Everyone please remember that PLAGIARISM is unethical and very much frowned upon by all institutions of learning, so please give Victor Hugo, the other writers referenced on my page, and myself credit for referenced material.
People back then took a real interest in animals, especially ones that could do tricks, much like the circus of today. Every kid wants a tiger that can jump through flaming hoops, and this held true even back in the 15th century. Djali was an amazing animal. She even evokes jealousy in Quasimodo.
Once, he came as she was petting Djali. He stood for several moments, pensive, watching that graceful group, the goat and the gypsy.
At length, shaking his heavy, deformed head, he said, "My misfortune is that I am still too much like a man; I wish I were a beast completely, like your goat!"
She glanced at him in astonishment. "Oh!" he replied to that look, "well do I know why." And he went away. book9 chap4
That line sure sounds similar to one in Shakespere's Romeo and Juliet where Romeo states:
See how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
O, that I were a glove upon that hand.
That I might touch that cheek! Act2 Scene2 Lines23-25
Pierre did not spend much time thinking about Esmeralda after she was rescued from the gallows. Four years later when Dom Claude tells him that she lives in the cathedral, Pierre is more interested in Djali's well-being then the gypsy's.
But he did not even feel tempted to go see her there. He sometimes thought of the little goat, but that was all. book10 chap1
"And do you think of her anymore?" "Very little-I have so many other things!...My God, how pretty her little goat was!" book10 chap1
Then, near the end of the novel, when the Truands (ruffians) are attacking the cathedral and Pierre and the archdeacon come to "rescue" the gypsy, it is Djali that recognizes Pierre first.
"Ah!" resumed Gringoire reproachfully, "Djali recognized me before you did."
The little goat, in fact, had not waited for Gringoire to introduce himself. No sooner had he entered than she began to rub herself affectionately against his knees, covering the poet with caresses and white hair, for she was shedding her coat. Gringoire returned the caresses. book11 chap1The goat trotted with them, so delighted to see Gringoire again that she caused him to trip almost every step, by thrusting her horns against his legs.
"That's life," said the philosopher each time he was almost laid prostrate, "it's often our best friends who make us fall." book11 chap1
Not long after the reunion of these two does Pierre disappear into the dark streets of Paris with Djali under his arm, leaving Esmeralda at the hands of the archdeacon.
