paper :-14
Class: M.A. Sem.4
Year: 2015-2017
Submitted
to: M.K. Bhavnagar University,
Department of English
Email: ashadodiya15@gmail.com
Introduction:
-
The Da
Vinci Code is
a 2003 mystery-detective novel written by Dan Brown.
It follows symbologist Robert Langdon and
cryptologist Sophie Neveu as they investigate a murder in
Paris's Louvre Museum and discover a battle between
the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the
possibility of Jesus having been married to Mary Magdalene.
The title of the novel refers to, among other things, the fact that the murder victim is found in the Grand Gallery of the Louvre, naked and posed like Leonardo da Vincis famous drawing, the Vitruvian Man, with a cryptic message written beside his body and apentagra drawn on his chest in his own blood.
The book has provoked a popular interest in speculation concerning the Holy Grail legend and Magdalene's role in the history of Christianity. The book has been extensively denounced by many Christian denominations as an attack on the Roman Catholic Church. It has also been consistently criticized for its historical and scientific inaccuracies.
Major
themes of the novel :-
Good
Intentions Win over Greed.
The
Search for truth is Timeless.
Christianity
V/s Paganism.
Power
of the Roman Catholic Church.
Sacrifice.
Quest.
Christianity.
The
false conflict between Faith and Knowledge.
The Subjectivity of History.
The Intelligence of women.
Good Intention Wins over Greed: -
The Da Vinci Code is written as a classic thriller in which, throughout the book, good and evil take turns having the upper hand. However by the end of the book, the age old truth is proven again, that good triumphs over evil. In this book, evil was more accurately described as greed. Sir Teabing’s misguided intentions to reveal the truth about the Holy Grail were result of his greed for knowledge of the truth and power to lord over the Vatican.
Search for truth is timeless. The question of whether Christ and Mary Magdalene were married is about as old as the Christian church. The search of the truth is about this subject is timeless and has permeated lore for thousands of years. As the success of Dan brown’s book proves, it is still a great questThe millions of readers are interested in the quest for the truth on this subject as well as the characters of the book. Robert Langdon and Sir Teabing, two of the main characters, have devoted their lives to the quest for the truth about the Holy Grail. Although their motives become very different, the two men have made the search for the Holy Grail a central point of their lives and careers.
Christianity V/s Paganism.
A central theme to the Da Vinci Code is the similarities and differences and its influences upon each other of Christianity and paganism. Throughout the book, the author provides a history of the influences that paganism had on the early Christian church and how those influences have prevailed throughout history. The book also discusses the power that paganism had over the early Christian church and the eventual power that the Christian Church gained over paganism to force the suppression of many of the pagan practices, including goddess worship and nature worship.
Power of the Roman Catholic churc
Another underlying theme throughout the book is the power of the Vatican and the Roman Catholic church on the world wide stage .through their research, Robert Langdon and Sir teabing have learned, and discuss numerous times throughout the book, how the church has suppressed the truth about the Mary Magdalene. They discuss how the church, throughout history, has suppressed the truth through edicts and even violence.
This theme is one that underlies the Teacher’s motive for finding the grail. He believes that the church had pressured Sauniere and the leadership of the priory of Sion to continue hiding the truth about Jesus and Mary Magdalene so he takes it upon himself to seek to un earth the Holy Grail himself.
Sacrifice:-
The Da Vinci Code opens with dramatic personal sacrifice-------Sauniere’s death to protect the secret of the Priory of Sion-------but theme of sacrifice appears repeatedly throughout the novel. It does not always require a death, however, a sacrifice can beauty type of loss, from loss of integrity or freedom to the loss of a physical item.
A Sacrifice entails the giving up of something in exchange for something else. It is a circumstance that does not allow for two competing needs to exist together. For example, Sauniere makes the ultimate sacrifice--- death--- that hundreds in the priory throughout history, according to Brown, have been willing to make. Likewise, Sister Sandrine Bieil sacrifices her life to warn the Priory when Silas attempts to unearth the keystone in the church of Saint-Sulpice
Ques
At the heart of Brown’s novel is the quest, not only as a long adventurous journey in search of something, but also as one of the most archetypal elements in literature, the pursuit of the Holy Grail. Several characters are on quests in the novel for different reasons. Silas looks for the keystone that will lead to the Holy Grail for his saviour, Bishop Aringarosa. Detective Fache searches for the murder of Sauniere.
Langdon explores the meaning behind Leonardo da Vinci’s symbol to greater understand the subject to which he has devoted his studies. The most famous of those to invoke the legend in their art are thirteen—century German epic poet Wolfram von Eschenbach, fifteenth—century English writer Sir Thomas Marlory, English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and composer Richard Wagnerian the nineteenth century.
Christianity:-
Though The Da Vinci Code appears to implicate Catholic institution in a conspiracy to wipe out alternative Christian histories, its suggestions that Jesus was not divine, that Mary Magdalene had children by him, that she, rather than the apostle Peter, was intended to be the first leader of Christianity, and Constantine the Great suppressed all of this and assembled the Bible at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., all relate to Christians of any denomination.
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. According to The Da Vinci Code, the Church has also enforced ignorance about the existence of the descendents of Jesus.
The Subjectivity of Histor
The Da Vinci Code raises the question of whether history books necessarily tell the only truth. The novel is full of reinterpretations of commonly told stories, such as those of Jesus’ life, the pentacle, and the Da Vinci fresco The Last Supper. 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 retellings are presented as at least partly true.
The Intelligence of Women
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