Disney Theory: Frollo's Curse

The Hunchback of Notre Dame, probably being my favorite Disney movie, I decided to re-watch it only a short time ago and after viewing it another time I noticed something odd about the Hellfire song that was sung of Judge Frolo, but first a bit of a recap on Judge Frolo himself. At the end of this theory it is up to you, the readers, to see this theory holds water that Esmeralda is the bad guy and Judge Frolo being an innocent victim by the end of the movie.

Frolo is a holy man of some sorts. As proof, during his song, he states himself as purer than the crowd as well as stating himself as a righteous man and being a man of virtue. Frolo despises attending what the people of Paris call The Feast of Fools, but ignores his personal feelings then attends the festival anyway, being his duty as a public official. So far we know that he has been doing his job well at this point.

This is where the conspiracy beings to take hold.

During the festival everyone, except Judge Frolo, enjoys the festival. Eventually, Esmeralda makes her appearance to the crowd as a dancer. As she dances Frolo states her dance as a disgusting display then the next shot shows Esmeralda turning her attention towards him. It is obvious that she would have taken offense after overhearing his disrespectful remark of her.

She then makes her way over to Frolo and wraps a purple cloth around his neck, or does she? Gypsies are known to be thieves, use magic, and tell the future by reading people's palms so she somehow curses Frolo when she got too close to him. What if the cloth was never really there, but part of the curse she laid on him.

After the festival ends Frolo begins to loose his mind and hallucinates further. During the Hellfire song he sees an image of Esmeralda in the flames in front of him followed up by seeing many people covered in red hoods surrounding him.

Frolo, being a religious man, is afraid of God which most people are. With the curse breaking his sanity, his mind tries to defend itself by making Frolo see images of people draped in red hoods. Frolo also has fears of Hell so he thinks they are men of God, there to help reason with him. Frolo knows he has been cursed by stating that it was Esmeralda who set the flame, the flame just another word for spell and he is desperately trying to fight back.

When Frolo says that he will destroy Esmeralda he is seen holding up the purple cloth in his left hand. Then after, he kisses a ghostly image of her from the flames in front of him, but it is then the cloth is no longer there. Shortly after, it reappears in his hands again like it never went missing.

Frolo thinks the cloth is real, but with his sanity switching back and forth he tries to let go by throwing it into fire place as way to fight back. Before his song ends it is the last that we see the good person that Frolo was. He asks God to have mercy on, not only himself, but Esmeralda as well and asking for mercy on behalf of their enemies is not someone that an evil person would do.

Believing his faith to be strong, he only partially succumbs to the curse, but his mind still damaged to an extent and in the end, blacks out at the end of the song.

We see Frolo different after that. He is seen more merciless than before and is willing to kill Esmeralda as his way of revenge and is also willing to take out anyone that dares to get in his way, no matter who it is.

With his mind still damaged he only hallucinates one final time just before dies by seeing part of the cathedral turn into a demon of some sorts. It would make sense that he spent his life religiously.

It is possible that this theory is not true. At the beginning of the movie Frolo does kill Quasimodo's mother, but then again it could have been an accident. She was running from the law which left Frolo thinking that she did indeed have stolen goods in her possession and all humans suspect one another of stealing at one time in their lives or another, on many occasions in fact. Sentences carried out were indeed harsher back then, unlike today. That is just things were done back in those days. Judging by Frolo's reaction we, the audience, could tell that Frolo did not know that was she was carrying a child.

Yes, he was going to drown the child, but was convinced to instead keep as his own son. Perhaps Frolo had Quasimodo put in the the bell tower, never to be seen, as a way of keeping him less miserable instead to be judge by others out in the open. When Quasimodo disobeyed that was exactly was happened to him. If he stayed in the bell tower, liked his adopted father instructed, he would not have suffered such humiliation. As punishment for disobeying anyway, Frolo taught him a lesson by dong nothing as the crowds discriminated him as he was tied up.

Does this theory seem to hold up possibilities or not? In the end it is up to the readers to decided that for themselves anyway.