The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

In the corner of the Place de Grève, a public square, is a small cell, nicknamed the rathole, in which a reclusive woman shows her penitence before God. For 15 years, Paquette has lived inside it. She relies on food passed through the grate, refusing anything but black bread and water. She huddles under the few rags she has, enduring cold and misery in the hope that this sign of religious devotion will encourage God to have mercy on her. She is desperate to reunite with her daughter, even though she believes that Romany people stole and ate her baby girl. The rathole becomes a symbol of her desperate devotion. The self-inflicted punishment of these conditions symbolizes the depth of her desperation and the extent to which she grieves for her daughter. Paquette punishes herself before God in the bleak hope that this will lead her daughter back to her. In a way, she succeeds. Frollo leaves Esmeralda with Paquette because he believes that Paquette loathes Esmeralda. Instead, Paquette and Esmeralda realize that they are mother and daughter. The many years of suffering inside the rathole have created a situation in which the mother and daughter can reunite. While the rathole represents the extent of Paquette’s suffering, the revelation about her relationship to Esmeralda becomes an almost symbolic validation of this suffering.

Once the novel reveals the true relationship between Esmeralda and Paquette, the rathole’s significance changes. Previously, it was a terrible place where Paquette could subject herself to terrible suffering to atone for the sins of her past. Once she learns Esmeralda’s true identity, however, the rathole becomes a potential safe haven. The rathole—to this point occupied by a penitent woman who demonstrably hates Romany people—would never be seen as a hiding place for a young Romany girl accused of witchcraft. It is no longer a symbol of personal suffering but one of potential salvation. By entering the rathole, Esmeralda can successfully hide herself from the guards. The small, cramped cell that has held Paquette for so many years can now be the saving grace of her long-lost daughter. Esmeralda enters the rathole, symbolically crossing a line to represent the extent to which her relationship with Paquette has changed. The loathing has become love; the cell is now a safe haven instead of a prison. Unfortunately for Esmeralda, this inversion of symbolism does not last. She is dragged from the rathole and hanged. Paquette, emerging from the rathole in desperation, dies trying to protect Esmeralda, breaking her self-imposed confinement as a symbol of tragic success. She has reunited with her daughter, justifying her penitence, but her reunion is tragically cut short when they are both killed. The empty rathole becomes a symbol of the tragic reality of their reunion.

In a broader sense, the rathole symbolizes the misogyny rife in Medieval French society. Paquette is not the cell’s first occupant. For many years, the rathole was perpetually occupied by women whose reputations had been ruined, both justifiably and unjustifiably. Men do not perform such public acts of penitence. Rather, the rathole is a demonstrably feminine means of public self-flagellation. This punishment for women is tuned to elicit public shame toward women who for the same kind of sins that men like Jehan and Phoebus freely commit on a regular basis. The cell thus represents the different behavioral expectations placed on men and women. While men can cavort to their heart’s content, the same sort of sexuality from women demands that they seek penitence in the rathole.