Quasimodo

Quasimodo is the tragic hero in Victor Hugo classic novel, Notre Dame de Paris (Often translated in English as The Hunchback of Notre Dame). Quasimodo was an abandoned baby left at Notre Dame and adopted by the Archdeacon, Claude Frollo. Hideously deformed with a giant hunchback, teeth that protrude like tusks, and a single usable eye, Quasimodo lives a mostly reclusive existence within the cathedral of Notre Dame. He is hated by the public and shunned for his ugliness. He is also deaf. His heart is pure, only acting violently when provoked or ordered to by his master, Claude Frollo, whom he is faithful to. When pitied with a drink of water by her whilst tied down on the town pillory, he falls in love with Esmeralda, the gypsy girl. He later saved Esmerelda from execution and gave her sanctuary in the church. Near the end of the novel, when Esmeralda has been given over to the executioner by Frollo, and hanged, he is heartbroken. He pushes his wicked master off of Notre Dame, realizing that he is responsible for her death, and he dies on the pavement below. When Esmeralda's body was placed in the vault, Quasimodo lies down next to it and waits for death. When, years later, people attempt to separate them, his bones fall to dust. The name Quasimodo means "half-made".