Navaiy state pedagogical institute the faculty the english language and literature the department of the english language and literature

Chapter ll. One of the most Hugo's well-known novels “ Notre Dame cathedral ”.
2.1. Using gothic architectural elements of this structure.
The architecture included unique structures, pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and flying buttresses. The pointed arches (7.30) allowed the height of the church to soar and large spaces for windows in these gothic churches instead of the restrictions found in the thick-walled Romanesque church.
Emerging in Europe in the 18th century, Gothic literature grew out of the Romantic literary movement. It's a genre that places strong emphasis on intense emotion, pairing terror with pleasure, death with romance.
Hugo identified Gothic architecture as the bearer of the cultural heritage of France and argued that, as such, it should be protected. At the time that the novel was written (between 1828 and 1831), Paris was verging on major changes that cumulatively threatened to destroy much of its cultural heritage. The French Revolution had resulted in the desacralization, decay, and consequent destruction of many Gothic cathedrals and churches.
Victor Hugo’s Notre-Dame de Paris, better known to English readers as The Hunchback of Notre Dame, due to the title chosen by Frederic Shoberl for his 1833 translation of the novel into English, is a curious book that can’t quite decide if it’s a novel, an exposé on fifteenth-century Paris, or a treatise on medieval architecture. For the modern reader, the result is impatience, some boredom, and a surprise because the story is not at all what one expects as a result of all the extratextual materials available. But most importantly for our purposes here, it is a key text in Gothic literature.
Let me clarify that by extratextual, I mean all of the extra materials inspired by the book, including the films, comic books, and cameo appearances of the Hunchback (his name is Quasimodo, though it is generally forgotten) in a variety of horror-related films and TV series. For example, in the 1996 TV film The Munsters’ Scary Little Christmas, the Hunchback shows up to the Christmas party as part of The Munsters’ extended family. However, most of us probably know the Hunchback best from one of the many film productions, including the 1923 silent film with Lon Chaney, the 1939 film with Charles Laughton, the 1982 TV film with Anthony Hopkins, and the 1996 Disney animated film, which later was adapted into a more Gothic musical in Germany, and whose English cast album was released in 2015. All of these many versions cause people to believe they know the story, but Hugo’s original tale has been bastardized, romanticized, and deeply changed in most of these versions, including a frequently happy ending where Esmeralda rides off with Phoebus into the sunset. Hugo’s version is far darker, and perhaps less to our taste today, but it is still worth reading for its Gothic elements and its philosophy about life.
The story behind the novel is that Hugo was hired in November 1828 to write a two volume novel in the style of Sir Walter Scott. In 1823, he had favorably reviewed Scott’s Quentin Durward (according to A. J. Krailshemer’s “Introduction” to the Oxford World Classics’ edition). Scott’s influence is obvious in the historical elements of Notre-Dame de Paris, and yet, at the end of his life, Hugo denied ever writing a historical novel. That is not to say he disowned the book, but that he did not see it as historical. This is surprising given the novel’s many historical elements and Hugo’s great efforts to create an accurate depiction of the book’s physical and historical setting, but he obviously saw the novel’s Gothic and Romantic elements as more important than the historical ones. According to Krailshemer, while generally appreciative of Scott’s work, as his review of Quentin Durward shows, “Hugo regretted the absence of a truly epic dimension, a broadly sweeping view which would give the narrative some deeper meaning.”
The novel’s most overwhelming Gothic element is the cathedral itself. It is the equivalent of the discovered manuscript in most Gothic novels. Hugo wrote the novel largely to create interest in the cathedral and to help restore it. Throughout the novel, he talks about the importance of preserving architecture, and he even discusses how the printing press has killed architecture (in Book V, Chapter 2, “This Will Kill That”). Hugo argues that the great buildings of the past, especially cathedrals, were the books of their day, because they told stories, made statements, and generally educated the population in religion, politics, and history.
The cathedral Notre-Dame de Paris is one of the most enduring symbols of the French capital city. Hugo conceived of The Hunchback of Notre Dame as a story of the cathedral itself and devoted two chapters of the novel to describing it. He focused primarily on the Gothic architectural elements of the structure, including its flying buttresses, clerestory windows, and stained glass. Hugo identified Gothic architecture as the bearer of the cultural heritage of France and argued that, as such, it should be protected. At the time that the novel was written (between 1828 and 1831), Paris was verging on major changes that cumulatively threatened to destroy much of its cultural heritage. The French Revolution had resulted in the desacralization, decay, and consequent destruction of many Gothic cathedrals and churches. In the July Revolution of 1830, the French people expressed a desire to liberate themselves from the past. This uprising was driven by a condemnation of the forms and institutions associated with the traditional monarchical regime, and its leaders sought a new way forward.

In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hugo recreates the vibrant, intense atmosphere of 15th-century life to remind his readers of the splendour and significance of Paris’s Gothic past. The book doubles as a plea for the preservation of the city’s historic Gothic architecture (and thus its heritage). His plea was met with great success. The first printing, by publisher Charles Gosselin, was distributed in four issues of 275 copies each, and the novel was instantly, incredibly popular. Many thousands of printings followed. The Hunchback of Notre Dame circulated widely, inspiring illustrations by lithographers, painters, book illustrators, and even cartoonists. Images from the novel (especially timages of the cathedral) became known to individuals at all levels of society. Notre-Dame de Paris became a French national icon, and the proliferation of images of the cathedral helped revive the use and prestige of Gothic forms. An extensive program of renovation, overseen by French restoration specialist Eúgene- Emmanuel- Violet-le-Duc, was undertaken in the mid-1840s, and in the latter half of the 19th century Gothic monuments began to regain their religious significance.

Gothic architecture has a set of unique features that set it apart from all other styles. Most importantly, it is characterized by long pointed arches, flying exterior buttresses, stained-glass windows that were longer than before, ribbed vaults, and spires.
Victor Hugo is rightly considered one of the great literary minds of the nineteenth century. His works highlight the political and social atmosphere in his French homeland over the course of history. However, even beyond the compelling nature of Hugo’s stories there is an education for literary enthusiasts of the Romantic, and specifically, the Gothic genre. An analysis of the juxtaposition between sublime and grotesque and the importance of place in The Hunchback of Notre Dame provides a fascinating look at just some of the elements of Gothic literature which Hugo expertly employed in the telling of this famous tale. Like other great Gothic texts (Shelley’s Frankenstein and the Bronte sisters’ masterpieces, to name a few), The Hunchback of Notre Dame takes readers on a dark journey and includes many of the commonly held and expected Gothic elements. Its characters are mysterious with secrets and murky pasts. Hugo expertly pairs the sublime against the grotesque in order to – as he argues in the preface to his play Cromwall – bring the realities of life into art form and make a stronger impact. In his own words:

“Sublime upon sublime scarcely presents a contrast, and we need a little rest from everything, even the beautiful. On the other hand, the grotesque seems to be a halting-place, a mean term, a starting-point whence one rises toward the beautiful with a fresher and keener perception.”

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Gothic elements include the following:

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  Setting in a castle. …
  
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  An atmosphere of mystery and suspense. …
  

An ancient prophecy is connected with the castle or its inhabitants (either former or present). …

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  Omens, portents, visions. …
  
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  Supernatural or otherwise inexplicable events. …
  
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  High, even overwrought emotion. …
  
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  Women in distress.
  

While there are a variety of characteristics in Gothic literature, the are several found in many works. These elements include a dark setting, romance. Supernatural forces, emotional extremes, anti-hero, female victims, visions and nightmares, madness, gloomy weather, and prophecies and curses.
The term Gothic fiction refers to a style of writing that is characterized by elements of fear, horror, death, and gloom, as well as romantic elements, such as nature, individuality, and very high emotion. These emotions can include fear and suspense.
Gothic architecture rose—and that is a key verb in this style—to prominence in the late Middle Ages. It was mankind’s upwards march upon the heavens, drama writ in spires, turrets, rib vaults, and flying buttresses. The structures looked to be frozen in acts of great bounding movement, like someone had hit the pause button as these limestone titans leaped in battle or journey, with great stakes at play.
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