Victor hugo is well known to the world as the leader, poet, novelist and playwright of the French Romantic Literature Movement. On the view of literature and art, he accepted the influence of democratic thought, opposed the classicism of rigid dogma, clearly and systematically put forward the romantic literary proposition, which aroused strong repercussions in the French literary world at that time, so he became the main leader of the romantic literary movement.

Hugo put forward the creed of "artistic freedom" in the preface of Cromwell, a play published in 1827. He called for expanding the scope of artistic expression, emphasizing that everything in nature can be an artistic theme; It is emphasized that writers should create their own works according to certain moral and aesthetic ideals, dig deep into their hearts and freely express their subjective thoughts and feelings. This contrast principle of romantic literary creation is the theoretical clue that runs through the whole preface to Cromwell, and it is also the core of Hugo's literary aesthetic thought. Hugo believes that everything in nature does not conform to people's wishes, but belongs to beauty. Everything is presented through the contrast of two different elements. He said: "Ugliness is next to beauty, deformity is close to beauty, ugliness is hidden behind sublimity, beauty and evil coexist, and darkness and light coexist." [1] "A stain can only be the inviolable consequence of a beautiful woman. Ugliness is deleted, and beauty is deleted. " [2] Therefore, in his view, the task of art is to reproduce the contrast of things. Beauty and ugliness, sadness and joy, crying and laughing, bright side and dark side of personality, lofty side and ugly side should all be a unified whole and should not be separated. Because only the unity of beauty and ugliness can truly and completely reflect modern life and produce touching artistic effects. Hugo expressed the theme of the struggle between good and evil, light and darkness in his works, expressed his humanitarian feelings, condemned unreasonable social phenomena and dark forces, and showed the writer's deep sympathy for the oppressed and devastated people and his eager pursuit of an ideal society. In general literary works, beauty is always closely linked with goodness, and ugliness is always inseparable from evil. Hugo, on the other hand, harmoniously combines the beauty and goodness, ugliness and evil in the characters, or seriously contradicts them. His uniqueness lies in his exaggerated technique, romantic color and crisscross contrast, which makes his works have stirring charm in ideological and artistic aspects.

Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris is his masterpiece of romanticism, the practice of his romantic theory, and the image embodiment of his famous principle of contrast between beauty and ugliness. The basic theme of Notre Dame de Paris is to show the contrast between kind and loving humanity and evil and cruel inhumanity. The contrast between extreme beauty and ugliness; The appearance is reserved and solemn, the heart is cruel, the appearance is ugly and the mind is noble ... Among them, this rule of beauty and ugliness is particularly classic in characterization, which is mainly reflected in the following aspects:

First, the comparison between the beautiful avatar Esme Lardat and the characters around her.

Hugo believes that "funny and ugly monsters, as noble and beautiful supporting roles and contrasts, should be regarded as the richest artistic source endowed by nature." [3] Beautiful things are always accompanied by ugliness. Ugly characters should be set next to beautiful characters, and the beautiful image should be highlighted through the comparison of beauty and ugliness. Esme Lardat is a beautiful, kind and gentle female image carefully created by Hugo. Her praises often appear in some critics' works, such as "a beautiful image with a high degree of harmony between body and mind", "a ray of light in the dark middle ages, the embodiment of truth, goodness and beauty" and "a dazzling pearl". By her side, Vice Bishop Claude, poet Gan Guo Wa, deformed quasimodo and bodyguard Fabi all love Esme Lardat deeply, but there are also contradictions between truth and falsehood, good and evil, selflessness and selfishness, internal beauty and ugliness and external beauty and ugliness. The relationship between these four characters and Esme Lardat, the central figure, forms complex contradictions and conflicts in the novel, and also shows Hugo's own attitude and feelings.