“Water, water!” cries out Quasimodo after receiving 30 lashes in the pillory. The life-giving properties of water are necessary, of course, for quenching thirst and restoring energy to a depleted body. In 9th Hour’s production of this classic tale, we have also chosen to emphasize water as a religious symbol of mercy that is given freely, without expectation of return.
“Water. Water. She gave me water. Esmeralda.”

A mob has cheered the public torture of the hunchback (the "beast") and they cruelly mock his pleas for water. Quasimodo is being punished for abducting the gypsy Esmeralda on the orders of his benefactor, Frollo the archdeacon of Notre Dame. But it is Esmeralda who emerges from the crowd, the only one, to extend mercy with a drink of water.
“There’s a Christian gypsy, if ever I saw one!” cries a citizen. In Catholic Paris of 1482 (the setting of Victor Hugo’s story), gypsies were often seen as religious outsiders who practiced a mix of spiritual beliefs. Such an act of mercy by an outsider would have been instantly recognizable as something strange if only because it should be administered rightly by a Christian not a gypsy.
Mercy, like the fluid and adaptable nature of water, flows to meet the needs of others with empathy, kindness, and compassion.
Water is also a symbol of chaos, confusion, and disorder and often associated in the Bible with God’s judgement. In Genesis 6, for example, God’s heart is so grieved by the wickedness of humanity that he covers the earth in a flood for 150 days before a dove returns to Noah’s ark as a sign that the water had receded from the earth and new life would begin with a promise that God would never do the same again.
Water in the Bible is predominantly used in baptism, symbolizing purification and the mercy of God. In Matthew 3, Jesus is baptized in the Jordan River and the Spirit of God descends on him like a dove to inaugurate his ministry. From that point on, Jesus refers to himself as "living water," offering spiritual nourishment and new life to Jews and Gentiles alike.
So, when Esmeralda initiates a simple act of mercy with Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, one could say her kindness reverberates with ancient rituals of forgiveness and the washing away of sins. Divine mercy is truly Beauty in action.
Such an act of mercy by an outsider would have been instantly recognizable as something strange if only because it should be administered rightly by a Christian not a gypsy.
Notre Dame itself, like all churches, is meant as a house of mercy that looms large throughout this story. That is why 9th Hour incorporates water rituals into the ensemble’s movements at various points in this rendition of the story. Hugo’s tale is essentially a tragic one replete with violence, betrayals, sin, and suffering. But all is not lost…mercy and beauty must prevail to give hope to lost souls.
Esmeralda’s kindness to Quasimodo is later returned by him when she is put on trial for allegedly killing Phoebus the Captain of the Guards and tortured into a false confession. The playwright, Tim Kelly, includes at the beginning of Act II the Dies irai ‘Day of Wrath, O day of mourning,’ a Gregorian Chant of God’s judgement, played in our version as a jazzed-up requiem mass for Esmeralda’s impending doom. Her cries for “Mercy!” to the Court fall on deaf ears. Only Quasimodo, the deaf hunchback, responds, “Water. Water. She gave me water. Esmeralda.” The choral refrains of “mercy” that augment this scene heighten the drama as a gift of kindness from another unlikely source, from the hunchback, the human gargoyle, the outsider, the grotesque—the unlovable "Other."
“Beauty! I wanted to give them beauty, and all they wanted was ugliness!”
The profundity of this simple act is somewhat dulled by our familiarity with the story, by the commercialization of kindness in our culture which celebrates victimhood with virtue signals and moral relativism. Many of us have lost the ability to discern the nuances between pity, sympathy, and empathy - which one is appropriate when and for whom. The beggars of Paris mock our ignorance in their Court of Miracles and demoralize the sensitive poet and playwright, Pierre, who laments, “Beauty! I wanted to give them beauty, and all they wanted was ugliness!”
Our souls’ thirst for Beauty, do they not? Mercy, like the fluid and adaptable nature of water, flows to meet the needs of others with empathy, kindness, and compassion. We only have to open our hearts and minds to give it.
GEORGE DUTCH is Associate Artistic Director for 9th Hour Theatre Company, and is part of the directing team as Dramaturge and Associate Director for The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The show runs until October 13th in the west end of Ottawa. Go to the SHOW PAGE for more information, tickets, and showtimes.
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