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Ordinary people finish reading this novel Notre-Dame de Paris and then they usually focus on the author's vision of love. However, after reading this novel, I am much interested in the performance of the protagonists’ external and internal character. Hugo has a principle of contrast. This principle is always used in the literature and art creations of Hugo. And it is also the main principle in his literary theories and aesthetic aspects. This principle uses a lot of contrasts between beauty, nobility and ugliness in order to give the readers intense psychological contrasts and make the stories more ups and downs. Notre-Dame de Paris gives us a philosophy of life. This is why I want to analyze this novel. This novel elaborates a philosophy never to judge people by their appearances. And it tells us how to cherish affection, friendship and love.
1.2 The introduction of the contrast principle between beauty and ugliness
The contrast principle between beauty and ugliness is a famous contrast principle proposed by the French writer Victor Hugo in the preface of Cromwell. His Notre-Dame de Paris is the model work which uses this principle. While a French influential poet, literary theorist Baudelaire advocates the theory “ugliness as beauty”. His Flowers of Evil is a representative work of this theory. To these two writers’ literary thoughts, people make a deep discussion from different aspects and make a high comment. One of these thinks that Hugo’s beauty and ugliness contrast principle follows the comparative logic and doesn’t change the nature of things themselves; but Baudelaire’s theory changes the nature of contradiction.
The contrast principle between beauty and ugliness follows the comparative logic and doesn’t change the nature of things themselves. The aesthetics of beauty and ugliness is specifically reflected on things. In fact, the usage of these two principles doesn’t change the nature of things themselves, just changes the original face of things. And the direction of changing things’ original face is opposite.
The contrast between beauty and ugliness is to widen and extend the distance between beauty and ugliness. It makes beauty more beautiful, ugliness uglier. And the theory of ugliness as beauty is to shorten the distance between beauty and ugliness in order to make ugliness not be uglier. Meanwhile it makes beauty not be more beautiful.
But these two are the correct ways and effective methods to reflect the social life. Beauty and ugliness contrast principle advocates comparing two opposite things, highlights the contradiction between these two things effectively and forms a huge contrast. Thus it can reveal the opposite essential characteristics of these two things more profoundly.
The beauty and ugliness in Notre-Dame de Paris are not a simple comparison, but are tangled up complicity. They form a sharp contradiction and strong conflict. In this book, Hugo makes a detailed description about the personality of all the protagonists. These several protagonists themselves have significant characteristics of comparison. The outside and inside personalities of Esmeralda set each other off beautifully, supplement each other and keep perfectly harmonious. The ugly appearance of Quasimodo contains a noble mind. The good looks of Claude Frollo and Phoebus highlight the ugly sole. The most important thing is that they form a strong and sharp contrast.
In the Notre-Dame de Paris, the use of this contrast principle reaches the idealized effect. These good images of Esmeralda and Quasimodo become brighter and more gorgeous through satirizing the antagonists. And the two antagonists Claude Frollo and Phoebus become more obscene, nasty and disgusting.
Hugo thinks that art should reflect all aspects of life. It should not be researched from one aspect. It also should not abandon those which are imitative and irrelevant to some typical things from art itself. Because things are interdependent through cooperation, then become more complete, more combinative and more abundant. The contrast between beauty and ugliness is concurrent. It can show the power of kindness. But Classicism dissevers these two aspects of beauty and ugliness and abandons an aspect of fun and grotesqueness. This is a defect.