The story of the novel takes place in Paris in the 15th century, and the central location of the plot clue is Notre Dame de Paris.
Quasimodo, the protagonist, is an abandoned child of a wandering gypsy, who was born deformed: one-eyed, hunchbacked and lame. Gypsies secretly traded him for Agnes, the youngest daughter of a woman in Rem. Claude, the vice bishop of Notre Dame, adopted Quasimodo and made him a bell ringer in Notre Dame as an adult. Because of ringing the bell for many years, his ears are deaf again. Quasimodo is loyal to his post, has great respect for the vice bishop, and is obedient.
On a festival night, the vice bishop instructed Quasimodo to rob Esme Halda, a gypsy girl, and was hit by the King's Guard. Captain Fabi saved the girl. The next day, Quasimodo was sentenced to punishment, and was flogged under the drum of the Gray Square. Quasimodo was in great pain and asked for water. After seeing it, the Vice Bishop slipped away quietly, but the gypsy girl boldly sent water to Quasimodo, the victim. The poor bell ringer never thanked her again.
It turns out that it was Agnes who was stolen by vagrants. She is young, beautiful and good at singing and dancing. I fell in love with Fabi, the captain of the guard, and agreed to meet him on the holiday night. The vice bishop learned about this, followed Fabi, hid in their tryst place, and stabbed Fabi with a dagger when Fabi and Esme Halda told each other their love, and slipped away by themselves. Esme Halda, who was scared in the past, was arrested. The court accused her of murdering the king's bodyguard with witchcraft and forced her to confess by torture, thus sentenced her to hang. In prison, the archdeacon repeatedly told Esme Halda that she would not die if she loved him. But the girl was firmly in love with Fabi, and the vice bishop became angry and announced the execution of the hanging. The day before the execution, Esme Halda knelt in front of Notre Dame to perform a confession ceremony. Suddenly, Quasimodo rushed out and picked up the girl and stepped into the threshold of Notre Dame, shouting: "Holy land!" Guards, jailers and onlookers were afraid to act, because according to the religious laws and regulations at that time, everyone in the church should be protected by God, and even if he committed a capital crime, he could not be arrested. Quasimodo hid Esme Halda in a small room in the highest tower, gave her his own food and bedding, and guarded her door every night to take care of her. Soon the vice bishop found this hiding place and sneaked into the room at night, trying to rape the girl, but Quasimodo, who was guarded, found it unsuccessful.
The vagrants were very angry when they learned that Esme Halda had been unjustly sentenced to death. They armed themselves and rushed to the court and surrounded Notre Dame. But Quasimodo, who loves the gypsy girl, because she is deaf, mistakenly thinks that they are coming to hunt down her enemies, leaving all kinds of building materials on the top of the church to repair houses, causing a large number of casualties among homeless people. King louis xi didn't like religious forces, but he was afraid that the people would rise up and sent troops to suppress them.
The vice bishop took the opportunity to cheat Esme Halda away, dragged her to the drum stage, and forced her to choose: either go to the guillotine or promise to love him. The girl despised him and would rather die than surrender. The vice bishop dragged her to the front of the "mouse hole", told the nun Judith to catch her and ran to call the guard himself.
Sister Judith is actually the girl's mother. After losing her little daughter, she ran around looking for a little embroidered shoe, converted to religion in despair, entered a living coffin-"mouse hole" and became a nun. When Esme Halda saw the little shoe, she also took out an identical embroidered little shoe in her amulet, so mother and daughter met. The nun smashed the bars and hid her daughter who had lost 16 years in the "mouse hole", and the mother and daughter were immersed in the joy of reunion of flesh and blood. At this time, the warden and guard called by the vice bishop surrounded the "mouse hole" A mother's love gave Gudier strength and wisdom. She deceived them and made them believe that the gypsy girl had escaped. But when Esme Halda heard Fabi's name, she couldn't help rushing out of the window and exposing herself. So the mother and daughter were taken to the execution ground, the daughter was hanged, and the mother died tragically under the gallows.
Finally, Gasimo saw through the ugly soul of the archdeacon, pushed him from the tower and fell to his death. After that, he found Esme Halda's body and hugged it tightly to die.
The novel reveals the cruelty and hypocrisy of religion through the despicable behavior of the vice bishop. It is the religion that binds human nature that turns his love into a terrible desire, which harms others and leads to a bad end for himself. The works also contrast Quasimodo's inner beauty with his ugly appearance. Esme Halda, a gypsy girl, is the embodiment of the author's ideal, who embodies Hugo's noblest feelings and the most beautiful image.
La Traviata
Margaret turned out to be a poor country girl, and after coming to Paris, she began her career as a comedian. Because of his beauty, the aristocratic sons in Paris rushed to chase after him and became the "social stars" of the moment. She always wears a bouquet of camellias with her, and is called "La Traviata".
La Traviata suffered from lung disease. While receiving spa treatment, there was a noble lady in the sanatorium, whose figure and appearance were similar to those of Margaret, except that the lung disease had reached the third stage and she died soon. The young lady's father, Duke Morialon, happened to find Margaret very much like his daughter, so he took her as his adopted daughter. Margaret told her story, and the duke promised to pay all her daily expenses as long as she could change her past life. But Margaret couldn't do it completely, so the duke cut the money by half. Margaret couldn't make ends meet, and now she has owed tens of thousands of francs.
One evening after Margaret came back, a group of guests came to visit. Neighbor Prudence brought two young people, one of whom was Armand Duval, the son of Mr. Duval, the Commissioner of Taxation, who was madly in love with La Traviata.
A year ago, during Margaret's illness, Armand came to inquire about her illness every day, but refused to leave his name. Prudence told Margaret about Armand's infatuation, and she was very moved. When Margaret was dancing with her friends, her illness suddenly broke out. Armand was very concerned to persuade her not to do this to herself, and he declared his love to Margaret. He told La Traviata that he still treasures the buttons she lost six months ago. Margaret's already weak heart was moved by her true feelings again. She gave Armand a camellias and promised her heart.
Armand's sincere love inspired Margaret's longing for life. She decided to get rid of the boring life in Paris and live in the country with Armand for a while. She was going to plan a sum of money alone, so she asked Armand to leave her for one night. When Armand went out to find Margaret, he happened to meet Margaret's former lover and was suddenly jealous. He wrote a strongly worded letter to Margaret, saying that he didn't want to be the object of ridicule and that he would leave Paris.
But he didn't leave. Margaret was his whole hope and life. He knelt down and asked Margaret to forgive him. Margaret told Armand that "you are the one I called for in my troubled lonely life".
After hard work, Margaret and Armand rented a house outside Paris. When the duke knew about it, he cut off Margaret's financial resources. She pawned her gold and silver jewelry and carriage behind Armand's back to pay for her living. Armand learned about it and decided to transfer an inheritance left by his mother to pay off Margaret's debts. The agent asked him to sign, and he left Margaret for Paris.
The letter was originally written by Armand's father, Mr. Duval. He tried to trick Armand into leaving and then went to find Margaret. Tell Margaret that his daughter is in love with a decent teenager. After hearing about the relationship between Armand and Margaret, the family said: If Armand doesn't break up with Margaret, he will break off his marriage. Margaret begged Mr. Duval painfully that if she wanted to sever ties with Armand, it would mean killing her, but Mr. Duval never gave in. For Armand and his family, she had to make sacrifices and swear to break up with Armand.
Margaret wrote a dear John letter to Armand very sadly, and then returned to Paris to start her absurd life again. She accepted the pursuit of Baron Valville, who helped her pay off all her debts and redeemed her jewelry and carriage. Armand also returned to his hometown with his father in pain.
Armand Jin still deeply misses Margaret, and he came to Paris again. He is determined to get back at Margaret for her betrayal. He found Margaret and embarrassed her everywhere. Call her a heartless, heartless whore who sells love as a commodity. Facing Armand's misunderstanding, Margaret sadly advised him to forget himself and never meet again. Armand wanted her to escape from Paris with herself, to a place where no one knew them, and to hold on to their love. Margaret said that she couldn't do that, because she had taken an oath. Armand mistakenly thought that she and the baron had made a vow of eternal love, so he angrily wrote to Margaret to insult her and sent her a pile of money.
Margaret suffered from this stimulus and couldn't get sick. As the New Year is coming, Margaret's illness is getting worse and she looks pale. No one has come to visit her, and she feels particularly lonely. Mr. Duval wrote to tell her that he thanked Margaret for keeping her promise and had written to tell Armand the truth. Now Margaret's only hope is to see Armand again.
Before she died, all the creditors came with IOUs, forcing her to pay her debts. The executive was ordered to execute the judgment, seized all her property, and auctioned it only after her death. On her deathbed, she kept shouting Armand's name, "Silent tears flowed from her eyes". She never saw her beloved again.
After her death, only one kind neighbor, Millie, was buried for her. When Armand returned to Paris, she gave her a diary of Margaret. From the diary, Armand knew her noble heart. "Besides your insult is evidence that you always love me, I seem to think that the more you torture me, the more noble I will be in your eyes when you know the truth."
With infinite regret and melancholy, Armand moved the grave for Margaret, and filled her grave with white camellias.
The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice is a famous comedy. It is an important early work of Shakespeare, which was written about 1596-1597. The theme of the script is to praise kindness, friendship and love, and at the same time, it reflects the contradiction between the commercial bourgeoisie and usurers in the early capitalist period, and shows the author's humanistic thoughts on money, law and religion in bourgeois society. An important literary achievement of this play is to create a typical image of Shylock, a mercenary and ruthless usurer.
The main plot of The Merchant of Venice is based on ancient legends. The plot is unfolded through three lines: one is that Portia chooses his relatives, and Bassanio chooses the lead box to form a family with Portia; One is the love and elopement between Shylock's daughter Jessica and Antonio's friend Lorenzo; There is also a main line, that is, the contract dispute of "cutting a pound of meat" caused by Antonio, a Venetian businessman, borrowing 3, yuan from Shylock, a usurer Jew, in order to help Bassanio get married. Shylock hated Antonio because he lent money to people without interest, which affected the usury industry and insulted himself, so he took advantage of the signing of the loan contract to set a trap and wait for revenge.
Antonio, a merchant in Venice, is a generous businessman, which is just the opposite of Shylock's usury policy. A good friend of his asked for a loan of 3, gold coins from Portia, a beautiful girl who inherited a great fortune from Belmont, but Antonio had no money left, so he had to borrow 3, gold coins from Shylock with his merchant ship that had not yet returned to Hong Kong as collateral. I didn't expect Shylock to resent Antonio's past confrontation with himself, so he took this opportunity to ask him to replace the merchant ship with a pound of meat. After some talk, Antonio agreed and made a contract with him.
Bashani (Antonio's friend) went to Belmont with joy to ask for relatives. In Belmont, his attendant Graciano fell in love with Portia's maid Nerissa, and two new couples got married at the same time in a hurry when an accident came.
It turns out that Antonio wrote a letter, which explained that his merchant ship was missing, and he was about to get a pound of meat from Shylock. Because this pound of meat might lead to his death, he wanted to see Bashani for the last time ... Hearing this news, Bashani and Graciano rushed back to Venice, and Portia and Nerissa secretly disguised themselves as lawyers and secretaries, and then went to save Antonio.
In court, Portia wisely promised shylock that he could take any pound of Antonio's flesh, but if he shed a drop of blood (only one pound of flesh was written in the contract, but no drop of blood was promised to shylock), he would use his life and property to redeem him. Therefore, Antonio was rescued, and the court announced that he would confiscate one third of his property and give Anthony the other half on the charge of murdering the citizens of Venice. Shylock saw that the plot failed, so he had to agree, and he converted to Christianity according to the judgment.
Portia and Nie Sally teased their husbands and asked them to get their wedding rings back as a substitute for Antonio's defense. Then they went home. When their husbands came back, they blamed them for ignoring the meaning of wedding rings and insisted that they must have given them to other women. After a series of embarrassing explanations, it finally became clear that everyone had a satisfactory ending except Shylock (Antonio's ship also arrived in the port smoothly).
These are all my favorites. I hope I can help you, O(∩_∩)O Thank you.