| The Hunchback of Notre Dame |
| "Bells, bells, I love the sound of my bells. Oh my dearest big Marie what joy it is to swing on thee. Bells, bells, I love the sound of bells." |
I'm sure these words past through this creatures head. But this was no creature but a man, trapped in a disfigured body. He was no less a man than the"Elephant man" was, in his distant future or any other unfortunate disfigured person in time. But as always, the commoner sees his world of through their glass house, with contemptuous thoughts, rather than a sympathetic heart The commoner sees this fellow less than a perfect being and even as a "monster", though he wasn't. This was a man, who felt like a man, who could love like a man, who even bled like a man. He had a beating, compassionate heart, he breathed the same air as everyone else and could hurt like everyone else. Except, he wasn't everyone else, he was him. Quasimodo was his name, a man who was made to live in the church's bell tower, which looked over the little town below. Up in the tower he found it to be a safe haven for his unpleasant appearance, an appearance most calling it the most vial of ugliness. In the tower he could hold himself up to the acceptance of a compassionate God. A God where his ugliness wasn't seen as ugliness at all, for his God only saw his good heart and his God saw him as a man and not a monster. The hunchback, was tormented and degraded by the town folk in public, being tied to a wooden carousel and paraded about the town, flogged and spat upon, degraded like a common criminal and all for the sight of his looks. This is the burden he was meant to bear, throughout his life. This is but part of our story. There is a girl in our story, a commoner from the town below. She too was an outcast because of her thoughts. She too ended up on the public square to be scrutinized by this insensitive lot of people. But before she could charged our hunchback swooped down from his place within the church and took this young beauty. At first, she was repulsed by his ugliness but after watching him from afar, she found that this was simply a disfigured man and not a monster at all. She felt pity on his unsightly features, and just to prove that he was not a monster at all he turned to his bell tower and showed off his greatest possessions, his greatest love, his bells. He swung and he suede, he rang the bells loudly, he was proud of his possessions, though they had made him deaf from ear to ear. She looked upon him and felt what he felt, love and a genuine heart. But below there was a different mood entirely. The simpletons below became enraged because in their minds the monster had stolen away this girl and given her asylum within the walls of the church. The doors of the church were locked from within and the two could hear the screams of anger and malice coming from crowd outside this church. Our tormented hunchback cried aloud, "Sanctuary! Sanctuary!", it bellowed throughout the church. When they didn't retreat, and became more defiant, he climbed upon his bell and began to swing. Big Marie, was the largest of the bells and he loved that bell the most. Their anger and cruel tones shot from below. He could sense what brutality lied ahead for them. So at his wits end, our last disfigured man used his only defence, he cast down hot tar, from a boiling pot being used to fix the churches roof. It came raining down onto the crowd. Finally, knowing that they had no defence and what they were doing only led to futility and death, they retreated. Our girl was left to the calm and quiet of this church. She could see the hunchback, as he truly was and not with the distorted eyes as the crowd did. He was a genuine kind fellow, with manners far above the rest of the towns people. She knew that this disfigured body, did not did not house a disfigured mind or heart. Realizing this, our hunchback sensed a different air between the two, his nerves calmed, he could rejoice. He released her from his tower and he continued his life in the privacy for his Lord. Someone other than the minister of the church knew of his hearts intent. He decided it would be better to remain with his bells for the rest of his days, better than being a part of the common folk of that town. So now, when the people look from below, they don't look up and think of a horrid creature of the night. The girl had explained that he was no monster at all, that he had treated her with kindness and care, kindness that she never knew and they never bothered the hunchback again. Our hunchback remained till his dying day, never to be seen again, a recluse. The girl would look up whenever she past this church or whenever the bells rang aloud and remember a kind soul. She looked up and knew that above was a man singing to his God through his bells. Especially singing and swinging on his love in his life, his big Marie. |
| The girl and our hunchback |
| The Hunchback in his church |
| The hunchback and his bells |
| the mad monster maker from the village in the middle |
