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Notre Dame
Gold is associated with alchemy, God, and humanity’s quest for knowledge throughout The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Alchemy was a medieval form of natural science which was interested in the transformation of certain metals into other elements or substances. In particular, in literature and art about the medieval period, alchemy is associated with the search for the philosopher’s stone, which provides the ability to make gold. Alchemists in the medieval period did not understand how gold was created or how it appeared underground, and many experiments were carried out to try and achieve these ends. The assumption was that, since the presence of gold underground could not be explained or easily achieved by man, then it must be divine and placed there by God. Common theories included the idea that gold was sunlight transformed into metal and that sunlight was a manifestation of God. The ability to create gold, therefore, represented the ability to unlock divine knowledge, to understand the ways of God, and, possibly, to achieve eternal life. In the novel, Claude Frollo, a priest turned alchemist, becomes obsessed with his quest to understand God. Frollo connects gold to fire and believes that, using sparks, he can create gold and understand God. Frollo himself undergoes a metaphorical transformation as he grows more and more obsessed with Esmeralda, a gypsy girl whom he is infatuated with. Frollo is frequently described as having fire in his veins as he wrestles with his feelings for Esmeralda and this suggests that, just as he tries to change other substances into gold, Frollo’s passion transforms him into something else. But just as he fails to make gold, Frollo’s obsession turns him into a monster rather than making him divine, so gold symbolizes both the desire to understand God and the dangers of trying to do so.
Gold Quotes in The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The The Hunchback of Notre Dame quotes below all refer to the symbol of Gold. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Book 5, Chapter 1
Quotes
‘No,’ said the archdeacon, seizing Compere Tourangeau by the arm, and a spark of enthusiasm rekindling in his lifeless pupils, ‘No, I don’t deny science. I have not crawled all this time on my belly with my nails in the earth, along the countless passages of the cavern without glimpsing, far ahead of me, at the end of the unlit gallery, a light, a flame, something, doubtless the reflection from the dazzling central laboratory where the wise and the patient have taken God by surprise.’
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Book 7, Chapter 4
Quotes
He, who wore his heart on his sleeve, who observed none of the world’s laws except the law of nature, who allowed his passions to escape through his inclinations, and in whom the reservoir of strong emotion was always dry, so many fresh drains did he dig for it each morning, he had no idea of how the sea of human passions rages and ferments and boils once it is refused all outlet, of how it accumulates and increases and flows over, of how it scours the heart and breaks out into inward sobs and dumb convulsions, until it has torn down its dykes and burst its bed. Jehan had always been deceived by Claude Frollo’s austere and icy exterior, that chill surface of precipitous and inaccessible virtue. That this seething, raging lava bubbled deep beneath the snowclad brow of Etna had never occurred to the cheerful student.
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Gold Symbol Timeline in The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The timeline below shows where the symbol Gold appears in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book 1, Chapter 2
...begins with a prologue, which explains that the four characters plan to give a precious golden dolphin to the most beautiful princess in the land. The prologue is very wordy and...
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The prologue continues, but it is very long; it concerns the journey of the golden dolphin as it is carried around the world to the Flemish princess. The play is...
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Book 5, Chapter 1
...Frollo sneers at him. The only true discovery, Frollo says, is the revelation of how gold is formed underground. Gold, he says, is the light of the sun made solid and...
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...will teach him to read the carvings around Paris and show him the traces of gold in a crucible found in Nicholas Flamel’s house. Tourangeau confusedly asks what books Frollo has...
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Book 7, Chapter 4
...world and that the sun is made of fire. Light comes from the sun and gold is light made metal. Gold is found underground so possibly, Frollo says, one should try...
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Book 7, Chapter 5
...he has worked away at his fire but has still not been able to make gold. Jehan can tell from their interaction that Charmolue is a student of Frollo’s. Frollo says...
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...he took it from the man’s house and has tried to use it to make gold, with no success thus far.
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Book 10, Chapter 4
...to melt it with the flame from a torch. At the thought of all the gold, silver, and jeweled relics inside the cathedral, the truants redouble their efforts.
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