Religion and Conviction in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame"

So, I had a great time at LTUE!

I did all right on my four panels, which was a relief, since this was my first time. I also made a bunch of friends and got to eat chicken salad croissants for three days, and I attended some very informative and interesting panels. My favorites might have been the one on Irish Mythology and the one about murder statistics.

I have varied interests. I'm a writer.

Anyway, I have a lot of good notes for my future writing, which is what I needed, because I have at least one antagonist I need to fully understand soon, since their stories need to be foreshadowed and all that. It was a good weekend, but a busy one, so on Sunday I relaxed by watching The Hunchback of Notre Dame again.

As I watched, maybe it was because it was Sunday and I've been doing a study of the New Testament, but I was struck by the way the film handles religion.

There's no way Disney couldn't discuss religion to some degree in this film. Heck, the cathedral is pretty much a character! But what I like is that they made religion a more universal trait, which makes sense for Catholic medieval France, and had many characters who held some kind of faith, and acted on it differently. That allows religion as a whole to be commented on but not praised or condemned, and allows characters to not be a stand-in for the ideas present in the film.

This can be linked to having multiple female or minority characters; when you have only one, they become the representative for everyone like them. If the film only had Frollo express religious faith, he would have become the film's only voice on the subject, but he's not.

For starters, let's look at the characters who use religion positively through the film. There's the archdeacon, the priest who stops Frollo from killing baby Quasimodo and actively tries to help and guide as he can.

 
He's not the most active character in the film, but whenever he appears, he does move to prevent bloodshed and to assert faith and hope. I'm thinking not only of his first appearance, the one I mentioned, but also when he's advising Esmeralda. The archdeacon comes across as kind and fatherly, more a mentor figure for the characters.

(Which makes me wonder if he, off-screen, did a little more than we realize in teaching and raising Quasimodo while he lived in the cathedral.)

So let's talk about Quasimodo next. Through songs like "Heaven's Light," especially, we see a simple childlike faith in Quasi. We don't get much religious diction from him, but what we do get is gentle and optimistic, seeing the good in others and in the world.

Speaking of songs, we can't ignore "God Help the Outcasts," which brings me to Esmeralda. Her faith is shown as young, not very knowledgeable, but very selfless, as she prays for those who are needy (juxtaposed with the other worshippers who pray for themselves).

A common thread I see in all these positive examples of religion in the film is a turning outward. The archdeacon, Quasimodo, and Esmeralda care more about others than about themselves. I would think that they seek more to live their faith through actions than through words, which might be why we have so little religious diction from any of them. These characters live in ways that would be accepted by a Christian faith: they are generous, forgiving, protective, and loving.

Now let's talk about Frollo. All he ever does is talk about religion; his speech is loaded with it.

However, he's the negative example because he's turned inward. In the first song, Clopin sings, about Frollo, "He saw corruption everywhere except within," which may suggest he's too turned outward, but when Frollo himself sings "Hellfire," he starts by telling the Virgin Mary that he's "a righteous man" and "so much purer than the common, vulgar, weak, licentious crowd."

Frollo is a character who is cruel and does not act in a Christian way. He has turned inward on himself, thinking only of how good and righteous he is while looking away and despising others. Since I've been reading the New Testament, I'd classify him a Pharisaical hypocrite, someone who uses his religiosity for power and self-affirmation, not to help and lift others.

Which leads him, to when he feels lust for Esmeralda, to refuse the responsibility of changing himself (after all, he's perfect and righteous in his own mind) and instead blames her for the effect.

 
This movie continues to be one of my favorite Disney films because of how well they make a statement about living one's faith versus speaking it, and one religion turned outward versus inward, without praising or condemning religion as a whole. I also love how its discussion is still topical today, in the way Frollo's self-satisfaction in his own "goodness" leads him to hatred and blaming others for his own sins, instead of helping those who need help.

I don't know what you would compare this to in today's age. In the polarized world we live in, I can imagine that perhaps people on all sides of debates might be the positive or negative examples of conviction that The Hunchback of Notre Dame shows us. When someone's spoken belief no long matches what they do, when they preach love and tolerance but behave with hate, no matter what their religious beliefs or political line in the sand, they've become a Frollo, haven't they? And shouldn't we all seek to be more like the archdeacon, Quasimodo, and Esmeralda and live an outward-reaching life? Are we really as good as we think we are, or can we be better?

All this because the film didn't make one character representative of an entire idea.

I don't know if this post made any sense, but it was interesting for me to write. I'm game for discussion, or any ideas for future posts you may want me to weigh in on.