Heaven's Light/Hellfire (The Hunchback of Notre Dame)

This song is brilliant. It starts first with Quasimodo singing about how nice Esmeralda to Quasi and how much light she brings into his life, even after only meeting her for a short time. The song is sweet, simple, and filled with love. This is juxtaposed with Frollo's soliloquy pertaining to his lust for Esmeralda. The Latin saints saying the Confiteor, proclaiming that they are indeed unworthy of the Father and his glory, confessing their sin, which is in all of us and how they sinned through their own fault. Frollo refuses to acknowledge that it is his fault that he lusts after Esmeralda, instead blaming God for "making the devil stronger than a man." He decides she must die or remain with him, both are sins and he acknowledges that, but pays no heed to the consequences. The irony is that by the end, he falls into molten lake of lead, obviously symbolizing the hellfire of this song. Quasimodo truly loves Esmeralda and sees the good in her and how she is kind and nonjudgmental, whereas Frollo only lusts after her because he thinks she's beautiful. This is probably one of the best songs by Disney. Ever.

This song is so dark and not for kids. I love it.

While the main theme of the song goes without saying, what really strikes me about this song is the chorus, this song is actuallt three songs.

1) haven's light. 2) Hellfire. 3) The confession (chorus)

We hear the chorus begin during the transition, and it continues, the entire chorus continuing the chant of confession going on at the church at the time, chaining up to:

I confess to God almighty To blessed Mary ever Virgin To the blessed archangel Michael To the holy apostles, to all the saints And to you, Father That I have sinned In thought In word and deed Through my fault Through my most griveous fault Lord have mercy

And let's admit, this song is Frollo confessing his sins to Maria, even though he largely blames it on someone else and refuses to own up to it, which just ends up creating a domino that makes his sins worse and worse, and the chorus can actually be said to not only sum up Frollo's actions in the past, but also works nicely to foreshadow his actions later in the movie and explain an overarching theme of the movie. Ultimately, Frollo refuses to aknowledge that his sins are his own doing, even when given a second chance, and crosses the line, which leads to the figurative plunge into hell near the end.

Although the confession, like the court of sinners appearing before Frollo, could also signify his conscience nagging at him that it may actually be his own fault, that one glint of the good man that may be in there somewhere (remember, it is not made clear, but strongly hinted at, that Frollo might actually care for Quasimodo, who is, to all effects, his son, even if he is an extremely strict father, at least before he plunges deeper and deeper into zealotry. Seriously, how many times have your parents yelled at you for hanging out with "the wrong crowd", or warned you not to go somewhere for your own safety? Same reason why Quasimodo tries to save frollo near the end in spite everything that happened, they are father and son in this movie, even if not biologically.)

Ultimately, i think this song would have been a lot weaker without the confession, and fully graping it's presence i believe just makes the song so much better! :D

This song seems pretty self explanatory. Frollo has a thing for Esmeralda, so either he gets her, or she dies.

The hunchback of Notre Dame probably had one of the best Disney soundtracks and this song tops it.

Its amazing. I love the emotion in it. And like theangelsforgive said, Frollo wants Esmerelda and if he doesn't get her no one else can.

its sort of not his fault for falling for her. I mean common she is beautiful and smart. Frollo is so different in the book though. In the book, he really falls for her like goes to insanity. But does he love her or does he have lustful feelings for her. If this is love, then he shows in the most odd way. Here in the movie 3 guys like her where else in the book about 4 or 5 guys like her. The whole story is based on Esmeralda, since Victor Hugo was a romanticist.

so basically he is attracted to her so much that he is willing to forgive her if he loves her back! what the hell.

This is one of my favorite songs from a Disney movie :) I think that he just feels conflicted because he's used to having so much power, but loving Esmerelda makes him feel vulnerable, and since he hates that, he either wants to control her as well, or destroy her. Just my thoughts.