The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

Drashti DaveKhanjaniba GohilKinjal PatelLajja BhattNamrata GohilSardarsinh Solanki

Group Work

S.B. Gardi,

Department of English,

M.K.Bhavnagar University.

Bhavnagar(Gujarat-India).

Key Facts

• FULL TITLE · The Da Vinci Code

• AUTHOR · Dan Brown

• TYPE OF WORK · Novel

• GENRE · Thriller

• LANGUAGE · English

• TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN · Early twenty-first century; the United States

• DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION · March 2003

• PUBLISHER · Doubleday• NARRATOR · Third-person, anonymous,

omniscient narrator• POINT OF VIEW · The narrator speaks

from the point of view of several characters, describing what they see and hear. The narrator also provides background information and pieces of knowledge unknown to other characters.

• TONE · Objective, earnest

• TENSE · Past

• SETTING · The present day

• PLACE · Paris, France; Versailles, France; London, England; outskirts of Edinburgh, Scotland

• PROTAGONISTS · Robert Langdon; Sophie Neveu

• THEMES · The false conflict between faith and knowledge; the subjectivity of history; the intelligence of women

• MOTIFS · Ancient and foreign languages; art; sexism

• SYMBOLS · Red hair; blood; cell phones

• FORESHADOWING · Teabing’s questions to Sophie about whether she would reveal the secret to the world if she had the choice foreshadows the later revelation of Teabing’s obsession with the necessity of revelation. Rémy’sslowness in helping Teabing when Silas is assaulting him foreshadows his involvement with Silas and his desire to steal the keystone.

Plot of the novel

Rising Action

Climax

Falling Action

The protagonists attempt to interpret the message left behind by Jacques Sauniere and find the hidden secret of the Priory of Sion.

Leigh Teabing reveals himself as the man behind the murders of the Priory of Sion and Langdon and Sophie discover who killed Jacques Sauniere.

The protagonists go to Rosslyn Chapel, where they discover Sophie’s family. Langdon goes to the Louvre, where he discovers what he thinks is the resting place of the Grail.

• Time : Early twenty- first century

• Place : United State, Paris, France, London, Scotland.

• Action : Unity of action is mention sometimes

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMba3fckhuQ

• This link is about the movie of The Da Vinci Code….

Plot Summary of the Da Vinci Code

• Louvre curator and Priory of Sion Grand Master Jacques Sauniere is fatally shot one night at the museum by an albino Catholic monk named Silas, who is working on behalf of someone he knows only as the teacher, who wishes to discover the location of the Keystone, an item crucial to the search for the Holy Grail.

• After Sauniere’s body is discovered in the pose of the Vitruvian Man, the police summon Harvard Professor Robert Langdon, who is town on business.

• Police Captain Bezu Fache tells him that he was summoned to help the police decode the cryptic message Sauniere left during the final minutes of his life.

• The message includes a Fibonacci sequence out of order.

• Langdon explains of Fache that Sauniere was leading authority on the subject of goddess artwork and that pentacle Sauniere drew I his own blood represents an allusion to the goddess and not “ devil worship”, as Fache says.

• A police cryptographer, Sophie Neveu, secretly explains to Langdon that she is Sauniere's estranged granddaughter, and that Fache thinks Langdon is the murderer, because her grandfather's message said "PS Find Robert Langdon", which she says Fache had erased prior to Langdon's arrival.

• Neveu is troubled by memories of her grandfather's involvement in a secret pagan group. However, she understands that her grandfather intended Langdon to decipher the code, which she and Langdon find leads them to a safe deposit box at the Paris branch of the Depository Bank of Zurich.

• Neveu and Langdon escape from the police and visit the bank. In the safe deposit box they find the keystone: a cryptex, a cylindrical, hand-held vault with five concentric, rotating dials labeled with letters. When these are lined up correctly, they unlock the device.

• If the cryptex is forced open, an enclosed vial of vinegar ruptures and dissolves the message inside the cryptex, which was written on papyrus.

• The box containing the cryptex contains clues to its password.

• Langdon and Neveu take the keystone to the house of Langdon's friend, Sir Leigh Teabing, an expert on the Holy Grail.

• There, Teabing explains that the Grail is not a cup, but a tomb containing the bones of Mary Magdalene.

• The trio then flees the country on Teabing's private plane, on which they conclude that the proper combination of letters spell out Neveu's given name, "SOFIA.“

• Opening the cryptex, they discover a smaller cryptex inside it, along with another riddle that ultimately leads the group to the tomb of Isaac Newtonin Westminster Abbey.

• During the flight to Britain, Neveu reveals the source of her estrangement from her grandfather, ten years earlier.

• Arriving home unexpectedly from university, Neveu clandestinely witnesses a spring fertility rite conducted in the secret basement of her grandfather's country estate.

• From her hiding place, she is shocked to see her grandfather having sex with a woman at the center of a ritual attended by men and women who are wearing masks and chanting praise to the goddess.

• She flees the house and breaks off all contact with Saunière.

• Langdon explains that what she witnessed was an ancient ceremony known as Hieros gamos or "sacred marriage".

• By the time they arrive at Westminster Abbey, Teabing is revealed to be the Teacher for whom Silas is working.

• Teabing wishes to use the Holy Grail, which he believes is a series of documents establishing that Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene and bore children, in order to ruin the Vatican.

• He compels Langdon at gunpoint to solve the second cryptex's password, which Langdon realizes is "APPLE”.

• Langdon secretly opens the cryptex and removes its contents before destroying it in front of Teabing.

• Teabing is arrested by Fache, who by now knows that Langdon was innocent.

• Bishop Aringarosa, realizing that Silas has been used to murder innocent people, rushes to help the police find him.

• When the police find Silas hiding in an Opus Dei Center, he assumes that they are there to kill him, and he rushes out, accidentally shooting Bishop Aringarosa.

• Bishop Aringarosa survives but is informed that Silas was found dead later from a bullet wound.

• The final message inside the second keystone leads Neveu and Langdon to Rosslyn Chapel, whose docent turns out to be Neveu's long-lost brother, whom Neveu had been told died as a child in the car accident that killed her parents.

• The guardian of Rosslyn Chapel, Marie Chauvel Saint Clair, is Neveu's long-lost grandmother.

• It is revealed that Neveu is a descendant of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene.

• The Priory of Sion hid her identity to protect her from possible threats to her life.

• The real meaning of the last message is that the Grail is buried beneath the small pyramid directly below the inverted glass pyramid of the Louvre.

• It also lies beneath the "Rose Line," an allusion to "Roslyn."

• Langdon figures out this final piece to the puzzle in the last pages of the book, but he does not appear inclined to tell anyone about this.

Analysis of characters

Major characters:

Robert Langdon

Sophie Neveu

Sir Leigh Teabing

Minor characters:• 1. Jacques Saunière

• 2. Bishop Manuel Aringarosa

• 3. Silas

• 4. Bezu Fache

• 5. Andre Vernet

• 6. Remy Legaludec

• 7. Jerome Collet

• 8. Marie Chauvel Saint Clair

• 9. Sister Sandrine

• 10. Pamela Gettum

• 11. Claude Grouard

• 12. Simon Edwards

• 13. Jonas Faukman

1) Robert Langdon• Robert Langdon is a

fictional character created by author Dan Brown for his novels Angels & Demons(2000), The Da Vinci Code(2003), The Lost Symbol(2009) and Inferno (2013) .

• He is likable, capable, good hearted and trustworthy.

• Successful writer of several books.

• Outstanding imaginative capability

2) Sophie Neveu:• Sophie Neveu is the granddaughter

of Louvre curator Jacques Saunière. She is a French National Police cryptographer.

• Her grandfather used to call her "Princess Sophie" and trained her to solve complicated word puzzles.

• Sophie is a coupled with masculine toughness with feminine qualities.

• Neveu’s presence in the novel embodies the Chinese idea of yin and yang.

• she is one of the major players who attempt to crack her grandfather’s code. She is also a descendent of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

3) Sir Leigh Teabing:• A former British Historian who

studies history of Christianity.

• Antagonist

• Known as teacher

• An eccentric old man crippled by polio. He spent his whole life searching for the holy Grail.

• He can willingly go to any extremities to get what he wants, no matter at what cost.

• At the end police arrest him.

4) Silas:• An albino numeracy of the

Catholic organization Opus Dei.

• The novel depicts him as a monk, although Opus Dei has no monks. Silas's real name is unknown.

• A young Spanish priest named Manuel Aringarosa, who gave him the name Silas.

• In his last moments, Silas goes out to alone and prays to God for mercy and forgiveness.

5) Jacques Saunière:• Is the curator of the

Louvre, head of the secret Priory of Sion

• Murdered by Silas• Saunière uses the last

minutes of his life to arrange a series of clues for his estranged granddaughter, Sophie, to unravel the mystery of his death and preserve the secret kept by the Priory of Sion.

6) Bezu Fache:• Fache is a captain in

the Direction Central de la Police Judiciaries (DCPJ),the French national criminal-investigation police

• Strong and confident• Believe that Langdon

is responsible for Saunière's death

• Faith in use of technology.

7) Bishop Aringarosa:

• Bishop of Opus Dei

• Traditionalist in his religious views..

• Fondness of material things.

• Kind to Silas

• By mistake Silas shut him.

8) André Vernet:

• President of the depository bank of Zurich.

• Minor role- quite intelligent or attractive character.

• 9) Sister Sandrine Bieil: Nun and keeper of the Church of Saint-SulpiceFavors modernizing structure of the Church. Killed by Silas.

• 10) Jerome Collet: Agent with the French Judicial Police.Commits numerous errors. Believed in Sophie’s innocence. At the end he proved that.

• 11) Simon Edwards: The executive services officer of Biggin Hill, desire of the rich.

• 12) Jonas Faukman: Langdon’s editor. Eager to make money , classic man.

• 13) Pamela Gettum: The religious librarian , kind soul, help Sophie and Langdon.

• 14) Claude Grouard: A security warden at the Louvre.

• 15) Remy Legaludec: Teabing’s loyal butler, only one who know the secret of Teabing’s identity.

• 16) Marie Chauvel Saint Clair: Guardian of Rosslyn Chapel, Neveu’s long-lost grandmother.

Battle

• It takes place between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei.

• Over the possibility of Jesus having been married to Mary Magdalene.

Bloodshed and mystery

• Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting the Vitruvian Man, with a cryptic message in itself has mystery and pentagram drawn on his chest in his own blood.

• Sophie Neveu clandestinely witnesses a spring fertility rite conducted in the secret basement of her grandfather’s country estate.

• Teabing is revealed to be the teacher for whom Silas is working.

David Lazarus of The San Francisco Chronicle

“ This story has so many twists- all satisfying, most unexpected- that it would be a sin to reveal too much of the plot in advance. Let’s just say that if this novel doesn’t get your pulse racing, you need to check your meds”.

Holistic spirituality for human kind

• Langdon’s reflection in chapter-28-“Mother earth had become a man’s world and the gods of destruction and war were taking their toll…”

• There was period in which “Matriarchal paganism” ruled over the world.

• Jesus taught the reunion of the feminine and masculine aspects of reality

• “Why do some people choose to believe to lie or speculative ideas???”

Paganism

• Dan Brown contends that so much of what we know of Christianity has its roots in pagan worship.

• These mystery religions emphasized personal salvation, illumination and eternal life through.

• Discovered truth about the Priory Sion.

Codes• Dan Brown has given a reference in which

Sir Isaac Newton has been mentioned.• Moreover to unlock the box Sophie matches

some number which the secret code to blast the history of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

• Dan Brown’s father was also a great mathematician, so indirectly this method has been connected to his personal interests.

• Considered as the heart of the novel “The Da Vinci Code”.

Motifs

• Definition:

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Ancient and Foreign Language

• English is modern language or we can say that it is the language which is spoken by many people.

• But in the text Prof. Langdon and Teabing uses the Hebrew language as a clue to enrich to the truth and mystery.

• Dead sea scroll Hebrew from the 3rd

century BCE To the 1st century CE, Corresponding in the period before the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem.

• Also called as Qumran Hebrew.

• Which is in use still in today.

• But it is also took place in biblical references.

• As it is written in the Christianity.

Art and Sexism in “Da Vinci Code”

Art keeps secrets in its way of hiding and expressing the things.

Sexist characters are always suspect(not as expected).

Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract

ideas or concepts.

Symbolism gives a writer freedom to add double levels of meanings to his work

Literary

Self-Evident

Symbolic

More profound

than Literary

The symbolism gives universality to the characters and the themes of a piece of literature.

Symbolism in literature evokes interest in readers as they find an opportunity to get an insight of the writer’s mind on how he views the world and how he thinks of common objects and actions, having broader implications.

Chalice

Blade

Mickey Mouse Watch

ThePentagram

Sauniere’sKnight

Cell Phones

Mona Lisa:Painting

VitruvianMan

The Rose

Chalice is symbolic of woman was ‘U’.

The famous cup from which Christ drank.

The Chalice represents a cup or vessel, and the womb; represents womanhood and fertility- the sacred feminine.

The Holy Grail is conspicuously left out of the painting: Last Supper.

Here is where Brown cleverly weaves medieval legends with high Renaissance art to suggest that the Holy Grail -which became the subject of endless search by medieval knights - was not a cup at all but Mary Magdalene herself, the human receptacle for Jesus' blood line.

Blade is symbolic of male.

It regards Symbology of the Grail: original sign for a male was ‘U’.

It represents aggression and manhood.

It reminds him of how his interest in symbology began.

Langdon also talks to his classes about how remnants of the Grail story are found in Disney stories.

Disney symbolized in the Mickey watch, exemplifies the importance of magic and imagination for people.

Disney World, according to Langdon, is built upon make-believe, infused with bits of hidden truth.

These fantastical stories are not unlike Grail mythology or religion (as it is portrayed in the novel).

Disney, like Grail stories and like religion, is not necessarily true but it gives people something much more important--mystery and wonderment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THWrno6lBUQ Video about Religious Symbols by Robert Langdon

Sauniere has drawed five lines on his body with his own blood.

The Pentagram is a symbol of beauty and perfection and is connected to the goddess and the Holy Lady.

In Modern times the Pentagram has been connected to Satanism.

“It’s a pentacle. One of the oldest symbols on earth. Used for over four thousand years before Christ. . . The pentacle is a pre Christian symbol that relates to nature worship”.(Da Vinci Code pp. 35, 36)

The knight that sits in Saunière’s office is an ironic symbol.

knights are supposed to protect the Grail but this knight, which Teabing has bugged, betrays the Grail.

This “betrayal” illustrates two interrelated points:

When Langdon tells Sophie about Teabing, he remarks there is no one better to help them on the quest for the Grail than a knight.

1.All knights cannot be trusted.

2.Things are not always what they

seem.

Teabing

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 cellphones to communicate with his unknowing allies.

In one instance, he even speaks toSilas 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.

Da Vinci's Mona Lisa which Langdon states is an expression of the artist's belief in the “sacred feminine.”

The conclusion drawn is that Mona Lisa is not any particular person, but a cryptic reference to the Egyptian gods Amon and Isis. "Mona" is an anagram of Amon and "Lisa" a contraction of l'Isa, meaning Isis.

In the novel, Professor Langdon discovers that da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa in opposition to the Church's suppression of Mary Magdalene's true identity.

Leonardo da Vinci's most famous drawings is based upon the work of ancient Roman architect Vitruvius who was a proponent of using human proportion in building.

In the novel's opening scene, Sauniere's body is found in the Louvre naked and posed like the Vitruvian Man, with a cryptic message written beside his body. It is the first clue that Professor Langdon receives that prods him to delve more deeply into other works of da Vinci that helps solve the mystery.

The Rose synonymous with the Grail in the Priory of Sion: also means secrecy.

Sub rosa-under the rose= the Romans hung a rose over meeting room to indicate the meeting was confidential.

Rosa Rugosa, one of the oldest species of rose had 5 petals and pentagonal symmetry giving it iconographical ties to womanhood.

Rose in sense of true direction and navigating one’s way, as in the compass rose.

Rose lines is the line of longitude on maps.

In Priory of Sion the 5-petal rose is the symbol for the Grail.

• The use of omniscient narration is founded here.

• The Narrator is unknown, as if we are listening the story.:

each character is the third person for us.

• The narration is covering both the sides parallel way.

• It is the micro narrative which is challenging the ideas

presenting in the Meta Narrative i.e. Bible.

• In the beginning the word ‘Renowned’

• Boundary crossing from real to imaginary

from classical style to postmodern style fiction

• Open ended chapters with shocking ends

• Point of view changes at every chapter

Narrative Techniques

Use of Science & Mathematics• His father was mathematician

• Use of Fibonacci series

• Use of PHI as Dexine number.

• Scientifically tries to legitimize the myth.

• establish new myths related to Pagan religion

• Nature and Math's

• Alphabets and math

• The Vitruvian Man

• The Last Supper

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mcpHsuTm_E

• This link is about the last supper video……

Use of Paintings

The last Supper

Use of Paintings

The Vitruvian ManMona Lisa

Conspiracy Theory• The Theory is questioning to the beliefs, truths(pre-established) and

myths. And it presents the counter view of it.• For example, who had attacked the twin towers of World Trade

Centre in New York? • Osama Bin Laden was the terrorist?• Nil Armstrong was really the first person went on Moon? Did NASA

really send the space shuttle to the Moon?• Same way here we left with the questions:• Did the stories and emergence of Crist is to control pagan beliefs?• Was the Christ a Jew prince or the incarnation of God?• Was Jesus ever married? If yes, then with whom, a lady or Church?• Does the bloodline of Jesus is still live with us?

Feminism• There are two folded feminism can be seen.

• The role of Sophie is putting questions on the does the female is such a stupid?

• She was sometimes unable to solve the cryptograph though it is her favorite hobby.

• She herself believe that the union of male and female id not good which is quite masculine thought and shows the deep root of patriarchy in her psyche.

• Langdon prove him having superior intellect in the work.

• On the other side the novel is about suppression and demolition of Pagan Religion.

• The hidden truth of Holy Grail is abandon of the sacred

feminine.• The Jesus had daughter is also denied.

• And the daughter carries out the bloodline of Jesus(Divinity & Godliness) is also denied.

Da Vinci Code Biblical References

Jesus is the prophet from the Jewish

community chosen by the King of Rome

Jesus is called God 7 times and believed to be

the Son of God ‘ incarnate to pay for Eve and

Adam’s Sin.

The Dead Sea Scrolls the important document

regarding Christianity Called ‘Nag Hammadi’

The Dead Sea Scrolls done the Jewish

Documents with it. The Christian Documents

were safe. “ Nag Hammadi is not any kind of

document before late second century A.D.

“ One particularly troubling theme kept

recurring in the (Gnostic) gospels Mary

Magdalene… more specifically; her marriage

to Jesus Christ” (Pg 244)

The Gnostic gospels is a kind of anonymous

writings that blended psudochristian ideas

with the pure spirituality and it contains

nothing about Jesus & Mary

“The Bible we know today was collected by

pagan Roman Emperor Constantine”(Pg 231)

The Old testament exist Prior to even Jesus’s

Day, and the New Testament is began to apear

but not formeteed before 395-397 A.D. The

time of Constaintine is before 337 A.D. So it

was impossible that The Bible was collected

by him.

“ [A]ny gospels that describes Jesus’s earthly

life that are omitted from the Bible” (Pg 244)

The New testaments describes Jesus’s

hunger, fatigue, death, outrage, love, and his

interactions with different people eg his

mother.

Constantaine commissioned and financed a

new Bible which omitted those Gospels that

spoke of Christ’s Human traits and

embellished those Gospels that made him

godlike.

1.there was no New Bible commissioned by

emperor and he simply requested to make

fifty copies of widely read scripture.2. There is

no evidence that Constantine or anyone else

10 Errors in the novel• The Last Supper

• Priory Sion

• Opus Dei

• Rosslyn Chapel

• Problems with Paris

• The Vatican

• Mary Magdalene

• Gnosticism

• Geography

• Assorted errors

Annotated Bibliography• http://www.catholic.com/documents/cracking-the-da-vinci-

code

• The link is having a page with the information in the

question answer form and it is regarding the conspiracy

shown in the da Vinci Code.

• http://listverse.com/2007/09/02/top-10-errors-of-the-

da-vinci-code/#.VHgGJMYIEdo.google_plusone_share

• This link shows the mistakes and errors in the book Da

Vinci Code. It is really makes reader ‘error & learn’!!!

• http://www.biblicalcatholic.com/apologetics/DaVinciCode.htm

• This link shows criticism of the book Da Vinci Code

Annotated Bibliography• http://www.cbn.com/special/davincicode/

• This link gives us the clear comparison of the Biblical Response and what Da Vinci Code says instead.

• http://www.gospelway.com/religiousgroups/davinci-mary.php

• The page states that in the book Da Vinci Code Jesus married to Mary Magdalene was not true.

• http://www.gospelway.com/religiousgroups/davinci-goddesses.php

• This links leads us to the page containing the information about the pagan Goddesses and worship and it’s concern with Da Vinci Code.

• http://www.pubbys.com/davincianswers/Da%20Vinci%20Code%20Is%20Overtly%20Feminist.htm

• Through this link one can find the feminism that is read in the book Da Vinci Code.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Langdon

• http://danbrown.wikia.com/wiki/Sophie_Neveu

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Da_Vinci_Code_characters

• http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0004647/bio

• www.sparknotes.com

• www.wikipidia.com

http:/thebestnotes.com/booknotes/Da_Vinci_Code/Da_Vinci_Code28From this site we can see some important symbols of the

novel. Among those I got some major symbols of the novel like Chalice, Blade, Langdon’s Mickey Mouse Watch and Sauniere’s Knight.

http://www.biblebelievers.com/watkins_davinci/davinci.htmlIn this site we can get an information about pentagram as symbol in the novel ‘The Da Vinci Code’.

http://www.chiff.com/a/da-vinci-code-symbols.htmFrom this site we get some information ‘Da Vinci Code: Clues, Symbols & Meanings’. With the help of this site I choose Mona Lisa’s painting as symbol and a symbol of Vitruvian man.

http://www.creatievepuzzels.com/spel/speel1/speel3/davinci.htmThis site helps for to solve riddle of the novel. I get as symbol to rose which a part of the riddle in this novel.

http://literarydevices.net/symbolism/

This site introduce symbolism. In which I put some information of ‘Function of symbolism’.

http://jumanipooja07201112.blogspot.com.es/2013/04/themes-of-da-vinci-code_6.html?m=1

http://msmurphynovelstudy11.blogspot.in/2012/06/da-vinci-code-essay-recurring-themes.html?m=1

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Da_Vinci_Code

From these site we can get ideas about Themes and Motifs in broad sense