Blogpost # 5: The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Necrophilia

One of my childhood favorite Disney movie was: The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I was enlightened that the girl named Esmeralda would like a guy like Quasimodo, him being a fat, big hunchback. She didn't mind the outward appearance of the person, what's important to her is that a guy has a good heart. But later on, I just was curious what if Esmeralda really didn't like Quasimodo, I mean what if she was just forced to love him? What if it wasn't the real story after all? Questions like that keep on boggling me.

In the original story which I read in an article entitled, "HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME" by an anonymous writer on sparknotes.com it says that Esmeralda has three potential suitors, while Quasimodo is just some deaf and ugly hunchback watching her from his tower. One of the suitors is Phoebus, he shows up and has his way with her. He then gets stabbed in the back by Frollo, who pins the attack on Esmeralda.

It also tells us that Esmeralda is the one who attempted the murder, she is sentenced to be hanged. While the hero in the story, Quasimodo rescues her and hides her in Notre Dame, wherein Frollo tries to rape Esmeralda. Quasimodo saves Esmeralda again and this time Frollo gives Esmeralda up and there is a brief and bloody battle during which Frollo tells her he will rescue her if she will ‘give her love’ to him. She refuses and he hands her over to the troops. Frollo watches as Esmeralda is executed, and laughs hysterically as she writhes at the end of the rope. From then on, Quasimodo throws Frollo from the heights of Notre Dame. And Quasimodo crawls into the crypt where the corpses of executed criminals are left to rot and he wraps himself around Esmeralda’s decaying body. Eventually their two skeletons are found, wrapped in an eternal embrace. He lays there like that until he eventually dies of starvation.

According to an article I read entitled, "Necrophiles" by Katherine Ramsland on crimelibrary.com, she said that "Necrophilia is an erotic attraction to corpses, with the most common motive cited by psychologists as the attempt to gain possession of an unresisting or nonrejecting partner." in other words it's making love or having inter-course with a dead corpse. I think that Necrophilia is one of the most weird and bizarre practices of abnormal and perverse sensuality because a normal person can't possibly receive pleasure from a dead body anymore.

Gravediggers and mortuary attendants are most often found practicing necrophilia. They are engage in this activity because of their loneliness and coupled with easy access to corpses. It is known that necrophiles often choose a profession which allows them free and unhindered access to dead bodies.

According to Dr. Jonathan Rosman and Dr. Phillip Resnick in their article entitled "Sexual Attraction to Corpses: A Psychiatric Review of Necrophilia," there are three basic types of "true" necrophilia. First is the Necrophilic homicide which is murder to obtain a corpse. Next is the Regular necrophilia, the use of corpses already dead for sexual pleasure and lastly, the Necrophilic fantasy, envisioning the acts but not acting on them.

Necrophilia is a very rare and poorly understood phenomenon. There are apparently no effective treatment for this yet based on researchers. The Hunchback of Notre Dame may come out as a Necrophilia but it involves and teaches us a moral lesson too. No one is in fact ugly. We were all created as we are, no ifs no buts. When it comes to love, it doesn't matter whether you're cool, glamorous and fashionable. It only takes a good heart to steal someone's heart.