Fate and Predestination Theme Analysis

In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, many of the characters suffer tragic fates through no fault of their own. Some characters, like Claude Frollo, believe in predestination (the idea that humans lives follow a set plan which is preordained by God and, therefore, unchangeable), while others try to resist their fates. Victor Hugo suggests that while some aspects of life may be unavoidable, believing in predestination can cause people to engage in destructive behaviors since they believe that no matter how they act, their fate will always be the same. 

There is a sense of inevitable fate about many aspects of the novel. The Hunchback of Notre Dame is set in a society headed toward immense change: the late medieval period, which would soon to give way to the Renaissance. Medieval anxieties about these changes are reflected in Frollo’s belief that developments in technology, such as the invention of the printing press, will drastically alter society and take power out of the hands of the Church. Hugo suggests that this change did occur, with the gradual movement towards belief in science over religion, which began in the Renaissance and developed into the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, from which Hugo is writing. Therefore, Hugo suggests that this societal change is not something which could be averted and is simply the inevitable result of time. This idea of destiny is further represented through the character of Quasimodo, who, Hugo states, has a “kind of fatality” about him. He is born deformed, then abandoned by his parents. When he is adopted by Frollo, Frollo teaches him to speak, but Quasimodo goes deaf because of the noise from the bells of Notre Dame, and therefore he cannot communicate easily. This string of unfortunate events suggests that Quasimodo is destined for tragedy even before the events of the novel unfold. Quasimodo’s attempts to save Esmeralda, who is wrongly convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to be hung, are similarly doomed despite his best efforts. Although Quasimodo shelters Esmeralda in Notre Dame, a fatal misunderstanding leads to her being recaptured when a mob attacks the cathedral. Although the mob is led by Esmeralda’s friend Clopin Trouillefou, who wants to rescue her, Quasimodo believes that the crowd wants to hang her and so he tries to fight them off. In the commotion, Frollo abducts Esmeralda and has her executed. Quasimodo’s futile attempts to protect Esmeralda subtly symbolize the inevitable fate of Notre Dame itself, which will go into decline and be forgotten once the medieval period has ended and its faithful bell-ringer has died of grief for Esmeralda.

Some characters actively struggle to shape fate, only to have their efforts frustrated. In the preface to the novel, Hugo notes that he was inspired to write the story after he saw the word “fatality” written in Greek on the wall of a cell inside the cathedral. This word appears in the novel when Frollo carves it into the wall of his cell and is seen doing this by his brother, Jehan. This is pertinant because Frollo tries to raise Jehan as a devout scholar, but, despite his best efforts, Jehan grows into a debauched and thoughtless young man. This suggests that Frollo’s struggle to shape Jehan’s fate has been in vain and that people cannot predict how things will turn out. The word “fatality” also reflects Frollo’s feelings of frustration with life in general. Frollo is a scholar and is deeply aware that human life and the possibility for human understanding are limited by mortality. Frollo struggles against this with alchemy (a medieval science associated with the quest for eternal life) but eventually realizes that his efforts will likely fail and that he is destined to die without understanding the universe. Frollo’s process of accepting the idea of predestination suggests that individual efforts to understand fate can only go so far. While characters like Frollo rail against their fates, the opposite is true of Pierre Gringoire, an artist who marries Esmeralda. Although at first Gringoire believes he is destined to be a great artist, he abruptly gives this up when he realizes that being a street performer is more lucrative and less effort. Unlike most of the other characters in the novel, Gringoire escapes a tragic fate and this suggests that, since fate is something that people cannot control, it is more sensible (though perhaps less noble) to give in to it.

Belief in predestination, however, can be used to justify problematic behavior. During his passion for Esmeralda, Frollo feels that her fate is entwined with his and that this is the will of God. This belief is symbolized by the image of a spider with a fly in its web: Frollo views himself as the spider and Esmeralda as the helpless fly. However, because of his belief in predestination, Frollo feels that he too is a helpless victim of circumstance and that it is his destiny to kill Esmeralda, just as it is the spider’s nature to eat the fly. This twisted understanding of fate suggests that committing too fully to a belief in destiny can give people an excuse to continue behavior that they know is destructive. This attitude is demonstrated elsewhere in the novel when Jehan, after growing more and more debauched, decides that he may as well become a criminal. This ends tragically, however, when he joins the mob of “truants” (thieves) as they attack Notre Dame in the riot organized to rescue Esmeralda. Jehan is killed in the riot, and his death suggests that belief in a certain fate can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Overall, throughout the novel, characters seem to have little control over their destinies and face a choice between succumbing to their fates or resisting with little hope of success. However, Hugo suggests that, although humans may have little control over many aspects of their lives, it is still better to try and resist destructive behaviors when one can, rather than justifying them with the idea of predestination.