Frollo's death

[frost moglin]

In the end of the Hunchback of Notre Dame just when Frollo is about to kill Quasi and Esmeralda the stone gargoyle he's standing on comes to life and drops him into a pool of molten iron (ouch). It's a great death for an awesome villain but it's never made sense to me. Was Frollo hallucinating or did the gargoyle really come to life? The only statues that showed any signs of life before that were Victor, Hugo, and Laverne and I always thought they were imaginary freinds of Quasi. But Frollo didn;t seem crazy to me so I've always wondered if it was real or in Frollo's head. Any ideas?

 

[Voigan]

It might have been a hallucination but I think the gargoyle really did come to life. Remember the Archdeacon warning Frollo that he couldn’t hide what he had done (killing Quasi’s mother) from “the eyes of Notre Dame" at the beginning of the movie? He might have meant it in a “The saints represented by the statues here are watching you from Heaven” sort of way but I always thought it was a literal warning to Frollo that the church itself (or at least the statues) were sentient and capable of movement and passing judgment on those in the building.

I'm pretty sure that Victor, Hugo, and Laverne are real since they fight the soldiers near the end of the movie and Hugo interacts briefly with Esmeralda's goat in one scene so it's quite possible the other statues can also move at will. That's my take on it anyway.

 

[frost moglin]

I never thought of it that way but I think you're right. Thanks.

 

[old lady]

The devil caught him. The book isn't for children or teens in my opinion.

 

[>Ash<]

my take on Frollos death scene,

personally i think the statues are a cabin fever hallucination of Quasi seen as how they turn to stone when anyone else enters the room,
i think they also made them for a comical relief as the film is pretty dark and intense.

the previous poster is right about the eyes of notre dame watching and passing judgment however i do not feel the gargoyle at the end had come to life, given the circumstances, the burning malten metal i think it was a hallucination of frollo.

and he died by hellsfire.... fire coming from the gargoyles mouth, representing the hellsfire, he already percieved his own death infront of the fire that night.

thats my thioughts.