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
Hm, no edit button. Well, forgot to mention; in regards to Frollo trying to be a good man, that it really needs to be noticed that he outright begs for Maria to protect him, so doesn't jump headfirst into sin, but actually tries to resist and stick to his beliefs of what it means to be "good", and recognizing that he is on a downwards path "god have mercy on me" seems to be his final whimpers as he apparently realizes where all this is going and that he is wrong for doing so, ultimately being consumed by the desire...
Hm, no edit button. Well, forgot to mention; in regards to Frollo trying to be a good man, that it really needs to be noticed that he outright begs for Maria to protect him, so doesn't jump headfirst into sin, but actually tries to resist and stick to his beliefs of what it means to be "good", and recognizing that he is on a downwards path "god have mercy on me" seems to be his final whimpers as he apparently realizes where all this is going and that he is wrong for doing so, ultimately being consumed by the desire and being fully ensnared by the devil. If someone views the presence of the divine in the movie to be absolute, rather than metaphorical (the prayer during the "sanctuary" scene could imply divine intervention, even if it is ambigous enough that it could also just be the characters with a fancy chorus in the back, just as the roaring head near the end could either be real, or be Frollo imagining it due to the lightning and his fear of god (i prefer the latter interpretation).
Anyway, in the case of the former, this is a scene where a man is taken and slowly twisted until the last vestiges of the man he once were is consumed and destroyed, turning a god-fearing man that tries to repent for his sins (or he would just have tossed the baby down the well, deacon be damned) into an unrepenting zealot that goes to ever greater extremes without any actual care for god or salvation anymore. The "old frollo" that we see the last sign of near the end of the song even asks god to have mercy on the one he is blaming for damning him, which kinda seems to speak volumes of the man we see in the first half as opposed to the second half of the movie, misguided,cruel, and overzealous as he may have been. At least he didn't light paris on fire before this point, or, to our knowledge, outright murder people as opposed to just putting them in prison.
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
Hm, no edit button. Well, forgot to mention; in regards to Frollo trying to be a good man, that it really needs to be noticed that he outright begs for Maria to protect him, so doesn't jump headfirst into sin, but actually tries to resist and stick to his beliefs of what it means to be "good", and recognizing that he is on a downwards path "god have mercy on me" seems to be his final whimpers as he apparently realizes where all this is going and that he is wrong for doing so, ultimately being consumed by the desire...
Hm, no edit button. Well, forgot to mention; in regards to Frollo trying to be a good man, that it really needs to be noticed that he outright begs for Maria to protect him, so doesn't jump headfirst into sin, but actually tries to resist and stick to his beliefs of what it means to be "good", and recognizing that he is on a downwards path "god have mercy on me" seems to be his final whimpers as he apparently realizes where all this is going and that he is wrong for doing so, ultimately being consumed by the desire and being fully ensnared by the devil. If someone views the presence of the divine in the movie to be absolute, rather than metaphorical (the prayer during the "sanctuary" scene could imply divine intervention, even if it is ambigous enough that it could also just be the characters with a fancy chorus in the back, just as the roaring head near the end could either be real, or be Frollo imagining it due to the lightning and his fear of god (i prefer the latter interpretation).
Anyway, in the case of the former, this is a scene where a man is taken and slowly twisted until the last vestiges of the man he once were is consumed and destroyed, turning a god-fearing man that tries to repent for his sins (or he would just have tossed the baby down the well, deacon be damned) into an unrepenting zealot that goes to ever greater extremes without any actual care for god or salvation anymore. The "old frollo" that we see the last sign of near the end of the song even asks god to have mercy on the one he is blaming for damning him, which kinda seems to speak volumes of the man we see in the first half as opposed to the second half of the movie, misguided,cruel, and overzealous as he may have been. At least he didn't light paris on fire before this point, or, to our knowledge, outright murder people as opposed to just putting them in prison.