French literature Boris Revizov, Hugo views the change of eras - the transition from the early Middle Ages to the late, that is, to the Renaissance period - as a gradual accumulation of goodness, spirituality, a new attitude towards the world and towards ourselves.
At the center of the novel, the writer placed the image of Esmeralda and made her the embodiment of spiritual beauty and humanity. The creation of a romantic image is facilitated by the bright characteristics that the author gives to the appearance of his person.

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 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 colorful, 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 killed 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 was concretized romantic conflict 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.

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"Notre Dame" as a romantic historical novel

Completed by a 3rd year OZ student

Chepurnaya P.V.

INTRODUCTION

The personality of Victor Hugo is striking in its versatility. One of the most widely read French prose writers in the world, for his compatriots he is, first of all, a great national poet, a reformer of French verse and drama, as well as a patriotic publicist and democratic politician. But there is one novel that won him not only all-French, but also worldwide fame as a novelist. This is the novel “Notre Dame Cathedral” by Lunacharsky A.V. Victor Hugo. Creative path writer. M., 1931 p. 19.

Hugo began work on this novel two days before the start of the July Revolution, that is, on July 25, 1830. The book was published on March 16, 1831 - during the anxious days of unrest and the destruction of the archbishop's palace by the people. Turbulent political events determined the nature of the novel, which was historical in form, but deeply modern in ideas. Captivated by the revolutionary fervor of the French people, the writer sought to find in distant history the beginnings of their future great actions, sought to explore the deep shifts that occur in the consciousness and souls of people in troubled times, at the turning point of two eras.

Hugo conceived his novel as an epic picture of medieval Paris, bearing in mind the state of morals, beliefs, arts, and finally, the civilization of the 15th century Evnin E.M. Victor Hugo. M., 1976 p. 33.

“Notre Dame Cathedral” by Victor Hugo is often studied and discussed, both in our country and throughout the world. In the novel you can find a social, romantic, and historical layer. This versatility has attracted both readers and researchers for more than a century and a half.

In French romantic literature, “Notre Dame de Paris” was an outstanding work of the historical genre. By the power of creative imagination, Hugo sought to recreate the truth of history, which would be an instructive instruction for modern times.

Victor Hugo managed not only to expose the social contradictions of that time, but to convey the flavor of the era. For this purpose, he carefully studied all historical works, chronicles, charters and other documents from which it was possible to glean information about the morals and political beliefs of the French Middle Ages during the time of Louis 11 Evnin E.M. Victor Hugo. M., 1976 p. 33. But in the novel, the historical “outline” serves only as the general basis of the plot, in which fictional characters act and events created by the author’s imagination develop. In fact, only one historical event is indicated in the novel (the arrival of ambassadors for the marriage of the Dauphin and Margarita in January 1842), and the real characters (Louis 13, Cardinal of Bourbon, ambassadors) are relegated to the background by numerous fictional characters. All main characters novel - Claude Frollo, Quasimodo, Esmeralda, Phoebus - are invented 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 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. The truth of a historical novel is not in the accuracy of the facts, but in fidelity to the spirit of the times. Hugo pays special attention to the vocabulary of his characters. This is most clearly seen in the way the novel’s vocabulary is developed, reflecting the language spoken by all layers of society in the 15th century. For example, songs of the people of that time:

Jean Balut, our cardinal,

I've lost count of the dioceses

He's quick.

And his Verdun friend

Suddenly lost, apparently

Everything down to the bone. Hugo V. Notre Dame Cathedral. M., 2003 p. 456

Hugo Roman Cathedral Notre Dame Paris

there is terminology from the field of architecture, quotes from Latin, archaisms, the argot of the crowd of the Court of Miracles, a mixture of Spanish, Italian and Latin. In the understanding of the author of the novel, the people are not just a dark ignorant mass, a passive victim of the oppressors: they are full of creative forces and the will to fight, the future belongs to them. Although Hugo did not create a broad picture of the popular movement in France in the 15th century, he saw in the common people that irresistible force that, in continuous uprisings, showed indomitable energy, achieving the desired victory. The image of an awakening people is embodied in Quasimodo. The scene in which Esmeralda gives Quasimodo, who is suffering in the pillory, a drink, is full of secret meaning: this is a people languishing in slavery receiving a life-giving breath of freedom. If before meeting Esmeralda, the hunchback was, as it were, one of the stone monsters of the cathedral, not quite human (in accordance with the Latin name given to him - Quasimodo, “almost”, “as if”) Hugo V. Notre Dame Cathedral. M., 2003 p. 163 then, having fallen in love with her, he becomes almost a superman. The fate of Quasimodo is a guarantee that the people will also come to life. The people, in the understanding of the author of the novel, are a formidable force, in whose blind activity the ideas of justice make their way (only the “vagrants” were able to speak out in defense of the innocently convicted Esmeralda). In the scenes of the storming of the cathedral by the masses of the people, Hugo hints at the future storming of the Bastille in 1789, at the revolution that the Ghent stocker Jacques Copenola predicts to King Louis XI “... when the sounds of the alarm bell ring from above, when the guns roar, when it collapses with a hellish roar tower, when soldiers and citizens roar and rush at each other in mortal combat - that’s when the hour will strike.” Hugo V. Notre Dame Cathedral. M., 2003 p. 472. These scenes contain a hint of the continuity of events of the distant past and present, which is reflected in the writer’s thoughts about his time, captured in the third and fourth books of the novel. This was facilitated by those turbulent political events (the July Revolution, cholera riots, the destruction of the archbishop's palace by the people), during which the “Cathedral” was created.

The features of romanticism in the novel manifested themselves in sharp contrast positive and negative characters heroes, an unexpected discrepancy between the external and internal content of human natures. Hugo uses extensive comparisons, metaphors, antitheses, and shows amazing ingenuity in the use of verbs. The style and composition of the novel are contrasting: for example, the ironic solemnity of the court hearings is replaced by the simple humor of the crowd at the festival for the festival of jesters; the melodrama of the chapter “The Slipper” (the recognition scene) - the terrifying scene of Quasimodo’s torture on the Place de Greve; Esmeralda's romantic love for Phoebus is given in contrast to Claude Frollo's love for Esmeralda.

Exceptional characters shown in extraordinary circumstances are also a sign of romanticism. The main characters of the novel - Esmeralda, Quasimodo, Claude Frollo - are the embodiment of one or another human quality.

Esmeralda symbolizes the moral beauty of the common man. 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. Handsome Phoebus and his bride Fleur-de-Lys personify high society, outwardly brilliant, internally empty, selfish and heartless. The focus of dark gloomy forces is Archdeacon Claude Frollo, a representative of the Catholic Church. In Quasimodo the democratic spirit was embodied. humanistic idea Hugo: ugly in appearance, outcast in his own way social status, the cathedral bell ringer turns out to be a highly moral person. This cannot be said about people occupying a high position in the social hierarchy (Louis XI himself, knights, gendarmes, riflemen, courtiers). It is in Esmeralda, in Quasimodo, that Hugo sees the outcasts of the Court of Miracles folk heroes a novel full of moral strength and genuine humanism.

Notre Dame was the greatest achievement of Hugo, the young leader of the Romantics. According to the historian Michelet, “Victor Hugo built another one next to the old cathedral - a poetic cathedral as strong in its foundation as the first, and raising its towers just as high.” Lunacharsky A.V. Victor Hugo. The creative path of a writer. M., 1931 p. 19.

It is not for nothing that the image of the cathedral occupies a central place in the novel. The Christian Church played an important role in the system of serfdom. One of the main characters, the archdeacon of the cathedral, Claude Frollo, embodies the gloomy ideology of the churchmen. A stern fanatic, he devoted himself to the study of science, but medieval science was closely associated with mysticism and superstition. A man of extraordinary intelligence, Frollo soon felt the powerlessness of this wisdom. But religious prejudices did not allow him to go beyond its limits. He experienced “the horror and amazement of an altar server” before printing, as well as before any other innovation. He artificially suppressed human desires in himself, but could not resist the temptation that the gypsy girl caused him. The fanatical monk became frantic, cynical and rude in his passion, revealing to the end his baseness and hardness of heart.

The gloomy image of the Cathedral appears in the novel as a symbol of Catholicism, which has suppressed man for centuries. The cathedral is a symbol of the enslavement of the people, a symbol of feudal oppression, dark superstitions and prejudices that hold the souls of people captive. It is not for nothing that in the darkness of the cathedral, under its arches, merging with bizarre marble chimeras, deafened by the roar of bells, Quasimodo, the “soul of the cathedral,” whose grotesque image personifies the Middle Ages, lives alone. In contrast, the charming image of Esmeralda embodies the joy and beauty of earthly life, the harmony of body and soul, that is, the ideals of the Renaissance, which replaced the Middle Ages. The break of eras passes through destinies, through the hearts of the heroes in “Cathedral”. It is no coincidence that Esmeralda is compared to the Mother of God throughout the novel. Light comes from her. So the author metaphorically suggests: the deity of modern times is freedom, in the image of Esmeralda - the promise of future freedom.

Rock, the death of heroes is the Middle Ages. The aging, dying era, sensing the approach of its end, pursues the more fiercely new life. The Middle Ages takes revenge on Esmeralda for being free, and Quasimodo for freeing himself from the power of the stone. The laws, prejudices, and habits of the Middle Ages kill them.

Hugo did not idealize the Middle Ages, as many Romantic writers did; he truthfully showed the dark sides of the feudal past. At the same time, his book is deeply poetic, full of ardent patriotic love for France, its history, its art, in which, according to the writer, lives the freedom-loving spirit of the French people.

CONCLUSION

The brightness of colors with which medieval life is depicted is drawn to a much greater extent from the romantic imagination than from authentic sources Lunacharsky A.V. Victor Hugo. The creative path of a writer. M., 1931 p. 19.

“Notre Dame de Paris” is built on the contrasts of good and evil, mercy and cruelty, compassion and intolerance, feeling and reason. The novel is filled with solid, large characters, strong passions, exploits and martyrdom in the name of beliefs.

The romantic hero Quasimodo changes according to the classical pattern - a hero with an extraordinary character changes in an exceptional situation.

Hugo advocates for simplicity, expressiveness, sincerity of poetic speech, for the enrichment of its vocabulary by including folk sayings as opposed to classicism.

The historicism of the novel lies more in the “aura” of the Middle Ages created by the author (through speech, architecture, names, rituals) than in the description of real historical events or characters.

The novel is constructed as a system of polar oppositions. These contrasts are not just an artistic device for the author, but a reflection of his ideological positions and concept of life.

“Notre-Dame de Paris” has become one of the best examples of a historical novel, incorporating a picturesquely recreated diverse picture of medieval French life.

LIST OF REFERENCES USED

1. Hugo V. Notre Dame Cathedral. M., 2003

2. Evnina E.M. Victor Hugo. M., 1976

3. Lunacharsky A.V. Victor Hugo. The creative path of a writer. M., 1931

4. Meshkova V.I. works of Victor Hugo. Saratov, 1971

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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 hero's strength of character, rebellious, rebellious spirit, ability to fight circumstances. In the characters, conflicts, plot, landscape of “Notre Dame Cathedral” the romantic principle of reflecting life - exceptional characters in extraordinary circumstances - 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.

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CHISINAU 2011

ROMANTIC PRINCIPLES IN V. HUGO’S NOVEL “THE CATHEDRAL OF NOTRE DAMY OF PARIS.”

A true example of the first period of the development of romanticism, its textbook example remains Victor Hugo’s novel “Notre Dame de Paris.”

In his work, Victor Hugo created unique romantic images: Esmeralda - the embodiment of humanity and spiritual beauty, Quasimodo, in whose ugly body there is a responsive heart.

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.

It is significant that it was precisely this moral idea of Hugo’s first novel that F. M. Dostoevsky highly appreciated. Proposing “Notre Dame Cathedral” for translation into Russian, he wrote in the preface, published in 1862 in the magazine “Time”, that the idea of this work is “the restoration of a lost person, crushed by the unjust oppression of circumstances... This idea is the justification of the humiliated and all rejected pariahs of society.” “Who would not think,” Dostoevsky further wrote, “that Quasimodo is the personification of the oppressed and despised medieval people... in whom love and the thirst for justice finally awakens, and with them the consciousness of their truth and their still unexplored infinite powers "

THE LOVE OF QUASIMODO AND CLAUDE FROLLO FOR ESMERALDA. ROMANTICISM IN "THE CATHEDRAL OF NOTRY MARY OF PARIS".

There is a fundamental difference between the love of Quasimodo and Claude Frollo for Esmeralda. Claude Frollo's passion is selfish. He is busy only with his own experiences, and Esmeralda exists for him only as an object of his experiences. Therefore, he does not recognize her right to independent existence, and perceives any manifestation of her personality as disobedience, as treason. When she rejects his passion, he is unable to bear the thought that the girl could go to someone else, and he himself gives her into the hands of the executioner. The destructive passion of Claude Frollo is opposed to the deep and pure love Quasimodo. He loves Esmeralda completely disinterestedly, without pretending to anything and expecting nothing from his beloved. Without demanding anything in return, he saves her and gives her shelter in the Cathedral; Moreover, he is ready to do anything for Esmeralda’s happiness and wants to bring to her the one with whom she is in love - the handsome captain Phoebus de Chateaupert, but he cowardly refuses to meet with her. For the sake of love, Quasimodo is capable of a feat of self-sacrifice - in the eyes of the author, he is a true hero.

The third peak of the love triangle in the novel is the image of the beautiful Esmeralda. She embodies in the novel the spirit of the approaching Renaissance, the spirit of the era replacing the Middle Ages, she is all joy and harmony. An eternally youthful, lively, perky Rabelaisian spirit boils within her; this fragile girl, by her very existence, challenges medieval asceticism. Parisians perceive the young gypsy with a white goat as an unearthly, beautiful vision, but, despite the extreme idealization and melodrama of this image, it has that degree of vitality that is achieved with romantic typification. Esmeralda contains the principles of justice and kindness (the episode with the rescue of the poet Pierre Gringoire from the gallows in the Court of Miracles), she lives widely and freely, and her airy charm, naturalness, and moral health are equally opposed to the ugliness of Quasimodo and the dark asceticism of Claude Frollo. The romanticism in this image also affects Esmeralda’s attitude towards love - she cannot change her feelings, her love is uncompromising, it is literally love to the grave, and for the sake of love she goes to death.

The secondary characters of the novel are also colorful - the young aristocrat Fleur de Lys, the king, his entourage; The pictures of medieval Paris are wonderful. It is not for nothing that Hugo devoted so much time to studying the historical era - he draws its openwork, multi-colored architecture; the polyphony of the people's crowd conveys the peculiarities of the language of the era, and in general the novel can be called an encyclopedia of medieval life.

The uniqueness of romanticism in Hugo’s “Notre Dame Cathedral” lies in the fact that a very rich and intricate plot, full of secrets and intrigue, is played out by bright, exceptional characters, who are revealed by contrasting images. Romantic characters in general, as a rule, are static; they do not change over time, if only because the action in romantic works develops very rapidly and covers a short period of time. The romantic hero seems to appear before the reader for a short moment, as if snatched from the darkness by a dazzling flash of lightning. IN romantic work heroes are revealed through the contrast of images, and not through character development. This contrast often takes on an exceptional, melodramatic character, and typically romantic, melodramatic effects arise. Hugo's novel depicts exaggerated, hypertrophied passions. Hugo uses categories traditional for romantic aesthetics - light and darkness, good and evil - but fills them with very specific content. Hugo believed that a work of art should not slavishly copy reality, but transform it, present it in a “condensed”, concentrated form. He compared a work of literature to a concentrating mirror, fusing individual rays of life into a multicolored bright flame. All this made Notre-Dame de Paris one of the brightest examples of romantic prose, determined the success of the novel among its first readers and critics, and continues to determine its popularity today.

Hugo's majestic, monumental world embodied both the sublime and vulnerable sides of romanticism. A curious statement about Hugo M. Tsvetaeva: “The elements chose this pen as their herald. Solid peaks. Each line is a formula. Inerrancy is tiring. The magnificence of commonplaces. The world is as if just created. Every sin is the first. The rose is always fragrant. A beggar is a completely beggar. The girl is always innocent. The old man is always wise. In the tavern they always get drunk. The dog can’t help but die at the owner’s grave. There are no surprises."

Bibliography:

Internet resources:

http://www.licey.net/lit/foreign/gugoLove
http://etelien.ru/Collection/ 15/15_00139.htm

Romanticism in foreign literature
V. Hugo (1802-1885)
"Notre Dame Cathedral" (1831)

“Tribune and poet, he thundered over the world like a hurricane, awakening in life everything that is beautiful in the soul of a person.”

M. Gorky

In 1952, by decision of the World Peace Council, all progressive humanity celebrated the 150th anniversary of the birth of the great French poet, writer and playwright, public figure V. Hugo. The wounds of World War II were still bleeding. In the heart of Paris stood the pedestal of the Hugo monument, broken by the fascists - the bronze statue of the writer was destroyed by the fascists - but the voice of Hugo, which did not cease during the years of occupation of France, called on his compatriots, all people of good will, to fight for peace, for the destruction of wars of conquest.
“We want peace, we want it passionately. But what kind of world do we want? Peace at any cost? No! We do not want a world in which the hunched do not dare to raise their heads; our goal is freedom! Freedom will ensure peace." Hugo would say these words in 1869, speaking in Lausanne at the “Congress of Friends of the World,” of which he would be elected chairman. He will devote his entire life and his creativity to the struggle for the liberation of the oppressed.
Hugo was born in 1802 in Besançon. His father, Joseph Hugo, the son of a craftsman, the grandson and great-grandson of farmers, at the age of fifteen, together with his brothers, went to fight for the revolution. He took part in suppressing the rebellion in Vanda and was wounded many times. Under Napoleon he became a brigadier general. Until the end of his days, he was mistaken in his assessment of Napoleon, considering him a defender of the revolution.
Hugo's mother was from the Vendée, hated Napoleon, and idolized the Bourbon monarchy. Only in his youth did Victor free himself from the influence of his mother, with whom he lived after his parents separated. When his mother died, Victor - he was 19 years old - like Marius from Les Misérables, settled in an attic, lived in poverty, but wrote poetry, his first novels, tried to understand the true balance of power in the country, and became close to the Republicans.
Hugo was a participant in the 1848 revolution. From the rostrum of the Constituent Assembly, he made a fiery speech in defense of the republic. December 2, 1851, having learned about the coup d'etat carried out by the big bourgeoisie, which decided to restore the monarchy again, now led by Emperor Louis - Napoleon III. Hugo, together with his comrades, organized a resistance committee. He called for a fight, issued proclamations, supervised the construction of barricades, every minute risking being captured and shot... A reward of 25 thousand francs was placed on Hugo’s head. His sons were in prison. But only when the defeat of the Republicans became obvious, Hugo crossed the French border under an assumed name. Started 19- summer period exile of the great poet and writer. But even in exile he continued to fight. V. Hugo's pamphlet “Napoleon the Lesser” and the cycle of poems “Retribution” thundered throughout Europe and pilloried Louis Napoleon III for all time.
Living on the rocky island of Guernsey, located in the English Channel, Hugo is at the center of all significant events. He corresponds with Kossuth and Giuseppe Mazzini, organizes fundraising for arming Garibaldi's troops, Herzen invites him to collaborate in the Bell. In 1859, the writer issued an open letter to the US government, protesting against the death penalty of John Brown...
E. Zola later wrote that for his 20-year-old peers, Hugo seemed “a supernatural creature, a chained ear of corn, who continued to sing his songs amid the storm and bad weather.” V. Hugo was the head of the French romantics. Not only writers, but also artists, musicians, and theater workers considered him their ideological leader.
In the 20s, in those distant times when romanticism was taking hold in art, young people gathered on certain days in Hugo’s small, modest apartment in Paris on Notre Dame de Champs, many of whom were destined to become outstanding figures in world culture. Alfred de Musset, Prosper Merimee, A. Dumas, E. Delacroix, G. Berlioz visited here. After the revolutionary events of the 30s, A. Mickiewicz and G. Heine could be seen at meetings with Hugo. Members of Hugo's circle rebelled against the noble reaction, which, during the period of restoration and popular uprisings, established itself in many European countries, and at the same time challenged the spirit of acquisitiveness, the cult of money, which was increasingly spreading in France and finally won under the king, the banker Louis Philippe.
On the eve of the revolution of 1830, Hugo began writing the novel Notre Dame. This book became the artistic manifesto of the romantics.
__________________________ _______________
After a short pause, music begins to sound in the classroom - the beginning of Beethoven's 5th symphony. In the powerful sound of the entire orchestra, a short, clearly rhythmic motive will sound - the motive of fate. It will repeat itself twice. From it grows the theme of the main party, the theme of struggle, rapid, dramatically intense. It is opposed by another theme - broad, naive, but also energetic and courageous, full of confidence in its strength.
When the music stops, the teacher reads the beginning of the first part of the first chapter of Hugo’s novel “Notre Dame de Paris”: Three hundred and forty-eight years, 6 months and 19 days ago, the Parisians woke up to the sound of all the bells... It was not easy to get into the great hall that day, which was considered at that time the largest room in the world...”
Let us try to do this and penetrate into it together with the heroes of the novel.
And now “we are stunned and blinded. Above our heads is a double pointed vault, decorated with wooden carvings, painted with golden lilies on an azure field: under our feet is a floor paved with white and black marble slabs.”
The palace shone with all its splendor. However, we are not able to examine it in detail: the crowd that keeps arriving interferes. We are drawn into the whirlpool of its movement, we are squeezed, squeezed, we are suffocating, curses and complaints are heard from all sides against the Flemings... the Cardinal of Burgon, the chief judge..., guards with whips, cold, heat..."
(“Notre Dame Cathedral”, book 1, chapter 1, pp. 3-7)
And all this to the unspeakable amusement of the schoolchildren and servants, who incite the crowd with their jokes, mockery, and sometimes blasphemy.
So, slowly, V. Hugo begins the story. Time flows slowly, there is still a long wait, because the mystery begins only at noon and the writer here, in the Palace of Justice, will introduce us to many characters who will play their role in the novel.
Now the Palace is festive, filled to capacity with people, but very little time will pass, and an unfair trial will be carried out here, the beautiful young Esmeralda will be tortured, accused of witchcraft and murder and sentenced to the gallows. All this will happen later...
And now we hear the roar of the crowd. He sometimes falls silent when everyone's eyes turn first to the handsome cardinal in a magnificent purple robe who has appeared in the box, then to the king of the beggars in picturesque rags, and then to the Flemish ambassadors, especially to the broad-shouldered one, whose leather jacket and felt hat stand out unusually among the silk surrounding him and velvet. But the roar of the crowd becomes menacing when he forces the actors to begin the mystery without waiting for the arrival of the late cardinal, or explodes with brief approval for the arrogant antics of the Flemish ambassador, the stocker Jacques Coppenol, who rebuffed the cardinal and publicly declared in a thunderous voice that he was not some kind of secretary the council of elders, as the cardinal introduced him, but a simple stocking worker. “No more, no less than a hosiery! Why is this bad?
In response, there was an explosion of laughter and applause: after all, Coppenol was a commoner, like those who greeted him...
But attention! We are expected to meet the main characters. Let's name them. This is how the conversation about the novel begins. Quasimodo, Esmeralda, Claude Frollo and Phoebus de Chateaupert.
When Quasimodo first appeared during a competition between freaks vying for the title of Pope of Jesters, his appearance shocked everyone: “It is difficult to describe this tetrahedral nose... and despite this ugliness, there was some formidable expression of strength, agility and courage in his entire figure!”
We will also hear Esmeralda’s name for the first time in the Palace of Justice. One of the young mischief-makers, perched on the windowsill, suddenly shouted: Esmeralda! This name had a magical effect. Everyone who remained in the palace hall rushed to the windows to see better, climbed the walls, and poured out into the street. Esmeralda danced in the square around a large fire. “She was small in stature... she truly seemed like an ideal creature.” The eyes of the entire crowd were glued to her, all mouths agape. But “among the thousands of faces, an extraordinary youthful ardor, thirst for life and passion sparkled.” This is how we met another main character of the novel - Archdeacon Kolod Frollo.
Captain Phoebus de Chateaupert first appears at the moment when Esmeralda will cry for help, fighting off two men who tried to cover her mouth. This will happen late in the evening on one of the dark streets of Paris, along which the young dancer will return home. One of the people who attacked her was Quasimodo.
And suddenly a horseman appeared from around the corner of the house; it was the commander of the royal riflemen, Captain Phoebus de Chateaupert, armed from head to toe.
Hugo does not give us a portrait of the captain - here it was impossible, the action unfolds rapidly.
But Hugo will still choose the time and try to give us a portrait of Phoebus. He will talk about him in the scene with Fleur de Lys, the captain's bride. Society will be prim, boring, and the writer will convey to us his impressions of the bored groom: “He was a young man... and success came easily. However, notes Hugo, all this was combined with enormous claims to elegance, panache and beautiful appearance. Let the reader figure this out for himself. I’m just a historian.”
So Phoebus arrived in time: Quasimodo and Claude Frollo almost kidnapped Esmeralda. This scene is one of the very important in the composition of the novel. Here our four heroes meet for the first time, here their destinies are connected, their paths cross.
Phoebe de Chateaupert. What role will he be destined to play in the novel?
Esmeralda, freed by Phoebus, will fall in love with him. And handsome Phoebus? He was not able not only to love, but also to protect the girl at a critical moment. “There are hearts in which love does not grow,” Hugo will say through the mouth of Quasimodo. Phoebus sold Esmeralda. But was there a person among the heroes who could love Esmeralda as deeply and selflessly as she knew how to love? Students will name Quasimodo and talk about his selfless love, how Quasimodo saved Esmeralda from inevitable death, hid her in the Cathedral, and how he tenderly nursed the exhausted girl.
And having guessed that Esmeralda loves Phoebus, despite the fact that he himself passionately loves her, he selflessly stood the whole day at the door of the Fleur de Lys mansion to bring Phoebus to Esmeralda and thereby make her happy, they will also tell about the death of Quasimodo.
The essence of a person is tested by his actions and his attitude towards other people. But most of all, a person’s spiritual value is manifested in his ability to selflessly and selflessly love.
Love, the ability to love, is a precious gift that not all people possess. Only the spiritually generous are worthy of this gift. True love that visited this person makes him beautiful.
And so V. Hugo’s novel ends. Two last chapters named: "Phoebe's Sconce" and "Quasimodo's Marriage". In the chapter specifically dedicated to Phoebus, there is only one line about him: “Phoebus de Chateaupert also ended tragically: he got married.” In the chapter dedicated to Quasimodo, the writer said that after the execution of Esmeralda, Quasimodo disappeared. approximately 1.5 or 2 years have passed. One day, people appeared in the Montfaucon crypt, a terrible place where the corpses of those executed were dumped without giving them land. And here Monfaucon... among the corpses... he crumbled into dust. (Book XI, Chapter IU, p. 413)
With this we will complete our first journey with the heroes through the pages of Hugo’s novel. But before we part, let’s return to the music with which we began our journey. Do you recognize the author? Can you name the work? And most importantly, think about why this particular music was taken as an epigraph to our meeting with Hugo’s novel. The introduction from Beethoven's fifth symphony is heard again.

Lesson 2.

VICTOR HUGO
"THE CATHEDRAL OF NOTRY DADY OF PARIS"
“Here time is the architect and the people are the masons”
V. Hugo

The second lesson is preceded by that epigraph. When the music stops, the teacher (or student) reads an excerpt from the chapter “Paris from a Bird's Eye View”
“Paris of the 15th century was a giant city... this is its breath; and now the people are singing"
Surprisingly picturesque from the pages of the book presents us with a visible and sound image of medieval Paris. We admired its dazzling beauty from a bird's eye view. But there, below, in its streets and squares, in the terrible dungeon of the prison, and in the royal cell in one of the towers of the Bastille, events unfolded that steadily led to a tragic denouement.
In the last lesson, traveling with the main characters through the pages of the book, we traced the fates of some of them.
Have we named all the heroes?
The main character of the work is the people, who act in the novel as an active force and, according to Hugo, ultimately determine the course of history.
etc.............