Protecting Social Values

ESSAY ABOUT QUASIMODO

INTRO

This essay is written about the well known character Quasimodo. It is dedicated to awakening the people to the reality they are living in. In the essay there is a comparison between the literature and movie character Quasimodo. It is the social cause insipred by Victor Hugo, that is motivating to write this essay about a dark gothic character namely Quasimodo.

QUASIMODO CHARACTER COMPARISON

Quasimodo is strange image, created by the french novelist Victor Hugo, putting the fear in Parisians with his scary outlook. In his literary gothic fiction work “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame”  (adaptation from 1849^th of Hugo`s roman “Notre-Dame de Paris”), Victor Hugo presents Quasimodo as an elected from the crowd Pope of the Fools. The detailed description of Quasimodo`s character vision is presenting a monster, bringing darkness everywhere… leaving the reader any chance for fantasy, on the contrary – to imagine if it`s possible. Finding Quasimodo in it`s own reality – cruel, nightmarish and dark, the character is humiliated, moked and likened to the devil. Primarly the reader`s idea about the character`s vision is ugly, creepy, crowded by the crowd and exhibited. Because of the custom procession it has to be presented parade through the galleries of the palace, as well as on the streets and public places in Paris. Quasimodo lives in the Cathedral Notre-Dame, where is bell-ringer. The description as one-eyed, deaf, lame, hunchbacked makes the character completely asocial in the societies of the Late Middle Ages Rmantic Time.

The movie role of Quasimodo is played by the american actor of the 20^th century Lon Chaney in the eponymous horror film from 1923^rd - “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame”, directed by Wallace Worsley. The actor is embodied in the character of Quasimodo skillfully by creative fusion of costume elements and make up, typically for Chaney as he has played diverse horror-character movie roles. The costume of Quasimodo is characterized by it`s monstrous vision: one-eyed, hunchbacked, lame and deaf with protruding growth teeths. Lon Chaney has played this particular role really good, immersioning in Quasimodo and developing the character confirming that Quasimodo is synonim of “a courageous heart beneath a grotesque exterior.”

The difference between the two subjects of this essay may be made through several main criterias which are developed here below: Firstly the idea for the image as a whole is served directly to the film spectator, as the reader has to build and develop own idea in the process of reading of Hugo`s work. It requires diligence while sifting Quasimodo`s character from the rest. The development of the character in the two art works is different – in the movie it is dynamic while in the book it is a process. Frightening and horrific vision of Quasimodo is striking, as in the book it is developed through the other characters.

My choice to write an essay about Quasimodo, is because there is terrible opposition between darkness and light – from on side the light of the Cathedral Norte-Dame and on the other darker side - the inhuman. This character could hardly impress somebody, but because of the strong impression it is worthy for writing an essay.

Victor Hugo has written this gothic novel for the soul purpose of protecting gothic architecture from that time, which has been replaced by new modern buildings. Maybe Hugo succeeded to raise awareness of this major problem, which we face again nowadays. Through this fictional and chimeric image of Quasimodo we can pay attention to the social values, which are actually the beauty of the passing era.

CONCLUSION

As today in the new 21^st century we may see the architectural invasions, it was the same over the centuries and in the old-world. It can be hardly imagined Quasimodo`s character and indeed it requires courage to play similar role. Most important is to feel the protection towards our social values as we are the builders of our world, be it through an image of a monstrous creature.