How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
It was the first gratification of self-love that he had ever experienced. Until then he had encountered nothing but humiliation, contempt for his condition, and disgust for his person. (II.III.23)
Poor Quasimodo. He's so starved for love that he doesn't even mind being made a fool of. What we're meant to feel here is a little thing humanities grad students like to call pathos. Basically, we're being set up to root for Quasimodo because we feel so incredibly bad for him.
Quote #2
"Oh! Love!" she said, and her voice trembled, and her eye sparkled. "It is to be two and yet but one—it is a man and a woman melting into an angel—it is heaven itself." (II.VII.35)
Esmeralda sure is a hopeless romantic (after all, she is sixteen). Her views on love are so cheesy and idealized that they may make you gag. The message we're supposed to get here is that Esmeralda is pretty naïve when it comes to love. Now, it's not that Esmeralda is wrong to hold the views of love that she does. It's a pretty noble and lofty sentiment, after all. But Esmeralda expects everyone else to be just like she is—and reality is a lot more complicated than that.
Quote #3
He perceived that there was something in the world besides the speculations of the Sorbonne and the verses of Homer; that human beings have need of affections; that life without love is only a dry wheel, creaking and grating as it revolves. (IV.II.9)
Who says that romantic love is the only kind of love there is? This novel has plenty of instances of familial love as well—like the Sack Woman's love for her daughter, for instance. For Claude Frollo, familial love is totally safe—remember, as a priest, sex and romance are off-limits for him. But this first experience with love makes him view love as something absolutely essential to life. But by taking on a priest's life, he's also left himself completely unprepared to deal with love with it strikes.