Do we like them?

Do we like Quasimodo?

A character from The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (Notre-Dame de Paris) (1831)

Our score: 8 out of 10. Yes, we'd back him. He is gentle, loyal and fiercely protective, and the people who call him a monster are the ones who behave like monsters.

Quasimodo was left as a baby at Notre-Dame and adopted by the archdeacon Claude Frollo. He grows up in the cathedral's bell tower, and the bells leave him deaf. He's ringer of the bells and nearly the only person who knows every corner of the building. Hugo's novel is set in medieval Paris under Louis XI, and it makes Quasimodo the centre of a story about how society treats people who look different.

Quasimodo is shy, literal-minded and intensely loyal. He is feared and jeered at by the crowds because of how he looks, and he has only ever known cruelty outside the cathedral. When the dancer Esmeralda shows him a small kindness, he gives her complete devotion in return. He isn't a flawless hero, since he's easily led by Frollo and sometimes hits out blindly. But his motives are pure, and the novel invites us to ask who the real monsters are. That's why he scores so high.

The story ends in tragedy. Quasimodo saves Esmeralda from the gallows and hides her in the cathedral, but he can't save her from Frollo's obsession or from the injustice of the city. When he finally turns on Frollo, it comes from grief and betrayal. He then disappears from the cathedral, and years later his remains are found beside hers.