Analyzing Evil: Judge Claude Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame

[Music] hello everyone and welcome to the 24th episode of analyzing evil featuring one of my personal favorites judge claude frollo from the hunchback of notre dame a rather sinister villain as far as disney villains go frollo is one of those characters we all love to hate or hate to love some of you have requested that i cover frollo as he appears in the book and the various other film and stage adaptions of the character and i plan on doing so at some point i typically like to draw comparisons from the book a film is based on but the differences between the novel and the disney film are far too many for me to make a comparison so this video will be focused solely on the disney version of the character now without further ado let's take a look at the dreaded and terrible judge claude frollo we'll start with his appearance mannerisms and personality frollo is quite imposing he wears jewels upon his fingers and the clothes he wears a flowing robe and shoulder pads are all in black accented with red and purple complimented by a tricorn which sits like a dark crown upon his head in the opening scene frollo's face is much fuller and softer but the years were not kind to frollo and as we see him now in his later years he has dark circles around his eyes with sunken in cheeks and in a few scenes lines of age above and below his lips his features are skull-like in their appearance yet frollo with his cruel and hard mouth slanted eyebrows and overall angular and sharp features somehow manages to surpass the fear a skull might instill in you with the utter cruelty that we can see drawn plain upon his face he moves and talks as if every aspect of life is unclean and disgusting pursing his lips when speaking to people of sin and often recoiling at the touch of others his confidence in himself and his cause are clear and he holds himself as someone who doesn't answer to anyone but god he's prone to the cruelest of smiles and the satisfaction we see him displaying when causing misery to others is evident of his sadism reveling in the joy he feels at his victories and the woe of his perceived enemies now moving on to his characteristics and beliefs we need look no further for them than in the very first scene of the film where frollo is rounding up gypsies to be imprisoned and runs down the mother of quasimodo killing her for the crime of holding supposed stolen goods upon finding in her bundle a misshapen babe he decries it as a demon and prepares to rid the world of him by casting it down into a well as an introductory scene to a character we couldn't have asked for anything better in establishing a few key details of his character one is his utter lack of remorse when it comes to disposing of those he deems to be sub-human and his justification for doing so by invoking the word of law and god like when he explains himself to the archdeacon regarding the death of quasimodo's mother and his attempt at raiding the world of quasimodo saying her death was just as she fled from justice and he merely pursued and the babe is a demon who is an abomination in the eyes of god and men and needs to be sent back to hell where it belongs with those notions comes the fact that frollo is definitely a law-abiding religious and pious man but he derives his dogmatic beliefs from some of the more puritanical and malicious ideas within the church and as described by clopan in the opening scene his primary motive in life is to purge the world of vice and sin in the same line claupan also remarks how frollo sees corruption everywhere except within himself this is true as frollo is an incredibly selfish and hypocritical man and he does place himself above the law or religion when it serves his own ends however though frollo uses the law and god as an excuse at times as we see when he's justifying the murder of quasimodo's mother we can also discern that frollo truly believes in the laws he's enforcing as he seems to be persecuting the gypsies out of a desire to do good to rid paris of those subversive elements he sees lurking in the shadows the root cause of much of the vice and sin consuming the poor citizens of paris not only does he believe in his actions as a justiciar but in god as well as he quite clearly fears god divine retribution and for the sanctity of his immortal soul it's this fear that causes him to heed the word of the archdeacon and raise quasimodo but only for the sake of his own soul even ending his acceptance of the babe with a comment that perhaps someday he could be of use to him when we fast forward to the present frollo has taken care of quasimodo after a fashion eating with him on a daily basis and even giving him an education but that's just about all the credit he deserves as he fills quasimodo's head with his own strict beliefs and the idea that everybody in the outside world would decry him as a monster and he would suffer unnecessarily if he left his tower while we're on the topic of frollo's fear of god i'd like to note another fear here and that's the fear frolo inspires in the citizens of paris and our best example for this fear is in the translation of the latin segment of the opening song day of wrath that day shall consume the world and ashes as prophesized by david and the sybil what trembling is to be when the judge is come twenty years after he took in quasimodo he's still the cruel and ruthless man he was then we even see frollo calling the peasants who gather for the fool's festival the dregs of society the cut purses and scoundrels who lurk in the dark and at the beginning of the iconic hellfire sequence which we'll get to shortly he also refers to the people as the common weak licentious crowd when speaking of his own purity showing that he believes himself to be above the common people of paris if that wasn't already abundantly clear in the way he acts and holds himself through a lens of god and laws frollo has managed to turn every soul but himself into a caricature of the worst in society and standing high above them all is the mighty judge claude frollo the one who must be the force of good in a world filled with the ignorant and sinful every scene in this film is filled with the characteristics and beliefs we just discussed but none of them are more prevalent than his selfishness and hypocrisy now as i said before frollo truly does believe in the laws and morals he is enforcing upon the citizens of paris but this belief is still born out of selfishness as though frollo is seemingly doing what he does to improve the city he's actually enforcing these laws so he can make the world a better place for himself to live in as well as holding the view that his actions are very much in line with the will of the lord frollo doesn't care if the peasants suffer the only thing he cares about is his own suffering when he opens the doors of the palace of justice each day and has to witness the peasants committing disgusting acts of ice and sin it's his worldview that he wishes to impose upon the people his own idea of salvation and purity and it has nothing to do with anybody but himself though he himself is blind to this truth this is terrible but it only gets worse when he meets esmerelda he makes excuses in public by calling her dancing disgusting but upon first sight frollo becomes so infatuated with her to the point of madness we see him struggling with this in the hellfire sequence where he's yet again making excuses for his obsession with esmeralda claiming that her witchcraft and the devil have tested his righteous self while the priests of his conscience chant a part of the conflict they are the catholic prayer for forgiveness repeating meyakulpa which translates to my fault as he cries to the heavens that it isn't his fault this is a central theme for frollo and it goes hand in hand with his selfishness that being his propensity to blame anyone and everyone but himself for his own actions upon learning that esmerelda has escaped notre dame he resolves himself to finding her and taking her for his own and if not he'll burn her at the stake to do this frollo resorts to setting the entire city of paris ablaze simply to satisfy his own lust now at this point we've seen frollo's hypocrisy laid bare as he has so far clearly exhibited five of the seven deadly sins he has shown wrath or anger numerous times throughout the film and his pride is evident in almost everything he does his pursuit of esmeralda not only encompasses lust but greed and envy as well as frollo wishes to secure her for himself and in that same vein is likely envious of anyone who would receive her favor of the last two sins sloth doesn't really fit for frollo and gluttony only applies to frollo if you take into account the interpretation of gluttony as selfishness which he is guilty of in abundance nonetheless he is a substantial hypocrite and it's this hypocrisy that underscores his beliefs and supposed virtue plain to everyone but himself that he's nothing but a heathen his selfishness is pushed to new heights when he resolves himself to capture esmerelda at any cost evicting countless people from their homes and sending them to prison while setting the city of paris alight all in pursuit of one woman a man even remarks during this sequence that frollo has gone mad immediately after this scene when he confronts quasimodo we again see his hypocrisy his selfishness and his ease at laying the blame upon anyone other than himself he tells quasimodo that the reason paris is burning is because he helped esmerelda escape the cathedral and not because of his obvious greed and lust for her and later on when he's about to drive a knife into quasimodo's back he laments that esmeralda was a necessary death born out of duty in frollo's twisted mind anyone who goes against his will deserves nothing but the most severe of punishments and should be handled with extreme prejudice this is best seen in the final scene where he attempts to burn esmerelda at the stake before organizing the storming of the cathedral to put both her and quasimodo to the sword here at what would be his end is the day foretold of the day of wrath where the world is ashes and the judge has come to smite the wicked and plunge them into the fiery pit it's here that we see frollo's appearance finally reflecting what he truly is on the inside the real demon that dwells amongst the citizens of paris one who doles out justice and righteous fury in the name of principles he defies blind to the corruption of his own soul fittingly this demon is cast into the fires of his own making a just punishment for a man so consumed with the fires of hell so in the end who is judge claude frollo he's a man who adheres to and believes the principles and laws of his city and his religion a man who has written those principles to the height of power and has used this power to meet out justice and punishment to those who he believes are the worst offenders to the principles he clings to but every action he takes and every word he speaks in the name of his supposed principles is a lie but he's too arrogant and prideful to see the truth of his hypocritical ways conveniently skirting around these beliefs when it suits his own needs selfish beyond belief he uses god and the law to better society in the way he believes is right and true when in reality he does so out of a desire to live in a perfect world where he is free from the perceived downfalls in the population at large righteous spiteful and cruel judge claude frollo is as selfish and hypocritical as they come and is a fantastic example of someone whose ambitions prejudice moral superiority and perverse world view can bring out the worst in a man and he is without a doubt one of the most complex and sinister disney villains with evil surrounding every inch of his character thank you all for tuning in to this episode of analyzing evil and i hope you've enjoyed what are your thoughts on frollo did i miss anything let me know down below and leave a suggestion for a villain you'd like to see featured while you're at it if you liked this video and want to see more like it appearing in your feed click the subscribe button to keep up on the latest episodes and feel free to leave a like while you're at it thank you once again to all of my existing subscribers for your incredible support if you'd like to support the channel even further consider signing up as a patron over on patreon where you'll get access to different perks as well as more to come in the near future thank you to everyone who signed up so far and a most vile thank you to those whose names you're seeing on screen now join the channel's discord server to interact with myself and others in the community and follow me on the social media platforms listed in the description for occasional updates on the channel as always thanks for watching and i'll be seeing you soon

Channel: The Vile Eye

Views: 339,735

Keywords: Frollo, Quasimodo, Notre Dame, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Judge Claude Frollo, Disney, Evil, Villain

Id: JQoc1cDv5Hw

Length: 13min 18sec (798 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 14 2021