She's the love interest of both Quasimodo, the protagonist, Captain Phoebus, the tritagonist and Frollo, the villain. Although Esmeralda ends up with Phoebus and not Quasimodo, she is one of the few heroines not to be obtained by the main character; the first being John Smith.
Esmeralda, for her part, has fallen hopelessly in love with Captain Phoebus. When he asks her to meet him in secret late one night, she enthusiastically agrees. That night Phoebus tries to persuade Esmeralda to sleep with him. From a closet in Phoebus's room, a disguised Frollo spies on the couple.
The beautiful gypsy girl, Esmeralda, under gypsy law, “marries” the poet, Pierre Gringoire to save him from execution in the hands of the Gypsy King. The groom is smitten, but Esmeralda makes it clear that the marriage is strictly one of convenience.
In Disney's 2002 direct-to-video sequel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame II, Phoebus (again voiced by Kline) is married to Esmeralda and they have a young son, Zephyr, who resembles him.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) - Esmeralda x Phoebus Moments
Why didn't Esmeralda love Quasimodo?
In reality, Phoebus is her love, and the reason she chose Pheobus over Quasimodo was not that Quasimodo was deformed, but because Quasimodo had not fully matured, and his blind adulation for her may have led to him becoming overly reliant on her.
Frollo's belief in fate becomes fanatical when he falls in love with Esmeralda and becomes sexually obsessed with her. Although Esmeralda does nothing to invite his attention, Frollo believes that she has bewitched him and thinks that it is his destiny to either seduce her or kill her.
Madellaine is the deuteragonist of the 2002 film, The Hunchback of Notre Dame II. In the end of the sequel, she becomes Quasimodo's girlfriend and potential wife.
Esmeralda was removed as she wasn't marketable enough for the franchise's standards, as the sales of The Hunchback of Notre Dame's products weren't good, and because the movie dealt with themes that were not entirely suitable for children.
Quasimodo falls in love with Esmeralda for her kindness. Later, Esmeralda is arrested for the murder of the soldier Phoebus (which she did not commit) and sentenced for murder via supposed witchcraft. In fact, Phoebus is alive after an attempted murder by Frollo, who witnessed Phoebus attempting to seduce Esmeralda.
In the original story, Frollo successfully killed Esmeralda by hanging her. In the film, Quasimodo prevents her tragic death by rescuing her. This also occurred in an episode of the PBS series "Wishbone" where titular Jack Russell terrier is in the role of Quasimodo. He rescues her from being hanged to death by Frollo.
Her poses and behavior are erotic (which then lead to an image of her being burnt at the stake). This is because this is how Frollo envisions her — His lust is manifest in this sexualized display.
However, The Hunchback of Notre Dame is the rare case in which the protagonist, Quasimodo, does not get the girl at the end, at least not in Hugo's novel. Quasimodo is in love with Esmeralda in the novel, but unfortunately, she is hanged at the end of the novel.
Scientifically, being hunchbacked is known as 'kyphosis', which can be brought about by various ailments, but the novel does not specify the specific syndrome he has (likely because it was not known at the time). Given that Quasimodo was born a hunchback, it would be broadly called 'congenital kyphosis'.
Esmeralda: [singing] I ask for nothing, I can get by / But I know so many less lucky than I / Please help my people, the poor and downtrod / I thought we all were the children of God / God help the outcasts, children of God.
Quasimodo falls in love with a girl called Esmeralda, but unfortunately, both Frollo and the handsome Captain Phoebus are into her, too. There are no happy endings in Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and of the four main characters, Phoebus is the only survivor at the end (Disney paints a rosier picture).
Who is the most forgotten Disney princess? Easily, the most forgotten Disney princess has to be Eilonwy from the 1985 animated movie The Black Cauldron.
In the book, Esmeralda is the daughter of a French woman. She's a beautiful baby, so the people described as Gypsies in the book steal her away and replace her with Quasimodo, who's viewed as ugly, of course. So, her native home is France; it's where she was born and grew up.
Of course, white Roma exist and it is obvious that in Hugo's mind, Agnès/Esmeralda was nothing but a white woman “with a tan”. But the recurring use of actresses, in later adaptations, whose whiteness is portrayed as approximate points to a commodification of Romani ethnicity.
After being brought to safety, Esmerelda invited Quasimodo to come live at the court of miracles but after the events of the day, he felt it was better he stay at the tower. She did decide to come see him and while hesitant, he accepted especially after a kiss.
What disease did The Hunchback of Notre Dame have?
In Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Quasimodo has a back deformity from birth. But what it is? The proper term for his condition is kyphosis, a spinal disorder that causes a person to appear to have a hump.
'Quasi modo' literally translates as 'in the manner of'. In Victor Hugo's sense the meaning of Quasimodo is 'half made' – that is a man/creature who is deformed.
Claude Frollo, the archdeacon of the cathedral, is the lead villain of both novel and movie. In the movie, he hates Esmeralda because he hates gypsies. In the book, Frollo professes to hate gypsies to conceal his lust for Esmeralda.
As a priest, Frollo must remain celibate and cannot express desire towards women, because he (and the Church) considers this impure. Although Frollo actively believes that lust is sinful, he becomes sexually obsessed with Esmeralda after he sees her dance in the square.
Due to his Catholic faith and supremacism, Frollo rejects the spiritualist customs of the Romani and believes they are scandalizing the people of Paris, thus interfering with his goal of a more morally pure Paris. He focuses much of his efforts on locating and punishing the Romani.
