The dissertation describes the life and work of the French author Victor Hugo, and the plot of his novels The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Man Who Laughs. The research includes the reception of both novels abroad and in Slovenia. The Hunchback of Notre Dame is known as a very influential work both in French and in world literature and is widely regarded as an extremely successful novel. The Man Who Laughs is known to be one of Victor Hugo’s least successful works. The central chapter focuses on the main protagonists of both novels, Quasimodo and Gwynplaine, who represent the contrast between monster and man. The research discusses philosophical views on man and monster and explains how Hugo combines morality and ugliness or immorality and physical beauty. It entails the history of adaptations of the novel, where differences are drawn between the novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame and the 1996 Disney animated film of the same name. The research explains the connection between the novel The Man Who Laughs and the main antagonist of the Batman franchise, Joker.
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