[POLL] HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME OR PHANTOM OF THE OPERA?

I have to admit I haven't read either one in their original form (only parts). But it seems to me that Quasimodo was just a dude. And the Phantom was a bit of an ass. So I'd go with my pal Quasi. (Though I also played Gringoire in a musical version of the story where I almost was buddies with Quasi :)

Quasi was mostly a tool to be used by Frollo. When he met Esmeralda, he realized how much of the world he had missed. As a result, he experienced something that many of us never get the opportunity to; an awakening. He wasn't intellectually equipped for this awakening, so he doesn't understand that how he reacts to the new things in the world around him isn't always right, especially his interactions with Esmeralda. The story is told from a point of view that is sympathetic to Quasi, so on the surface, we can't help feel that it's the story of love, rejection, and Quasi's deformity. From any other perspective, he's a guy that kidnaps a Romani girl he's never before and becomes a creepy stalker. What he feels is real love, but he doesn't understand that he can't just make Esmeralda love him. The book spends a good deal of time comparing the shallow and vapid, yet handsome Phoebus, to the kindhearted, yet ugly Quasimodo. Esmeralda, while she is generally a good person and is grateful for what Quasimodo has done, is a bit cruelly unfair to Quasimodo, terrified of him and repulsed by him. The lesson that Victor Hugo is trying to teach is very much informed by French politics of the pre-Revolutionary era, as what we are seeing in the love triangle between Quasimodo, Esmeralda, and Phoebus is an example of the gross separation of the classes.

The violent acts that Quasimodo commits aren't in his nature. He does them at Frollo's behest. If you're content with the Disney version, then you won't want to open this hide tag. Really, it's natural to sympathize with Quasi, and it'd take a pretty hard person not to.

Still, until he meets Esmeralda, Quasi maintains a certain innocence

Erik has lost his innocence long ago. He's lived with the horrors that Quasimodo is only now experiencing. He wasn't born deformed, but was deformed in a fire. He's a scientist, an architect, and an artist, quite well regarded for his brilliance, but still so shunned and hated for his appearance that he feels he must hide from the world. To this end, in a partnership, he designs an opera house so that he may live beneath it. Nobody bothers him, and his business partner pays him his share and makes sure he has what he needs. That this lifestyle drives Erik quite insane is besides the point. When the partner relinquishes his ownership of the theater and sells it to Firmin and Andre, he does not sell Erik's rights. Erik still has a right to his salary, a right to his dwelling, and a right to some say in the running of the theater and when LeFevre leaves, he is cut off from all of these rights. Erik has a legitimate grievance. He is secretly tutoring Christine (who's a chorus girl) in how to sing and he falls in love with her. Of course, with the Viscount de Chagney courting Christine, it becomes a love triangle, again, where Erik is the hideously deformed man.

You know what, I've changed my mind. I'm more sympathetic to Quasi. Erik is too strong and intelligent to deserve more sympathy than Quasi (and in spite of his deformity, actually stands a chance with Christine, even though he botches it terribly). But I can't change my vote. That sucks.

Really, these characters are only similar on the surface. When you get down to their motivations, they're very different characters. Quasi is a much more sympathetic character. Erik is a powerful and intelligent anti-hero.

Yes, I've read them both.

Like what's already been said, Quasi was handicapped in a variety of ways in the world from the start whereas Erik lived a life before his "handicap" and still was known for his brilliance. Poor ol' Quasi never got that taste of normality, instead spent his life on the outside looking in.

Oh, I thought this was going to be which one would win in a fight.

author=Corfaisus

author=pianotm
Yes, I've read them both.

Ah, but which?

The Disney adaptation for hunchback, and a cameo appearance in an episode of Tiny Toons Adventures for phantom: http://tinytoons.wikia.com/wiki/Toon_TV

author=pianotm

Shinan

InfectionFiles
Like what's already been said, Quasi was handicapped in a variety of ways in the world from the start whereas Erik lived a life before his "handicap" and still was known for his brilliance.

I'm pretty sure the phantom was born horribly disfigured and was a circus freak or something before hiding in the opera.

Possibly, but there's always been disagreement about that. I've read that he was disfigured by fire at a young age.

That's what I thought, but I could have read an altered or edited version or something, but I recall his face was burned in a fire!