Of some Frolley characters....

The following characters are generally defined as "frolloey". It means that the character, the story, and generally an impossible love is very similar to Frollo and his dilemmas. Though Frollo is the quintessence of his category of character, the absolute, the others presented here have a real interest too...Just one advice : go to discover them too !

Frollo's "ancestor" : Ambrosio from Matthew Gregory Lewis' Monk

Published in 1976, The Monk by Lewis is generally considered like one of the masterpieces of the gothic novel. Victor Hugo admitted himself it was an inspiration for Notre-Dame de Paris. Though the novel is written in two narrative parts, the atmosphere is quite terrific, and there is no doubt that Ambrosio, the severe and pious monk who fell in temptation, is the ancestor of Frollo. A lot of personality features correspond to the characters (passionate and obsessional love, egoism, hypocrisy...) and their end is quite the same, except that Ambrosio has really no conscience compared to Frollo. Also, one of the characters he condamns to death in the book is called Agnès.
Two French movies went out from the book : one in the 1970's and nearly impossible to find, and a more recent one in 2011, with Vincent Cassel in the title role. The movie is quite unfaithful to the book (it seems like Ambrosio has like a soul in this one) and is simply average.

Erik or the Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

Maybe more known through the success of the famous musical by Andrew Lloyed Webber (with reason), Erik is also one of the most frolley characters, with more humanity though. He's an Angel of Music, a ghost for the living, haunting the Opera Garnier in Paris, and finds his Muse in the person of the innocent Christine Daaé. But the Phantom, for having lived so long out of the other human beings, rejected by them, is also very lunatic to not say psychotic by moments.
The original book was written by Gaston Leroux and has been adaptated in several movies (from 1925 to 2004) and in especially one musical (the longest running musical with Les Miserables) by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

John Jasper : the unsolved Charles Dickens' Mystery of Edwin Drood

Aww, John Jasper ! He comes from the last novel, unfinished, of Dickens. Maybe you won't notice a lot the character in the 400 pages of the book, he's not in first plan. But the BBC realizes a little dream for the Frollophiles : in 2011 was born a series in two episodes, finishing the book, and so making his own story. And what a delight to see the Frolloey figure being the anti-hero of this. John Jasper is a master of choir in Church, who loves a lot his brother Edwin but also the fiancee of this one, Rosa. When Edwin is reported missing after a tempest, Jasper is free to claim his love for Rosa...Just try to watch this mini-series. John Jasper is one aspect of what Frollo could have been...

Humbert Humbert from Lolita's Vladimir Nabokov

Humber Humbert, also known as a middle-old man who finds love and interest in very young girls, between 12 and 16 years old. Probably this character would be just complety hated if Nabokov didn't write the novel in his first person, telling all his love, lust for Lolita, but also his dilemmas, his despair. And if Lolita seems sometimes like a childish Esmeralda, she has probably his own part in the manipulation games running in the whole novel.
Two movies of this story : one by Stanley Kubrik (1962, with James Mason in the title role) and one by Adrian Lyne (1997) ith Jeremy Irons.

Scarpia from the Tosca opera (Puccini)

"Sadian" character, Scarpia comes first from History (he really existed) then from one of the most famous Puccini's operas. He's finally hard to describe, because he could be in same time a Frollo, a Javert and a Disney!Frollo. He's the chief of the police, full of hypocrisy and using his power to stasify his lust of women. In this story, he tries to sentence to death a revolutionary painter, preferably using for this torture and manipulation on his fiancée, Floria Tosca, a singer. Though the character has no subtelty, like Amrbosio, he remains a fascinating picture of the pure evil, Frolloey in a very extreme way.

Mesa and Paul Claudel's Break of Noon

Well, Mesa is one of these characters who never went out from France, because this play has probably never been translated. Mesa, in some words, is the self-portrait of the author, Paul Claudel, a man who wanted to be priest but has been "rejected" by God. And he falls in love with a married woman. Tourmented by his vow to be to God, he finally becomes this wife's lover, betraying the husband of the last one. At the end, they died separately and Mesa claims to God that beyond Him, there is the love of this woman, Ysé, and God isn't enough. Ysé's ghost/spirit comes to him, and after some transcendance, here ends the play.

Knight´s Templar Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert in Ivanhoe (1820)  by Sir Walter Scott  has some similarities:  religious (albeit a hypocritical) man who falls in love with a beautiful young woman - Jewish Rebecca - and when the girl is accused on witchcraft, he offers to help her to escape for the "price" of her love. She refuses.  I have read that Hugo admired Scott, so maybe this subplot inspired him a bit?
My favorite adaptation is lush and entertaining  1952 film with Robert Taylor as Ivanhoe, Elizabeth Taylor as suitably gorgeous Rebecca, Joan Fontaine as Rowena and George Sanders as Brian.  Unfortunately Brian/Rebecca subplot is too listless.
Narrator Romuald who falls in love with a vampire Clarimonde in "La Morte Amoureuse" ("The Dead Woman in Love", 1836) by Théophile Gautier has Frolloey echo in some moments.    Like Frollo, he is a priest bewitched by the beauty of a woman and sees such beauty either demonic or angelic.

One character who comes to mind is John Claggart from Billy Budd. He's obsessed with the innocent, beautiful young Billy and wants to destroy him. It's pretty clear he's deep in the closet. In the end Billy accidentally kills him and he's hanged for murder.
The opera makes Claggart's blatant lust even clearer (it's only natural with a gay librettist and a gay composer). He has a very Hellfire-like aria. Most productions really play up the shippy angle (not just with Claggart but also with the oh so virtuous Captain Vere).

Although, opera in general has a lot of baritones and basses who are driven by lust or obsessive love.



Another classic lit example, although not a priest, could be Svidrigailov from Crime and Punishment. He pretty much steals the show. Allegedly murdered his wife but seems to miss her and sees her ghost, responsible for the death of a 14 year old girl, lusts for Dunya who finds him repulsive. On the other hand helps people he barely knows, with no ulterior motives. He's very complex. We are not sure what exactly motivates him, apart from his plans to "go to America" (weirdest euphemism for death ever). His last night is one of the most haunting things I have ever read.