Study of the Fusion of Ugliness and Beauty in the Images of Major Characters in Western Drama—A Case Study of Quasimodo

Abstract

The dramatic work Notre-Dame de Paris is adapted from the eponymous novel by the great French literary figure Victor Hugo and is a representative masterpiece of French musical theatre. This paper takes the main character Quasimodo in this musical as an example to conduct a study on the images of ugliness and beauty in the major characters of Western Drama. Theories of Victor Hugo’s Principle of Aesthetic Contrasts, Gérard Genette’s Focalization, Marxist Principle of Dialectical Unity and theories in Aesthetics are adopted to find that Quasimodo’s deformity and ugliness coexist interdependently with the beauty manifested through his character image, virtuous and righteous actions and stage performance. Musical theatre has the integrated advantage of all the stage elements to advance the narrative in interaction with the audience, collectively creating a representative dramatic character in whom ugliness and beauty are fused in the rising cognition of gestalt. It would be helpful in drama study and the formation of character cognition and education in our lives.