Hellfire (song) - Themes

Themes

The Latin Chant in the background is the Confiteor, which is a Catholic prayer recited during Mass - an "admission of guilt and wrongdoing". There is a sense of dramatic irony throughout the song as Frollo sings "It's not my fault/I'm not to blame/It is the gypsy girl/The witch who sent this flame/It's not my fault/If in God's plan/He made the devil so much/Stronger than a man", to which the priests (at this point of the song represented by omonous red-hooded figures) reply in a counterpoint melody "Mea culpa" Latin for "Through my fault", or "Mea maxima culpa" meaning "Through my most griveous fault".

An analysis at Disney and the Seven Deadly Sins suggests that the Confiteor chant "manifest as his conscience, and reveal to Frollo "the truth of his actions", in regard to lust, which is "a craving for sexual intimacy", sometimes leading the luster to self-indulgence. This "desire for the flesh of another" is a sin, which Frollo struggles over until the very end of his life - "when Frollo prepares to burn Esmeralda at the stake in front of the cathedral he offers Esmeralda a chance to live if she agrees to be his lover". The article "The Hunchback of Notre Dame: The House of the Lord" in The Gospel According to Disney suggests that "Frollo is tortured by his lust for Esmeralda, an unrequited passion that curdles into obsessive hatred. Frollo "prays to be delivered from his sin, prostrating himself before a roaring fire, with a cross above it", and while rpesented with two paths, he ultimately chooses lust which leads to his downfall. This sin of the villain is compared to Jafar's greed for power at the end of Aladdin. When Frollo is about to kill Quasimodo and Esmeralda, he quotes a biblical verse (supporting the notion that he justifies his wrongdoings as God's will): "And he shall smite the wicked and plunge them into the fiery pit!". The Gospel According to Disney describes this as follows, "Just then, the judge falls to his own death, in an act of divine intervention".

Jim Miles of Laughingplace.com analyses Hellfire by saying that the song marks the turning point when "Frollo's hate for the gypsies has taken on a new dimension", and is "no longer about ending vice and sin about fulfilling his own desires". The scarf he takes from Esmeralda "symbol and the physical manifestation of his desire for ", and the resulting internal struggle is illustrated in the song. His life's work involves making the city of Paris "pure and righteous", and no matter how much he wants to be too, he sees a "flame...burning within him" and so turns to God (represented by Mary in the song) to "help him overcome those feelings". However throughout his pleading, he holds onto the scarf, thereby holding onto the sin. He tries to rationalise the sin before the "judges of his heart", and seems to be returned to purity, but after the judges disappear the temptation returns. Though he sings " "Protect me, Maria" with "repentant agony on his face", he stares into the fireplace and holds onto the scarf, giving into temptation. After being "interrupted by the soldier, he makes a decision within his heart to hold on to the sin". Because the "desire firmly rooted, he is able to throw away the scarf - the external representation of his inner feelings - into the fire as he has fully accepted this persona. After doing this, he "realies his mistake, and visually, we see the spiritual battle for his soul--crosses rising above shadowy spiritual figures--but even then, he reconfirms his resolution and proclaims that "she will be mine or she will burn".

Miles argues that the "Archdeacon acts as a foil for Frollo" because through his "caring for Quasimodo's dead mother, he exhibits the kindness and love that God calls all Christians to, which is what Frollo fails to understand". He shows Esmerelda compassion while Frollo only feels contempt towards her. He also "does what Frollo should have done" by "direct her attention to God". The climax of this is when "he leads a prayer in Latin that calls upon God, Mary, the archangel Michael, the apostles, the saints, and...the Father, for forgiveness of sin in thought, word, and deed". This leads straight into Hellfire. Miles says that "while the Archdeacon turns from sin, Frollo chooses to toy with sin".

There is a juxtaposition of imagery between Heaven and Hell between the two parts of Heaven's Lights/Hellfire.