The Hunchback of Notre Dame

The Hunchback of Notre Dame has been one of my favorite movies since I was a child—Yes… and I cried like everybody else when I watched it for the very first time, I must confess. For those who may not know it, this is an animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and it was released in 1996.

Believe it or not, I was reading the play Twelfth Night when this movie, suddenly, came up to my mind and without noticing, my neurons started making some connections by relating one topic presented in the play to another exposed in the movie. For that reason, I decided to look for some information on the Internet—the greatest savior of work groups nowadays—in order to find out if my ideas were going to make sense at some point.

            So, here we go. First of all, The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a French Gothic novel by Victor Hugo and it was published in 1831. Nevertheless, the story takes place in Paris in 1482—Ok, first thing that makes me think that I am not entirely lost, because Twelfth Night was written around 1601.

            The word that really made me think of this movie was “carnival”. At the very beginning of this movie, a carnival, The Carnival of Fools, is exposed, and like it is stated in one part of the song performed by Clopin, the mischievous leader of the gypsies, "everything in this carnival turns upside down." From this point, we can see all the people of the city, from the lower to the upper classes, having fun together by drinking, singing, and disguising themselves; actually, there is a competition of masks portrayed like the main event of this festivity. In connection with the play, by the time that Twelfth Night was written, people used to celebrate this carnival—Twelfth Night—where everything was ruled by madness and craziness; indeed, during this festivity, men used to disguise like women and vice versa—Am I making myself clear?

            There is another point that I was able to analyze with the help of my friends, and I would like to share it with you as well. The character of Feste, the trixiter, is pretty similar to Clopin, this mischievous gypsy that narrates the story of the hunchback since the beginning of the movie and who seems to be an omniscient narrator; for some reason, he knows everything concerning the character’s lives. Like Feste, who was Olivia’s servant, he was wise (trixters were supposed to be smart, but portrayed the role of clowns in society) free, and even though he interacted with all the characters, he didn’t belong to their realities, for he knew everything about them—Does it make any sense?

What do you think? I’m looking forward to reading your comments in order to exchange more ideas!
                                                                                                                                          
Sergio Reyes