Quasimodo is the main protagonist of the 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 and has unintelligible speech. 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 Esmeralda 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 Frollo is responsible for her death, and he dies on the pavement below. After he realizes the two people he ever loved were gone, Quasimodo disappeared from Paris, never to be seen again. Two years later, his skeleton was found embraced with Esmeralda's and crumbled into dust when an attempt to remove his remains from hers. The name Quasimodo means "half-made" and is also the name of a holiday, Quasimodo Sunday, the week after Easter on which he was adopted.
Adaptations[]
| Actor | Adaptation |
|---|---|
| Henry Vorins | 1905 adaptation |
| Henry Kraus | 1911 adaptation |
| Glen White | 1917 adaptation |
| Booth Conway | 1922 adaptation |
| Lon Chaney | 1923 adaptation |
| Charles Laughton | 1939 adaptation |
| Anthony Quinn | 1956 adaptation |
| Peter Woodthorpe | 1966 adaptation |
| Warren Clarke | 1977 adaptation |
| Anthony Hopkins | 1982 adaptation |
| Tom Burlinson | 1986 adaptation |
| Tom Hulce | Disney version (1996) and sequel (2002) |
| Mandy Patinkin | 1997 adaptation |
| Garou | Notre-Dame de Paris (1997-2002) |
| Patrick Timsit | Quasimodo d'El Paris (1999) |
| Drew Sarich | Disney German musical (1999) |
| Gio Di Tonno | Notre Dame de Paris (Italian version) |
| Michael Arden | Disney English musical (2014) |
| Angelo Del Vecchio | Notre Dame de Paris (current French version) |
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