I was asked a while ago, What is the cause of Quasimodo deformity? Now I’m no Doctor, I am bad in math and science in general. But I like mild challenge. Remember this only a blog post intended for fun.
Quasimodo gazing at Esmeralda
Here is what we know, we know that Quasimodo is a hunchback and he has a large wart-like protrusion over his eye. These two traits are this biggest offenders of his deformity so well just look at them for this post. We also know that he was born with these traits, which mean they are congenital.
This means Quasimodo more than likely has Congenital Kyphosis. Which is failure of formation OR failure of segmentation on the front part of one or more vertebral bodies or discs. Now which one does Quasimodo suffer from; failure of formation OR failure of segmentation? A difference between two is that failure of formation is visible in the infant’s spine and failure of segmentation would diagnosed later after the child begins walking. It’s hard to say which one Quasimodo suffers from as Quasimodo was about four when Frollo adopted him. The Chapter where Frollo adopts sites the event as taking place 16 years before from the story proper and Quasimodo says in another chapter during the trail that he is almost 20, or so thinks anyway. In any case Quasimodo was not an infant when he was adopted. We can surmise that Quasimodo has round hunch so we’ll use that to come to a conclusion;
(Goes to Look at pictures..)
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Looking at pictures of people who suffer from Kyphosis, it’s pretty clear which one Quasimodo suffers from, he suffers from failure of formation. Failure of formation causes rounding in the spine while failure of segmentation causes more of cricked-ness in the spine. Remember I’m not doctor.
Now the wart over his eye. I doubt this really is a wart, as warts tend to go away over time and they don’t seem to be congenital. He has some kind of growth on his forehead. It would seem to be benign and didn’t lead to any infections or anything, it just impairs his vision. I would venture a guess that it’s a bone mass of some sort but I don’t think Hugo ever specified the texture of the protrusion but I would go for bone over tissue after looking at some distressing pictures on google.
Anyway, that is my meager diagnoses but perhaps someone who has medical training can give better insight to Quasimodo’s deformities.
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Esmeralda.
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