All 3 Uses of
enigma
in
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
- Archdeacon Claude had the credit also of having fathomed the mystery of the colossus of Saint Christopher, and of that lofty, enigmatical statue which then stood at the entrance of the vestibule, and which the people, in derision, called "Monsieur Legris."†
Chpt 1.4.5
- Beloved by one, a sort of instinctive and savage half-man, for its beauty, for its stature, for the harmonies which emanated from its magnificent ensemble; beloved by the other, a learned and passionate imagination, for its myth, for the sense which it contains, for the symbolism scattered beneath the sculptures of its front,—like the first text underneath the second in a palimpsest,—in a word, for the enigma which it is eternally propounding to the understanding.†
Chpt 1.4.5
- seek what could have been the thought concealed beneath those enigmatic words
Chpt 1.5.2 *enigmatic = mysterious and seemingly unexplainable
Definition:
-
(enigma) something mysterious that seems unexplainable