A visit to Paris holds many wonders for the modern tourist. The Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, countless artistic and architectural wonders, but these are all trumped by the magnificent and stately Cathedral called Our Lady, or in French ‘Notre Dame’. This building built in 1160stands as a testament to history, entertainment, artistic dedication and Gothic architecture.
The famous French writer Victor Hugo wrote his much acknowledged novel, ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’, in the background of this Cathedral. As narrated in the story, Quasimodo, a deformed man, was the bell-ringer of Notre Dame. Altogether there are five bells in the Notre Dame cathedral towers. The bell, Emmanuel, which was used to mark time and alert people, weighed thirteen tons. Victor Hugo says that there was a beautiful gypsy lady by name Esmeralda, in Notre Dame. A kind and generous heart made her very special. Esmeralda captured the hearts of many, including that of Claude Frollo (the Arch Deacon of Notre Dame), the adopted father of Quasimodo. ‘Frollo was torn between his lust and the rules of the Church’.However, he orders Quasimodo to kidnap her; but his attempt was spoiled and he was caught red handed.
Later we see that Quasimodo is sentenced to be whipped and ordered to be tied down by the fire. As he was being punished, Esmeralda, the beautiful young barefoot Gypsy dancer, seeing his thirst, offers him water. The story goes on saying that because of this, Quasimodo falls fiercely in love with her, even though she was too disgusted by his ugliness even to let him kiss her hand.
This situation in the story has contributed much to the glory of this novel. The streams of love that broke out from Quasimodo are described as ‘fierce’. It could have been so wild and irresistible like the burst of molten lava. Quasimodo also loved Esmeralda. But the love which developed to be ‘fierce’ had no trace of the old lust filled passion. It was pure and powerful. Throughout the history, there are stories of fruitful individuals who could generate ‘fierce love’ in others. May be because of this ‘fierce love’, the world exists as it is. Whatever be the quantity of wealth we could accumulate, we need a world to spend it, as we wish. It is time for us to think on how much we have contributed our share in generating ‘fierce love’. We owe the world at least one situation, where we are the only physical cause.
