Character Web

Class date: Monday, Jan. 11^th

19!

That’s right, at least nineteen named characters in the first 45 pages! (Imagine having to remember the names of 19 strangers at a party.) And that’s not including the numerous historical names and dozens of unnamed characters who fill the opening scenes. And what crowded, riotous scenes! A large, packed hall getting bored with a play; a festive procession of rogues carrying around a grotesque hunchback; an awed crowd watching a beautiful gypsy dance around a fire; a tavern crawling with seedy outlaws gleefully awaiting the hanging of a playwright! Furthermore, as Melena pointed out, the story seems to focus on the “depressing adventures” of the poor playwright, Pierre Gringoire, who is just looking for a place to sleep. The main characters, on the other hand, seem to be only a sideshow (pardon the pun, Quasimodo)! Oh, and as a further difficulty in retention, did I mention that the names are all in French! (Yes, we do practice pronunciation.)

So, how are we to keep track of it all?

Well, one way to simplify the plethora of characters, is to simply point out who the main ones are and look out for those. However, we went with a different way. One that I hope allows the students to grasp the essential characters more for themselves.

Victor Hugo subtly builds up the reader's familiarity with characters by having them pop in and out of the story at seemingly unusual times, but their reappearances at significant moments in the story suggest their importance. So, for example, Katy burst out with her realization that the unashamed beggar who interrupts Gringoire's play, happens to also be the “King” of the outlaws who threatens to execute the author of that same play. And later, we realized that the beautiful Esmeralda who draws away the last of the play’s audience with her dancing, is abducted by the same hunchback Gringoire deplores for having drawn away most of his play’s audience to begin with. Those are just a couple of strands of the elaborate web uniting the characters which Hugo weaves.

And though the number of characters who make significant appearances is much fewer than nineteen, there are enough threads to make the web a confusing knot if not laid out simply.

So, in class, we created our own “character web”. We identified the prominent characters (seven of them) and drew lines between them if some relationship had been established:

Quasimodo =kidnapper=> Esmeralda <=rescuer= Phoebus, etc…. The payoff came when Daly pointed out (and was heartily agreed with by others) that Esmeralda seemed to be connected to everyone! Oh, how right they'll see that they are!

I’m hoping that establishing these initial relationships primes the students for expecting (or being shocked by!) the onset of stronger bonds and deeper conflicts which are to come!

"Character Web"