Notre Dame de Paris is both the pinnacle of theory and the leader of practice. The romantic trend of thought represented by Hugo, in addition to beauty, put forward the call for ugliness. This is against classicism. At the same time, it is the development of this realm that makes the tragic power in romanticism break away from classicism, reflects alienated human beings in romantic form, expresses the true nature of human nature in ugliness, and awakens the soul world that human beings should have. They are not only free to create, not restricted by classicism, but also anti-feudal. They described the Middle Ages abandoned by classicism, and regarded nature as a mysterious force or a symbol of a certain spiritual realm. They are worried about nature and compare social ugliness with nature, but all ugliness is not the bearer of tragedy, but the creator, because in a strict sense, ugliness here is different from appearance ugliness, but the comparison of external ugliness by the bearer of tragedy in the process of clearly seeing tragedy. We say that romantic masters call for ugliness. The ugliness here is actually full of beautiful factors, but it is only a group neglected by society. Ugliness is external to society. It suppresses the lofty potential of the heart. For those of us who appreciate art, people with different ideologies can also get the same language in human nature, and the ugly things are only objective heterogeneous, and the difference is not ugly. Ugly people are human after all. On the one hand, while showing ugliness, it also embodies the existence of beauty, just like quasimodo's external contrast to his heart, his kindness and the contrast between Ace Milada and Claude. In this sense, it is also equivalent to Mephisto fellers in Faust, which is the unity of evil and good. On the other hand, the ugliness here is ugly, but not evil. Romanticism, with its strong artistic effect and unusual plot, depicts this ugly and unusual figure and creates a rebellious image, which is exactly what is lacking in promoting social progress. And what do the appreciators of works of art really think is ugly? It is precisely because in real life, we think that ugly things become beautiful under the pen of romantic masters, so to a certain extent, we can observe the world around us more calmly, criticize ourselves and deny some things that we originally thought were beautiful through the tragic history of those ugly people. Hugo mentioned this point in the preface to Cromwell published by 1827, saying that ancient people, faced with intoxicating nature, their initial language was just a hymn. But in modern times, people are close to reality. "She will feel that everything is not close to the beauty of human feelings. She will find ugliness next to beauty, deformity close to beauty, ugliness hidden behind sublimity, beauty and evil coexisting, light and darkness. " Hugo's historical position in the practice of artistic discovery and ugliness appreciation is indelible. From Notre Dame de Paris to Les Miserables, it is Hugo's practice of romanticism.
If Les Miserables (published by 1862) adds a lot of critical content to reality, Notre Dame de Paris is a masterpiece of pure romanticism. The writing background of the two works is the historical process experienced by the authors in France, from Napoleon to the Restoration to the July Revolution and the June Uprising, which is a social and historical responsibility of the writers. At that time, the capitalist system had just been established, and there was no theoretical guidance for the root causes of capitalist ills (at least the author had little contact). They turned their eyes to history and the Middle Ages. The ugliness in society is witnessed by the writer, and the social turmoil makes the writer disappointed with the capitalist society built by the bourgeois enlightenment thinkers. Dark autocracy does not allow writers to criticize reality, which is applicable in the history of literature in both the East and the West. China's poems, from "Jian 'an Style" to Qi Liang Palace Style, to the weather in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, the splendor in the late Tang Dynasty, and to the uninhibited Song Ci, all reflect the progress with the rise and fall of society. Novels of the Qing Dynasty, such as A Dream of Red Mansions and The Scholars, criticize the Qing Dynasty, but describe things of the Ming Dynasty. The same is true of France in this period. Social oppression makes the creation turn to the heart and the style tends to be romantic. This is undoubtedly the historical background of romanticism and the social and historical definition of romanticism. Therefore, the dark autocratic era (ugliness) of French society perfectly combines romantic art (art is the essence of beauty) with ugliness. Ugliness bears the critical power of romanticism, which is reflected in Notre Dame de Paris in a tragic way.
Notre Dame de Paris is a large-scale romantic novel published by Hugo in 183 1. It writes a story that happened in France in the15th century with bizarre plot and contrast: Claude, the vice bishop of Notre Dame, is hypocritical and heartless, loves first and then hates, persecuting the gypsy girl Este Milada; Quasimodo, the ugly and kind bell ringer, gave his life to save the girl. The novel exposes the hypocrisy of religion, declares the bankruptcy of asceticism, praises the kindness, friendship and self-sacrifice of the lower working people, and embodies Hugo's humanitarian thought.
Notre Dame de Paris is always full of romanticism. From the beginning, the work used a lot of pen and ink to describe the scenery of Paris, such as Gothic architecture, which made the reader's mood naturally transfer to society and then to people in society. The novel depicts three main tasks: Claude, quasimodo and EsMilada. When portraying Claude, the first thing that is reflected is the "love" for Ace Milada, with an authoritarian color. Different from St. John's love for Jane Eyre, Claude's love is true to some extent but alienated; St John in Jane Eyre wears the aura of God, making love a utilitarian victim to cater to God. His love is not ugly, on the contrary, he is kind and noble, at least he is willing to help others. Claude can't let go of his identity. Identity is always more important than love. Religious asceticism only covers up his desire, which is even uglier under this religious cloak. He tried to succumb to Milada with autocratic power and the threat of hanging, which is the ugliness of the soul under the grandiose coat and the evil behavior from the ugly heart. Quasimodo and Claude are in sharp contrast. In him, Hugo contributed an almost perfect aesthetic definition and connotation of ugliness. Quasimodo's characterization is also impossible in the15th century, which is a reflection of the fictional characters in the author's mind. Romanticism is undoubtedly the most appropriate form to embody the concept of inner subject; A lot of psychological descriptions are extremely romantic. The artistic shock of quasimodo's image is not only a reflection of the lofty spiritual beauty of people's "neglected group", but also a very full, romantic and true image. Quasimodo also had vanity called "the ugly king", and he obeyed Claude briefly because of his kindness. However, his love is very sincere and even hysterical because it is almost divorced from the life experience of human society. Any emotional motivation of his is from the heart. For EsMilla da, it was the author who affirmed the sublimity of beauty in the form of tragedy, like a wreath, beautiful and sad; She also belongs to the damaged object of the author's sympathy. Beauty in White becomes a witch; She is strong, but it is impossible not to give in to torture; Full of naive fantasies about love; Even the last mother-daughter reunion won't last long. Her experience almost runs through the tragedy of the whole novel.
It is the high artistic combination of tragedy, ugliness appreciation and romanticism that highlights the deep structure of the work under the surface structure such as plot, which is embodied in the author's deep conception and emphasizes an internal life rhythm movement and symbolic significance. Notre Dame de Paris has become an immortal masterpiece in the history of world literature.