# VII: The Mysterious Monk explained — Notre-Dame de Paris

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

## What happens

Captain Phoebus and the scholar Jehan Frollo leave the tavern 'Eve's Apple' late in the evening. Phoebus, needing money for a rendezvous with a woman, abandons the drunken Jehan in the street. A mysterious man in a cloak follows Phoebus, eventually offering him a coin on the condition that he be hidden in the room where Phoebus meets the woman. Phoebus agrees, and the man is locked into a dark chamber at the house of Goody Falourdel on the Pont Saint-Michel.

## Themes in this chapter

### Obsession and Destructive Love

The mysterious monk (Claude Frollo) follows Phoebus and arranges to spy on his rendezvous, foreshadowing his obsessive and destructive fixation on Esmeralda.

### Appearance and Identity

The man in the mantle conceals his identity and costume, using the cloak to hide his true self while he stalks Phoebus.

## Character check-ins

### Captain Phoebus de Châteaupers

Leaves the tavern with Jehan, abandons him drunk in the street, and proceeds to a rendezvous with a woman, accepting money from a mysterious stranger.

### Jehan Frollo du Moulin

Drunk and rambling, he is left by Phoebus to sleep on a rubbish-heap near the Rue Saint-André-des-Arcs.

### Dom Claude Frollo

Implied to be the mysterious man in the mantle who follows Phoebus, offers him money, and is hidden in the Sainte-Marthe chamber to spy on the rendezvous.

### Goody Falourdel

The old crone who keeps the house on the Pont Saint-Michel; she lets Phoebus and the stranger into the Sainte-Marthe chamber.

## Key lines

> I have an appointment with a woman.

Phoebus tells Jehan he is meeting a woman at seven o'clock.

_Phoebus reveals his planned rendezvous, which the mysterious monk overhears._

> Hide me in some corner whence I can see whether this woman is really the one whose name you uttered.

The stranger asks Phoebus to conceal him so he can observe the woman Phoebus is meeting.

_The mysterious monk demands to be hidden in order to spy on the rendezvous._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/notre_dame_de_paris_se/chapters/vii-the-mysterious-monk
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/notre_dame_de_paris_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/notre_dame_de_paris_se/chapters