Hey everyone! Moria here with a new assistant, who will be going by the alias of F, and we're going to present to you our perspective on something we found interesting! So, before we begin, I'd like F to say hi!

[I'd umm... Very much like to go back to hiding under my blanket.. If that's alright with you..]

We're going to be doing a three part blog here, we'll be looking at the songs Hellfire and Heaven's Light, and also the big question of the movie! "What makes a man, and what makes a monster?"

This is NORMALLY where I'd throw in a SPOILER ALERT, but seeing how the movie is like 30 years old or so.. Yeah. Either you've seen it or you're too young.

[... Didn't it come out in the 90's, not the 80's?]

I was watching The Hunchback of Notre Dame for the first time in over a decade and as an adult it blew my mind how much Disney had gotten away with in the past before the soccer moms attacked.

[I was just... Watching it.. .-.]

Some of you have already figured out what the title has to do with anything, but for those of you who wonder, Disney dedicated an entire full length song to give the audience insight into a man who was both deathly afraid for the fate of his soul and infatuated with a woman who his beliefs stated clearly was evil.

It was this struggle between religious devotion and lust that made the song so perfect in coming to understand this man's state of mind at this time, but it is also why he is often labeled as a villain. However a better label would be "pervert".

In fact, he is one if if not Disney's biggest perverts.
[Don't know, I mean Finklestein and Darth Cyrus seem like tough competition..]

First let's take a look at the lyrics of the song itself, which is a mixture of Latin and English. I have provided the translations to the Latin parts in parenthesis.

Confiteor Deo Omnipotenti (I confess to God almighty)
Beatae Mariae semper Virgini (To blessed Mary ever Virgin)
Beato Michaeli archangelo (To the blessed archangel Michael)
Sanctis apostolis omnibus sanctis (To the holy apostles, to all the saints)

Beata Maria (Blessed Mary)
You know I am a righteous man
Of my virtue I am justly proud

Et tibit Pater (And to you, Father)

Beata Maria
You know I'm so much purer than
The common, vulgar, weak, licentious crowd

Quia peccavi nimis (That I have sinned)

Then tell me, Maria
Why I see her dancing there
Why her smold'ring eyes still scorch my soul

Cogitatione (In thought)

I feel her, I see her
The sun caught in raven hair
Is blazing in me out of all control

Verbo et opere (In word and deed)

Like fire
Hellfire
This fire in my skin
This burning
Desire
Is turning me to sin
It's not my fault

Mea culpa (Through my fault)

I'm not to blame

Mea culpa (Through my fault)

It is the gypsy girl
The witch who sent this flame

Mea maxima culpa (Through my most griveous fault)

It's not my fault

Mea culpa (Through my fault)

If in God's plan

Mea culpa (Through my fault)

He made the devil so much
Stronger than a man

Mea maxima culpa (Through my most griveous fault)

Protect me, Maria
Don't let this siren cast her spell
Don't let her fire sear my flesh and bone
Destroy Esmeralda
And let her taste the fires of hell
Or else let her be mine and mine alone
Hellfire
Dark fire
Now gypsy, it's your turn
Choose me or
Your pyre
Be mine or you will burn

Kyrie Eleison (Lord have mercy)

God have mercy on her

Kyrie Eleison (Lord have mercy)

God have mercy on me

Kyrie Eleison (Lord have mercy)

But she will be mine
Or she will burn!

Judge Claude Frollo is one of my favorite characters to play an antagonistic role in a Disney movie. His motives were so much deeper than "Lolhurpdurr, I'm guna mak a milln bucz wit rl dlmtn skn clths!" or "I'm evul fr th lulz!", and to understand how significant the song can be to understanding the character fully, let's take a look at the events before, during and after the song.

In beginning of the film we see a self righteous man who's life's work is purging sin and vice from Paris. In his actions of trying to get rid of the gypsies, he chased a woman who fled with a baby. Frollo, believing it to be stolen goods tried to recover it, in the process he caused the woman to fall and die from hitting her head on the steps too hard.

Once he opened the cloth he believed the child to be an "unholy demon" which he needed to "send back to hell". And if it weren't for the archdeacon, he would have dropped the child in the well. The archdeacon told Frollo that taking such actions would seal his fate and out of fear of eternal damnation, he took Quasimodo in and raised him for twenty years.

[Umm.. What happened to the song?]
Without this explanation, it's hard to compare his character to the vision of him during the song and afterwards.

During the song there are many events that suggest to us that Frollo is praying, while most of the song is actually just in his head. [Isn't there a picture that makes fun of the "OR SHE WILL BUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRNNNNNN!" part?]
This would explain why nobody questioned why he was loudly singing about his sinning.

Following this, one could assume that Frollo may have been reciting his actual prayer at a volume that wasn't shouting, but loud enough to cause him to feel panic at the thought that he may have been overheard when the guard opened the door.

The song immediately follows the "Heaven's Light" song, which indicates it was an intentional contrasting between Quasi and Frollo's emotions. Where Heaven's Light depicts Quasi lamenting about how he felt in the past that he would never feel loved by anyone besides Frollo and expressing his joy at finding another human who's shown him kindness, Frollo anguishes over the thoughts he has of the gypsy and blames her for his sin.

During the song we see the archdeacon swinging a sphere filled with burning incense while being followed by others, they sing their admissions of being guilty of sin, while Frollo then looks out the window staring into the sky above the cathedral, praying to the Virgin Mary, speaking of his righteousness and virtue. This gaze resting above the cathedral where he spilled innocent blood suggests to us that he still justifies that night with the blame laying on Quasimodo's mother.

Next Frollo speaks of his purity and asks Mary to explain why he is having these thoughts. Soon he begins to see a vision of Esmerelda dancing provocatively in the flame, and he recoils in fear, realizing that he's turning to sin. But the desire overwhelms him as he takes out the silk scarf that the gypsy had used to tease him with earlier during her performance at the Festival of Fools. This scarf is used by Frollo as an external representation of his desires, as you can see when he rubs it on his skin.

At this point his religious side is still at war with his desires, he kneels with the scarf in his hands as if he wants to tear it apart, or it's a pair of shackles binding his wrists when many red hooded figures appear, judging him. Frollo tries to shift the blame by claiming that Esmerelda is a witch who cast a spell on him, and that his sins aren't his fault because God intentionally "made the devil so much stronger than a man" and pleads that Mary protect him as the figures turn to flame and flow out of the room as though to symbolize dragging his soul to hell.

It's at this point where Frollo accepts his desires and decides to pursue Esmerelda, as seen when he panics about the soldier entering and possibly seeing him in this dark moment, burns the scarf, and proclaims that he will kill the gypsy if he cannot have her for his own. For a brief moment he regains his senses and asks God to have mercy on both him and Esmerelda, but he is again overpowered by his tempting desires and proclaims one last time that either he will have her or she will burn alive.

After the song, Frollo becomes obsessed with finding Esmerelda to make her choose between being his lover or her death, driven by his lust and the hatred for her that's grown from it. Ultimately to the point where he is driven mad enough to kill both Esmerelda and Quasi, believing he's doing right, when he quotes scripture ("And he will strike them down and cast them into the fire!" before he prepares to strike them, only to have the gargoyle beneath him collapse and look him in the eyes before he fell into the boiling hot oil covered ground below. It's at this point that Frollo realizes what he's done and he screams, perhaps not only because of the frightening gargoyle above him staring into his eyes as the last thing he sees, but because he realizes he's damned his soul to hell.

This concludes the look at Hellfire, keep in mind some points were brought up for future reference, and watch for my other two blogs!