Ils ne vécurent pas heureux Variations pessimistes sur La Belle et la Bête dans Notre-Dame de Paris de Hugo et « Quidquid volueris » de Flaubert

Hugo and Flaubert borrowed the figures of Beauty and the Beast from Leprince de Beaumont. Their Beauty (Esmeralda or Adèle) is incapable of loving the Beast (Quasimodo or Djalioh). We are drawn to his pain. In spite of his violence, the Beast, with his solitary fate which no metamorphosis puts an end to, is an exceptional being. The tales turn ugliness into a value – the story’s moral symbol is thus the « ideal of the grotesque » for Hugo and the archetype of the poet for Flaubert.