Claude Frollo
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- This article deals with a character from the novel. For the character in the 1996 Disney adaptation, see Claude Frollo (Disney).
Claude Frollo is a fictional character from the Victor Hugo novel Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame - 1831). Frollo is the Archdeacon of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. He is the antagonist of the novel.
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[edit] Character
In Victor Hugo's novel, Dom Claude Frollo is the Archdeacon of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. He is approximately thirty-six years old during the course of the story. He was an incredibly intelligent but morose young man who was orphaned along with his brother Jehan when their parents died. His studies lead him to become the Archdeacon of Josas of Notre-Dame and he also has a small fief which brings him a small amount of money, most of which goes to fund his brother's lifestyle of debauchery.
He has a deeply compassionate side. He rescues the deformed hunchback abandoned on the cathedral's foundlings bed and cares for him, raises him like a son, and teaches him a sort of sign language when Quasimodo becomes deaf. He adores and coddles his wastrel, scalawag younger brother Jehan, while at the same time chiding him for his indolence. He is a respected scholar and studies several languages, law, medicine, and theology. However, he becomes infatuated with alchemy, which brings people to claim he is a sorcerer. He also believes strongly in fate. His dour, prematurely aged appearance and extreme dislike and fear of women make him even more of an outcast and set him further apart from society.
Yet, he also has strong sexual passions, though he is a celibate due to his station within the Roman Catholic Church in Paris in 1482. These passions erupt in him through his contact with the beautiful gypsy girl Esmeralda and eventually are his undoing. The young girl is repulsed by the priest, despite his numerous impassioned pleas for her to love him. He turns all his effort to either make her love him or driving her away forever in death, as to no longer to 'punish' him. Frollo is so infatuated with her that he loses his self-control, attempts to kill her conceited consort Captain Phoebus de Châteaupers, and kisses her while she faints. He even stabs himself at the sight of her torture when she is turned over to the magistrate as a witch and a "murderer" of her erstwhile lover Phoebus. He becomes completely undone right before her execution and leaves Paris in a feverish madness, not realizing that his adopted son rescued her from the gallows. He also attempts to rape her when she seeks sanctuary in the cathedral. He is hurled off the heights of the cathedral to his death by Quasimodo during the final siege of Notre-Dame when the deaf hunchback sees him laughing insanely at Esmeralda's hanging.
[edit] Commentary
Unlike many of the film adaptations, he is presented in the novel as an extremely intelligent and complex man who is torn apart by deep unbridled passion. While Claude Frollo is generally considered the antagonist of the novel, Victor Hugo does not depict him as the villain in the strictest sense of the word. Although not as likable as some, he has attributes of the tragic anti-hero, including his morose and somewhat misanthropic personality, deep sexual passions, love of alchemy, and extreme possessiveness. And yet, he is a compassionate man who believes in fate and that he is doing the right thing. Frollo's eventual destruction due to his fatal flaws are a strong rebuke to the Roman Catholic Church's "vanity of chastity" and what can happen to a man when strong emotions are bottled up for too long.
[edit] Adaptations
The novel has been adapted to film on numerous occasions. The most interesting change perhaps comes from the 1923 silent film version, in which Frollo isn't the villain at all; instead, he is a good archdeacon, and the villain of the novel is actually his younger brother Jehan. This is also present in the 1939 adaptation, with the roles the same and Claude as the archdeacon and good brother. This is sometimes compared with the 1996 Disney adaptation, in which Frollo is a Judge, the Archdeacon is a separate character entirely, and the character of Jehan is omitted. Many conclude that such changes were made to avoid a negative reaction from religious organizations, although the results tend to be the opposite of the intentions. Typically, the adaptations omit Frollo's capacity for compassion, adding a selfish interpretation to his adoption of Quasimodo that is not present in Hugo's novel.
| Actor | Version | Character |
|---|---|---|
| Victor Hugo's novel | Archdeacon Claude Frollo | |
| Brandon Hurst | 1923 Adaptation | Jehan Frollo |
| Cedric Hardwicke | 1939 Adaptation | Jehan Frollo |
| Alain Cuny | 1956 Adaptation | Archdeacon Claude Frollo |
| Derek Jacobi | 1982 Adaptation | Archdeacon Claude Frollo |
| Tony Jay (voice) | 1996 Disney Adaptation | Claude Frollo (judge) |
| Daniel Lavoie | 1997-2002, musical |
[edit] External links
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