The Supernatural, Rationalism, and Knowledge Theme Analysis

In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo presents the medieval period as an intensely superstitious age in which people often believe in supernatural explanations for events rather than rational ones. Hugo undermines this attitude and provides a logical explanation for every supposedly supernatural occurrence in the novel. This demonstrates the difference in knowledge between the medieval period, in which the novel is set, and the 1800s, in which Hugo wrote the novel. In the 1800s, there was a widespread belief in rationalism and a growing understanding of the natural sciences, and Hugo uses the events of the novel to support the value of this perspective. By contrasting it with a medieval worldview, Hugo also suggests that superstition played an important role in medieval society as it helped people to rationalize seemingly inexplicable events.

The characters in the novel are extremely superstitious. Medieval society is presented as a time in which belief in superstitions, such as the belief in ghosts, astrology, or witchcraft, is normal. Many of the characters believe that Frollo is a sorcerer (in reality, he practices alchemy, which was an early form of experimental science) and he is thought ridiculous because he does not believe in astrology. This suggests that, in the world of the novel, it is considered more reasonable to believe in supernatural forms of knowledge like astrology than in natural science. Similarly, people genuinely fear the supernatural and feel it is a real threat to their wellbeing. For example, when Phoebus is approached by Quasimodo in the street at night, he is frightened by Quasimodo’s appearance and thinks he must be a supernatural entity. Phoebus rushes away before he hears Quasimodo’s message from Esmeralda, who has taken refuge in Notre Dame to avoid being executed and who desperately needs Phoebus’s help to escape. Phoebus’s behavior shows how much power ideas about the supernatural carry in the medieval period. Characters often jump to supernatural conclusions before rational ones. When Frollo accompanies Phoebus to a brothel, where Phoebus plans to seduce Esmeralda, the landlady who greets them sees both Frollo and Phoebus, although Frollo is disguised by a dark cloak. During the seduction, Frollo hides in a cupboard and then escapes out the window after he stabs Phoebus in a jealous rage. The landlady, who finds only Esmeralda and Phoebus in the room, assumes that Frollo must have been the devil, or a demon monk who has been rumored to haunt the streets, rather than concluding rationally that he was simply a man who escaped through the window. This supernatural explanation gains popularity in Paris, however, and demonstrates that the supernatural is considered rational by the medieval populace. 

Hugo counteracts these superstitions and provides rational explanations for events in the novel. While the characters in The Hunchback of Notre Dame take apparently supernatural events at face value, Hugo’s narration shows the reader that nothing supernatural really takes place. For example, although the people of Paris believe in the story of the demon monk, Hugo reveals to the reader that it is really Frollo in disguise. Instances like this emphasize Hugo’s point that the supernatural is not actually prevalent, as medieval society believes, and that most events have rational explanations. Hugo takes a skeptical approach to the supernatural because he writes from a 19th-century perspective. During the Enlightenment, which lasted approximately from the 17th to the 19th century in Europe, developments in philosophy and science meant that people gradually moved away from superstitious beliefs and, instead, looked for natural explanations for things. It is through the character of Frollo that this attitude is most clearly demonstrated, as, before his obsession with Esmeralda, Frollo is interested in science, shuns superstition, and wishes to develop a more rational understanding of the world. This suggests that society is already moving in this direction during the medieval period and that, although he is the antagonist of the novel, Frollo is ahead of his time. In fact, it is when Frollo abandons his studies that his responses to the world grow more irrational and he falls back on his belief in witchcraft, accusing Esmeralda of bewitching him and causing his obsession. This suggests that the pursuit of scientific knowledge, which took place across the Enlightenment period, improved society because it dispelled many ideas, such as belief in witchcraft, that previously led to widespread persecution in Europe. 

However, Hugo also makes it clear that medieval society’s reliance on superstition is understandable. Hugo argues that the advent of Enlightenment thought in Europe began with the invention of the printing press. The reproduction of books allowed information to spread rapidly among the population and increased literacy levels. Hugo describes books as “a flock of birds” that carried information across the world and helped explain many natural occurrences which had previously been thought supernatural. But despite the progress made by these changes, Hugo suggests that belief in the supernatural was a rational response to a world in which events could not be explained by science. Although many Enlightenment writers and philosophers looked down on the medieval period as an irrational and barbarous time, Hugo delves into the psychology of people in the medieval period and empathizes with their perspective. By doing so, he is able to recognize the important difference that widespread literacy made to the world, while also acknowledging the imagination and ingenuity of medieval society as it looked for ways to explain and understand mysterious events. This balanced perspective reflects Hugo’s overall thesis that there is knowledge to be gained from examining other cultures and time periods. Though he celebrates rational thought, he also indicates that limiting oneself to only a rationalist, Enlightenment perspective is as ignorant and arbitrary as the superstitious beliefs that many of his medieval characters cling to.