St. Paula's Day, January 26, supposedly 1466; she was born in Rheims, France

I'm not exactly sure of the exact day.  Does anyone else know?  It was 1482, and I believe some time near June.  But I digress.  She was "freed" from Notre Dame through an elaborate plan by Pierre Gringoire and Dom Claude Frollo, only to be handed over to the Sachette, to be stolen by Cousin, the hangman, and to be hanged on the gibet at dawn.  Her body, after hanging there a day, was taken to MontFaucon, where it was placed in the cellar (the usual place for convicts and criminals who are hanged).  Two years later, a skeleton matching what we know of Esmeralda was found entwined at MontFaucon with the skeleton of a man matching what we know of Quasimodo.

She was born on St. Paula's Day to Paquette la Chantefleurie, and originally named Agnès.  She didn't have a surname.  Her father is unknown, for Paquette had become somewhat of a prostitute.  I would venture to say that her father was a theif, but this is pure speculation and the only evidence given in the book is coincidential.  However, as an infant, her mother showered her with all sorts of little gifts.  Her mother loved to dress her up, and especially loved her feet, which the woman would don with these pink satin shoes.  Anyhow, so when a band of gypsies came to Rheims, she took Agnès there to have her fortune read.  When Paquette brought her home, she left Agnès on her bed and went to brag about her to a neighbor.  When she returned, Agnès was gone.  When she left and brought back help, there was instead a child which we can assume was Quasimodo.  A neighbor reported seeing two gypsies sneak into her house with a bundle.  However, the gypsy camp had packed up and left by the time the authorities went after them.  Everyone assumed that Agnès had been eaten by gypsies, for some of her ribbons and some blood were found a week later.  Instead, Agnès was raised by the gypsies and renamed "Esmeralda."      The gypsies took her through Spain and Catalonia, and to Sicily.  Gringoire theorized she had also been taken to Algiers, which is next to Greece.  And while she was still very young, they returned to France by way of Hungary.  She entered Paris through the Papal Gate in the August of 1481.  Her tribe, headed by the Duke of Egypt and Bohemia Mathias Hungadi Spicali, seemed to have combined with the refuse of the Court of Miracles.  From then on, she danced in squares all over Paris, making her money by dance and song.  During these forays, she discovered a recluse living near the Place de Grève who hated gypsies and a  priest who took to following her and constantly denouncing her.

(this is my bad translation from the original French)       "If this young girl were a human being, or a fairy, or an angel, it is which Gringoire, sceptical philosopher, ironical poet that he was, couldn't decide in the first moment, so great was he fascinated by this dazzling vision.      She was not tall, but she seemed it, so fine her figure was held hardily.  She was brown, but one could guess that at day her skin must have that beautiful gilded reflection of Andalusians and Romans.  Her small foot was also Andalusian, for it was all together confined and comfortable in its graceful shoe.  She danced, she turned, she whirled on an old Persian rug, thrown neglitently under her feet; and each time that in turning, her radiant visage passed before you, her great black eyes sent lightning to you.      "Around her all gazes were fixed, all mouths open; and in effect, while she danced thus, to the buzzing of the Brasque tambourine which two round and pure arms lifted above her head, slim, frail, and lively as a wasp, with her bodice of gold without pleat, her multi-colored dress which puffed out, with her naked shoulders, her fine legs that her skirt uncovered at moments, her black hair, her flaming eyes, she was a supernatural creature.       "'In truth,' thought Gringoire, 'it is a salamander, it is a nymph, it is a goddess, it is a bacchi of the  Menalean mountain.'       "At this moment one of the braids of the "salamander's" hair came undone, and a piece of yellow brass which was attached rolled to the earth.       "'Alas, no!'  said he, 'it's a gypsy.'"                                                                                   --Victor Hugo, Notre-Dame de Paris       To add onto this, she also has around her neck a beaded necklace stringed through a silk green pouch with a glass emerald in the center.  It contains the silk baby slipper that her mother had given her as a child, and she was told would lead her back to her true parents.  Though it'd lose its virtue if she were to lose hers.       She also has a small white goat named Djali who is always with her.  She refers to the goat as her "sister."  The goat has white fur, gilded horns, and gilded hooves.  Djali's fate was to be stolen away with Gringoire, and they both lived very blasé lives.

Esmeralda is quite the dynamic character, and yet, absolutely static.  She starts out the book in sort of a naïve haze of dancing and singing and laughing, but it's obvious that, despite the fact she seems oblivious, she knows everything that's going on around her.  She's very perceptive, as with Frollo, and with Gringoire, and she's very dangerous.  She's quite capable of protecting herself (which explains why she was stupid enough to run off on her own at night).  Yet there's one thing she never does notice:  how much Phoebus really has no more interest in her than her body.  I think that this was Esmeralda's fatal flaw.  She just couldn't get over a knight on a white horse.  She's the dreamer type, and she'll lose her head in the clouds given a chance.  Her entire life has practically been a dream, so Phoebus represented to her a fulfillment of that dream love.  Unfortunately, she was brought quite painfully back to reality with her sentence, torture, imprisonment, and eventual execution.       This is what annoys me about Esmeralda.  She's obviously a very observant character, and yet she was still convinced to the bitter end that Phoebus could be won.  Even after admitting he didn't love her.  And also the nice statement with the faded nosegay.  If you don't know what I mean, read the book.  Esmeralda is a very visual creature, very sensual.  This is one of the reasons why Quasimodo offended her.  He merely offended her senses.       I think Hugo used Esmeralda more as a focal point than as a character.  She developed as the book went along as she went from happiness to depression to utterly crushed to desperation to happiness again to surrender.  Yet he only uses her to move the emotions of the real stars: that being the men.  Only a few times in the book is her point-of-view noted and noted alone.  Otherwise, she's used to prove a point.  And that's how she's static while dynamic.  It's really disappointing for a character who has so much potential to be one of the greatest heroines of all time.

Esmeralda is a widely known name, and one of the most famous in literatue, I would wager.  Here, I had an error in claiming that Esmeralda was an invented name, but thanks to a friend, I know that's not so.  It's actually Spanish, for (surprisingly) 'emerald.'  The Spanish is derived from the Latin word for emerald, smeragdus, which is derived from the Greek word for emerald, smaragdi (which is the Latin transliteration, because I can't type in Greek fonts here).  And even that word probably comes from some Indo-European word so old, it's lost to history.  Now that we're done with the etymology lesson.  Hugo makes it quite clear the origin of the name.  When Gringoire asks for its meaning, she shows him the pouch that she keeps around her neck, which is of green silk and contains one single adornment:  a small piece of green-colored glass, resembling an emerald.  Even Esmeralda notes that this is a nickname, and not her given name.  So even she knows that she's not what she seems.      Her Christian name is Agnès, which means (according to a baby names book) 'pure.'  And indeed, Esmeralda is pure.  Her purity is what attracts Phoebus and comforts Frollo.  Also, her pouch, the very source of her pseudonym, is supposed to protect this purity.  So, in a way, her name Esmeralda is protecting who she really is, while both disguising it and defining it.  Esmeralda's soul seems to fit both her nickname and her Christian name, in two entirely different ways.      I would conjecture Agnès is derived from 'agnus,' meaning lamb, and being an obvious Christian allusion.  Yet the parallels Hugo makes between Esmeralda and the foundations of Christianity are so numerous, I could make another page on it.      I would also like to point out an interesting theory put forth by an author whose name I do not recall in an article I also do not recall (I do not claim this as my idea, and I wish I could tell you whose idea it was).  Quasimodo means 'an approximation.'  And at one point, Phoebus calls Esmeralda 'Similar' because he simply can't say her name right.  The author of the text pointed out that both Esmeralda and Quasimodo have names that are almost, but not quite.  Esmeralda is 'similar' but not exactly right, and Quasimodo is 'almost nearly' but not exactly right.      Another interesting idea is that everyone in the novel has a last name except for Quasimodo and Esmeralda.  True, it was because both were switched at birth, but neither had last names before that.  Perhaps this is to show how lost they are to fate.  They have no identities, they have no control over what happens to them.  They are merely lost souls.      As for Djali, I've come upon a few revelations.  In (western?) Africa, the word Djali is used (quite offensively, I'm given the impression) to mean a person who is a musician, poet, and historian.  Djali was none of these things, but he could probably mimic one pretty well.

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This section will become much more coherent with the more versions of the book I've actually watched.  Where Quasimodo is the tragic hero of every show, this is the story's sweetheart.  Every movie or play adapts her to match what one would think to be the ideal woman of the time.  If this is true for Victor Hugo, I can only guess (but I've read essays about it).  Because of that, Esmeralda is probably the most diversified character of the adaptations.  Quasimodo has his unrequited, deep love.  Frollo has his unrequited, deep lust.  Esmeralda, since she is the one character that is not essentially flawed in some way (or they don't wish her to be), becomes the character that everyone must love or relate to.  So her personality changes about as quickly as fads do.      The earliest Hunchback movies, the silent ones, seem to focus on Esmeralda.  Titles likes The Darling of Paris and Esmeralda (a play written on the book soon after Hugo wrote it) reflect people's preference for the beautiful and charming to be the center of the production.  Of course, remembering these shows are for male-dominant society, it's small wonder.  Men would rather watch a sexy gypsy woman be sexy than watch a hunchback watch a sexy gypsy woman be sexy.  In these versions, I would make the assumption that Esmeralda is quite a dull character.  Characterization for one that originally had nearly none is rather difficult.  And the silent films tried to stay accurate.  I'll emphasize "tried."      The 1923 version, featuring Patsy Ruth Miller as Esmeralda, is I would assume esentially the same as the earlier movies.  Quasimodo was given a rougher, more bestial characterization, and a lot deeper portrayal, but Esmeralda was left alone.  She was still the sexy gypsy girl who danced about in her airy, gypsy world, and fell in love with a handsome knight.  True, in this version, she gets the knight, and her whole gypsy world is happy.  After this, the American public seemed more interested in seeing this innocent girl (the term girl used very loosely) end up happy than in seeing a real tragedy.  With good reason.  No one wants to see the innocent punished.  Especially someone as helpless as she.      In 1939, with Maureen O'Hara as Esmeralda, the tone of the gypsy woman is kept the same.  And to correct some false data here, I've since learned that the young Maureen O'Hara was indeed fifteen when she made this movie.  Well, knock me over with a feather.  Still, I will stand by my idea that the Esmeralda portrayed here is more wordly than innocent.  Another factor is added.  Esmeralda is apparently a pagan wanting to be a Christian, or some such.  She searches for consolation through the Mother Mary.  This creates a new facet of Esmeralda;  one of worry.  She's concerned for her people, and their well-being.  Whereas the original Esmeralda was quite free and devoid of problems (so to make her loss and pain that much more poignant) this Esmeralda knows what it is to suffer.  This allows the American public to associate with (and care for) the gypsy better.  I personally don't agree with this, for it takes away some of the youth and innocence that was supposed to be inherent to the Esme character.       1956 had Gina Lollobrigada as Esmeralda.  The character is  once again aged a good decade, and she's made as sexy as possible.  The sexual innocence that created Esme's appeal in the first place is gone, and replaced by a sensuality which would form her attraction for the rest of the versions to come.  Again, this reflects a changing public.  And also reflects the difficulty of film adaptation.  In a book, it may be quite easy, through connotation and word usage, to impart the idea of this youthful girl who has all the sexuality of a grown woman.  Yet in movies, all one has are visual images.  The producers must use this to their benefit, and the best way for them to get across "sexy" is to use a sexy woman.  Using a girl who might be considered sexy just by her vivaciousness would either end up getting the film charged with implications of child pornography, or no interest in either male or female demographics.  Because of this, Esme becomes 25 instead of 15, and she knows how to use her endowments.  Let me also add she's apparently Italian, and acts coy through most of the movie.  Coy in that she gives any male in the movie a "You want my body and I know it" look while giggling impishly.  She also spends most of the movie either pouting or being annoyed with someone.      I don't know on the 1977 TV Movie, with Michelle Newell as Esmeralda.  The 1982 version, however, with Lesley-Anne Down in the Esme part, is a mixture of two very bad ideas.  Lesley-Anne Down, in my opinion, and since I'm far from a man, take it as you will, is hardly sexy in this movie.  She's older and looks very, very experienced.  She has no real sexual appeal, and no innocence to lay claim to.  But the script kept pretending she does.  She acts innocent and childish, but you know she saw the end of her childhood looong ago (just watch-- she'll have been 15, like Maureen).  So instead, she just comes off as ridiculous.  A better casting job was necessary, or an entire rewrite of the character.  Other than that, this Esme doesn't like to dance -- she's forced to.  She actually doesn't seem to get much joy out of anything, which is completely different from the original Esme. Also, to note, I've never seen a more patronizing, humoring, haughtier expression than the one on her face when she's smiling at Quasi..      In 1996, there were two movies.  One is the Hunchback of Notre Dame, by Disney, with Demi Moore as the voice of Esmeralda.  The fact that Demi also put out a movie Strip-Tease the same year should show you what type of Esme she made.  Once again, the innocence is gone.  Esme is younger than the others, but she also uses her feminine wiles throughout the entire movie.  Both Phoebus and Frollo are wooed by these, though Quasi is only wooed by her kindness (and I've heard Quasi's love referred to as only a schoolboy crush; Huh!)  Of course, she is a kind little gypsy girl.  She is very concerned for her people, and even serenades Notre Dame (Mother Mary?  Jesus?  God?  I'm not sure) on the matter.  And then she shows that she can quite easily defeat six guards in one swooping blow.  Though I think this is a nice attempt at trying for the spunk and strength of the original Esme (but we all know they were trying for Esme Halloween costumes later on that year) they went a bit crazy with it.  Esme is no longer that flighty, world-loving girl who just wants to dance and sing.  Now she's an independent, strong-willed, intelligent, fiesty 20-year-old who has important, worldly concerns and don't fall in love none too easily (as it took her half the movie and the affections of three men).      As for the TNT Original production later that same year, The Hunchback, Salma Hayek was cast as Esmeralda.  True, a bit old, but I was quite eager to see her play the young Gypsy.  Simply because she had dark skin, which was a fact that most everyone overlooked in the earlier movies.  Unfortunately, Salma Hayek seemed to lack a grace that Esmeralda was supposed to possess.  Instead, all she brought to the role was common sexual appeal and firey independence.  Once again, the innocence is gone.  Her dancing is terrible, in my opinion, and I wonder if the producers gave any thought to the fact she was supposed to look as if her feet had wings.  Another thing I'll add here which has been true in almost every movie;  all Esme's manage to get over their revulsion for the Hunchback.  They even start to empathize for him.  Now, the Esme in the book may have gotten to the point where she could look at his face without screaming, but as anyone who's read the book knows, she never got farther than that.  She was grateful to the Hunchback when she felt like it.  Hayek's Esmeralda, of course, recognizes and empathizes (now if only one of them could fall in love with him and really screw it up). .      The French musical, Notre-Dame de Paris, though amazingly accurate in the plot, becomes susceptible to the public pressures once again to make an Esme everyone can love.  The version I've watched features Helene Segara as Esmeralda, so I'm going off her portrayal (though I'll stick to general issues).  She's independent.  She vibrant.  She's sexy.  She's capable of defending herself.  She's older.  In other words, just about nothing that the original Esme was.  To add to that, she's mysterious, which goes about in an awkward way of achieving some of the sexuality present in the original Esme.  None of the songs Esme sings are happy demonstrations of her persona.  Bohemienne (and I think her best song) comes nearest to that.  She's given aspirations of returning home, which were never present in the original Esme.  She also talks to the Mother Mary, again.  I'll have to go back and read the novel;  see if I'm missing a scene or something.  And to make things worse, this strong-willed, independent woman falls in love with Phoebus quite easily.  They tried their best to soften the blow.  The rebelliousness she displays in Tentative d'Enlevement gives one hope that if they choose not to be faithful to the original character, they won't be faithful to the story, either.  However, that's not true.  Two songs later, she's singing a duet with Fleur-de-Lys about Phoebus.  That was their greatest downfall, I think, personally.  Instead of warping her character to another one, they just simply warped her character.  And made her hardly believeable.      One thing all these versions lack is an innocent Esme.  And I'd like to think this is why there have been no good Esme's, in my opinion.  The reason why little Esmeralda was so appealing to so many was not simply her beauty.  There were plenty of beautiful women in Paris, I'm sure.  It was an aura around her; a feeling of life that she seemed to exude.  Unfortunately, auras and feelings don't come across well on screen or stage.  So they made up for it how they could.  And because of that, Esmeralda lost something.

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Back to Quasimodo                       Return to Characters Page                      On to Claude Frollo This starts from the beginning photo under the Faces section, which features a curly-haired woman in a black-and-white photo. *Maureen O'Hara as Esmeralda, (c) 1939 RKO Pictures Inc *Drawing of Gina Lollobrigida as Esmeralda, (c) 1957  Allied Artists (dubbed) *Illustration of Esmeralda, (c) 1996 Disney Corporation *Salma Hayek as Esmeralda, (c) 1997 TriStar Television, et al *Helene Segara as Esmeralda, (c) 1998 by Luc Plammodon?  I snapped the picture. *Artwork by L.O. Merson, 1889 edition *Artwork by Gustave Brion, 1865 edition All of the pictures (except for the one I took) are used without permission.  The one I took myself is probably illegal somehow, too... This page (c) Misty Woodard, 2000-2001, all text and some graphics.  Graphics will be removed immediately upon request.