Name: Rathod Nirali j.
Paper: 13 New Literature
Topic: Themes and Symbol in The DA Vinci Code
Email id : niralijrathodgmail.com
Submitted to: S.B.Gardi Department of English
Themes and Symbol in The DA Vinci Code :
The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown is a rather
unique book. It doesn’t just have one theme; it has many different unique
themes and motifs, which are shown in different ways. He demonstrates the
conflict between faith and science, as well as the subjectivity of history.
The Da Vinci Code is a perfect example of how the themes in a
piece of work don’t necessarily have to be meaningless; we can learn
significant life lessons from anywhere.
The False Conflict between Faith and Knowledge
Dan Brown refuses to accept the idea that faith in God is
rooted in ignorance of the truth. The ignorance that the Church has sometimes
advocated is embodied in the character of Bishop Aringarosa, who does not think
the Church should be involved in scientific investigation
“Faith - acceptance of which we imagine to
be true, that which we cannot prove.”
According to The Da Vinci Code, the Church has
also enforced ignorance about the existence of the descendants of Jesus.
Although at one point in the novel Langdon says that perhaps the secrets of the
Grail should be preserved in order to allow people to keep their faith, he also
thinks that people who truly believe in God will be able to accept the idea
that the Bible is full of metaphors, not literal transcripts of the truth.
People’s faith, in other words, can withstand the truth. Dan Brown also shows
how the church refuses to believe the existence of Jesus’s descendants, and
works to rid the world of such evidence by trying to find and destroy the Holy
Grail. Through these different stories within the novel Dan Brown shows us a
different side of religion and faith:
“Every
faith in the world is based on fabrication... Every religion describes God
through metaphor, allegory, and exaggeration, from the early Egyptians through
modern Sunday school... Should we wave a flag and tell the Buddhists
that we have proof the Buddha did not come from a lotus blossom? Or that
Jesus was not born of a literal virgin birth? Those who truly understand their
faiths understand the stories are metaphorical.” (Pg.
341-342).
This novel is a perfect way of showing that each
religion is based on an event that may not be quite true, but people who are
really getting something out of their religion are the ones that understand
that their religion could be based on a metaphor or a fabrication.
The Subjectivity of History
“History is always written by the winners.
When two cultures clash, the loser is obliterated, and the winner writes the
history books-books which glorify their own cause and disparage the conquered
foe. As Napoleon once said, what is history, but a fable agreed upon?” (Pg.
256).
The Da Vinci Code raises the question of whether
history books necessarily tell the only truth. Dan Brown has incorporated
commonly told stories about the past, but has shown modern interpretations of
them, that point out small details which lead us to question the version we
have always heard. For example, the fresco: The Last Supper; most people have
heard that it is a painting of 13 men, and at the end of the supper they all
drink out of one glass, the chalice. But, in the story we learn that there is
actually one woman in the picture, Mary Magdalene, and that each person has one
wine glass. These small details actually mean a lot, and cause us to question
other things, such as the pentacle, and Jesus’s life. Brown provides
his own explanation of how the Bible was compiled and of the missing gospels.
Langdon even interprets the Disney movie The Little Mermaid, recasting it
as an attempt by Disney to show the divine femininity that has been lost. All
of these retelling are presented as at least partly true. This novel is just
trying to show us how history is just a one sided account, and that we should
never fully believe a story, how we should always be looking at it from another
side as well, and that we should be constantly trying to interpret the stories
we have always heard.
The Intelligence of Women
Characters in The Da Vinci Code ignore the
power of women at their peril. Throughout the novel, Sophie is underestimated.
She is able to sneak into the Louvre and give Langdon a secret message, saving
him from arrest, because Fache does not believe her to be capable of doing her
job. Fache specifically calls Sophie a “female cryptologist” when he is
expressing his doubts about Sophie and Langdon’s ability to evade Interpol. When
interpreting one of the clues hidden in the rose box, Langdon and Teabing leave
Sophie out, completely patronizing her. When she is finally allowed to see the
clue, she immediately understands how to interpret it. Sophie saves Langdon
from arrest countless times.
Other women are similarly underestimated. Sister
Sandrine, in the Church of Saint-Surplice, is a sentry for the Brotherhood, but
Silas, indoctrinated in the hyper masculine ways of Opus Dei, does not consider
her a threat. And Marie Chauvel, Sophie’s grandmother, manages to live without
incident near Rosalyn Chapel for years, preserving her bloodline through
Sophie’s brother.
Symbols
Holy Grail :
The Grail is the symbol of the
hidden Spiritual truth of Christianity. In the novel it is not the cup Jesus used
at the last supper, as tradition holds. Rather it is something entirely
different that would have earth-shattering repercussions in the world if it
were revealed. Mary Magdalene, the disciple of Jesus who bore his child. As a
symbol of spiritual truth, the Holy Grail also exemplifies the Sacred feminine.
Rose :
Images of rose occur throughout the text. Roses appear as
engraved symbols, as supposed decorations, and even as direction leading to the
Grail. The Rose is also represented in a more abstract from, such as the
pentacle and the star of David. In all cases the rose refers to divine
feminine, especially to Mary Magdalene.
Roses are a traditional gift symbolizing romantic love.
They have different meanings depending on their color, the white rose is
symbolic of innocence and the feminine and the red rose, true love and the
masculine, in The a Da Vinci code a pink rose has been used to signify a
graceful merging of both feminine and masculine.
Blood
Blood stands for truth and enmkbu uni lightenment in The DA Vinci Code. Saunière draws a pentacle—for him, a symbol of the Church’s
intention to cover up the true history of the world—on his stomach in his own
blood. Sophie realizes that her grandfather has left a message for her on
the Mona Lisa because a drop of his blood remains on the floor.
Teabing spies a trickle of blood on Silas’s leg, which he takes to mean that
Silas has a cilice, a barbed punishment belt, on his thigh, and disables him by
hitting him there. Silas himself had thought of blood as truth in a different
way—for Silas, blood means cleansing of impurities. And at the very end of the
novel, the discovery of the blood of Mary Magdalene running through Sophie and
her brother’s veins proves that the story of the Grail is true.
Cell Phones
In a novel that spends a great deal of time interpreting
ancient symbols like the pentacle, the chalice, and the rose, the cell phone
might seem like an incongruous modern interloper. But the cell phone symbolizes
the fact that in the modern world, secrets are both harder and easier to keep.
Teabing conceals his identity as the Teacher by using cell phones to
communicate with his unknowing allies. In one instance, he even speaks to Silas
from the back of the limousine while Silas is in the front, concealing his
identity while only feet away. At the same time, however, the characters are
often worried about their cell phone use being traced. Fache, for example, at
one point figures out that Sophie has tipped Langdon off by looking up her
phone number, which is stored in his cell phone, and finding that it matches
the number Sophie gave Langdon as the American Embassy’s number.
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