# IV: Lasciate Ogni Speranza—Leave All Hope Behind, Ye Who Enter Here explained — Notre-Dame de Paris

> Chapter companion for Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo.

## What happens

In a dungeon cell, Claude Frollo confesses to Esmeralda his obsessive love, his role in denouncing her, and his stabbing of Phoebus. He offers to save her from execution if she will love him, but she remains devoted to Phoebus and rejects him with horror. Frollo reveals Phoebus is dead, and Esmeralda, in despair, refuses his help, choosing death over union with him.

## Themes in this chapter

### Obsession and Destructive Love

Frollo's monologue reveals a consuming, jealous love that drives him to denounce Esmeralda, stab Phoebus, and offer a twisted salvation.

### Fate and Destiny

Frollo repeatedly blames 'fate' for the tragic chain of events, suggesting an inescapable doom.

### Religion and Hypocrisy

Frollo, a priest, confesses to sinful obsession and murder, contrasting his holy office with his monstrous actions.

## Character check-ins

### Dom Claude Frollo

Confesses his obsession, denunciation, and stabbing of Phoebus; offers to save Esmeralda if she loves him; reveals Phoebus is dead.

### La Esmeralda

Rejects Frollo's advances, remains devoted to Phoebus, and chooses death over being with the priest.

### Captain Phoebus de Châteaupers

Mentioned as the object of Esmeralda's love; Frollo claims he stabbed him and that he is dead.

## Key lines

> I denounced you to the official. I thought that I should be cured like Bruno d’Ast. I also had a confused idea that a trial would deliver you into my hands; that, as a prisoner I should hold you, I should have you; that there you could not escape from me; that you had already possessed me a sufficiently long time to give me the right to possess you in my turn.

Frollo admits he reported Esmeralda to the authorities, hoping that a trial would give him control over her, believing his obsession would be cured by possessing her.

_Frollo's rationalization of his betrayal and desire for possession._

> I beheld your foot, that foot which I would have given an empire to kiss and die, that foot, beneath which to have had my head crushed I should have felt such rapture—I beheld it encased in that horrible boot, which converts the limbs of a living being into one bloody clod.

Frollo describes watching Esmeralda's foot being tortured in the boot, a sight that both horrifies and excites him.

_Frollo's masochistic and voyeuristic obsession with Esmeralda's suffering._

> He is dead! ... the blade pierced deeply. I believe I touched his heart with the point. Oh! my very soul was at the end of the dagger!

Frollo declares that Phoebus is dead from the stabbing, claiming his soul was in the blade.

_Frollo's confession of murder and his identification with the act._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/notre_dame_de_paris_se/chapters/iv-lasciate-ogni-speranza-leave-all-hope-behind-ye-who-enter-here
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/notre_dame_de_paris_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/notre_dame_de_paris_se/chapters