New Literature
Name: Sagar B Vaghela
Semester:
4
Roll
No: 32
Enrollment
No: 2069108420180052
Email
Id: sagarvaghela2020@gmail.com
Paper
13: New Literature
Topic:
Characters of The Da Vinci Code
Batch:
2017-19
Submitted
To: S.B.Gardi Department of English MKBU
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Introduction:
The
Da Vinci Code is a thriller novel written by Dan Brown. In Da Vinci Code it
follows “symbolist” Robert Langdon and cryptologist Sophie Neveu after a murder
in the Louvre museum in Paris.
The
title of the novel refers to the finding of the first murder victim in the
Grand Gallery of the Louvre, naked and posed similar to Leonardo da Vinci's
famous drawing, the Vitruvian Man, with a mathematical message written beside
his body and a pentagram drawn on his chest in his own blood.
The
novel explores an alternative religious history, whose central plot point is
that the Merovingian kings of France were descended from the bloodline of Jesus
Christ and Mary Magdalene, ideas derived from Clive Prince's The Templar
Revelation (1997) and books by Margaret Starbird. The book also refers to The
Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (1982) though Dan Brown has stated that it was
not used as research material.
The
Da Vinci Code provoked a popular interest in speculation concerning the Holy
Grail legend and Mary Magdalene's role in the history of Christianity. The book
has, however, been extensively denounced by many Christian denominations as an
attack on the Roman Catholic Church, and consistently criticized for its
historical and scientific inaccuracies.
The
novel nonetheless became a worldwide bestseller[1] that sold 80 million copies
as of 2009[2] and has been translated into 44 languages.
Combining
the detective, thriller and conspiracy fiction genres, it is Brown's second
novel to include the character Robert Langdon: the first was his 2000 novel
Angels & Demons. In November 2004, Random House published a Special
Illustrated Edition with 160 illustrations. In 2006, a film adaptation was
released by Columbia Pictures.
Characters:
Bishop
Manuel Aringarosa :
Bishop
Manuel Aringarosa is a fictional Spanish
bishop, portrayed in the film by Alfred Molina.
Bishop
Aringarosa is the worldwide head of Opus Dei
and the patron of the albino monk Silas. Five months before the start of
the narrative, he is summoned by the Vatican to a meeting at an astronomical
observatory in the Italian Apennines and told, to his great surprise, that in
six months the Pope will withdraw his support of Opus Dei. As he believes that
Opus Dei is the pulse keeping the Church from disintegrating into what he sees
as the corruption of the modern era, he believes his faith demands that he take
action to save Opus Dei. Shortly after the meeting with the Vatican officials,
he is contacted by a shadowy figure calling himself "The Teacher,"
who has learned somehow of the secret meeting. The Teacher informs him that he
can deliver an artifact to Aringarosa so valuable to the Church that it will
give Opus Dei extreme leverage over the Vatican. The artifact is in fact a
keystone which provides clues that lead to the legendary Holy Grail. Although
the Teacher doesn't provide him with any contact information, Aringarosa is
extremely intrigued about this and willingly agrees to cooperate.
Sister
Sandrine Bieil:
Sister
Sandrine is a nun, who lives at Saint Sulpice. She is killed by Silas. Even
though she works and lives in a church, she is a member of the Priory of Sion,
assigned to warn them should the false keystone be found beneath the Rose Line,
as it meant that one of the four guardians had been interrogated and the Priory
was under attack.
This
came to pass when Silas killed the last guardian, Jacques Saunière, and
immediately visited the church in search of the keystone. Sandrine, realizing
that Silas was attempting to obtain the secrets of the Priory, secretly
attempts to contact the four guardians of the Priory to warn them. However, she
is horrified to discover she is unable to contact any of the four and realizes
that they must be dead. Silas overhears her trying to contact the Priory and,
considering her act a betrayal to the Church and enraged already at being
misled by all four guardians, cracks her skull with the false keystone, killing
her instantly.
Marie
Chauvel:
Marie
Chauvel - Sophie’s grandmother and
Saunière’s wife. A kind and smart woman, Mary Chauvel is part of the Priory’s
plan to keep the secret. She is a descendent of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.
Jerome
Collet :
Jerome
Collet - An agent with the French Judicial Police. In some ways the classic
bumbling police officer, Collet commits numerous errors during the pursuit of
Sophie and Langdon. His missteps contrast with Fache’s efficiency. He believes
in Sophie’s innocence, however, and proves himself to Fache in the end.
Simon
Edwards:
Simon
Edwards - The executive services officer
of Biggin Hill Airport south of London. Edwards is accustomed to fulfilling the
every desire of the very rich, as the airport serves the private business
community.
Bezu
Fache :
Bezu
Fache is a captain in the Direction Centrale de la Police Judiciaire (DCPJ),
the French national criminal-investigation police bureau. Tough, shrewd, and
persistent, he is in charge of the investigation of Louvre Museum curator
Jacques Saunière's murder in the Louvre. From the message left by the dead
curator, he is convinced the murderer is Harvard University professor Robert
Langdon, whom he summons to the Louvre in order to extract a confession. He is
thwarted in this by Sophie Neveu, who knows Langdon to be innocent and
surreptitiously informs Langdon that he is in fact the prime suspect.
He
then starts pursuing Langdon doggedly in the belief that letting him get away
would be career suicide. However, after contact with Opus Dei leader Bishop
Manuel Aringarosa about the murder of Sister Sandrine Bieil, he realizes that
it was not Langdon who killed Saunière, but Aringarosa's trusted albino monk Silas, who killed the four top members
of the Priory of Sion (including Saunière) under the instruction of a
mysterious person called The Teacher.
Jonas
Faukman :
Jonas
Faukman - Langdon’s editor. He is a
classic New York publishing type. Faukman is eager to make money, but he is
also a cultured and classy man.
Pamela
Gettum :
Pamela
Gettum - The religious librarian at
Kings College. A kindly soul, Gettum is willing to help Sophie and Langdon in
their search.
Claude
Grouard :
Claude
Grouard - A security warden at the
Louvre. Grouard is a good man who was a friend of Saunière’s.
Robert
Langdone :
Robert
Langdon - The male protagonist of the
novel. Langdon, a professor of symbology at Harvard, is honest and trustworthy.
He is also an extremely successful academic and the author of several books.
Although he studies religion, Langdon does not profess any particular religion
and prefers to remain an outside observer in matters of faith. He, like Sophie,
has a great affection for puzzles of all kinds.
Sophie
Nevue :
Sophie
Neveu - A cryptologist with the French
Judicial Police, and the female protagonist of the novel. Sophie, who is about
thirty years old, is attractive, single, compassionate, and very intelligent.
She was raised by her grandfather after her parents, brother, and grandmother
died in a car accident, and her grandfather instilled in her a love of puzzles
and codes. In her twenties, Sophie trained in Britain in cryptology. In the
novel, 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.
Silas:
Silas - A monk of Opus Dei, and the murderer of
Jacques Saunière. Silas, an albino, is motivated by the rejection and horror he
has faced since he was young. When he falls into the orbit of Bishop
Aringarosa, he finds religion and devotes himself to the strict Catholic ways
of Opus Dei. He is obsessed with self-punishment and celibacy, and his goal in
life is to aid the Bishop and Opus Dei.
Leigh
Teabing:
Leigh
Teabing - An historian and the antagonist of the novel. Sir Leigh Teabing is a
knight, a Royal Historian, and an extremely wealthy man. He is crippled from
polio and is not married. The Holy Grail has been his one passion for years,
and the search for the Truth, which he believes to be present in the Grail,
obsesses him. Eventually, his need to know turns him into a murderer. He
creates an alter ego, the Teacher, who carries out his evil plot.
Andre
Vernet :
André
Vernet - The president of the Paris branch of the Depository Bank of Zurich.
Vernet was a friend to Jacques Saunière, and sworn protector of his secret. The
immaculately groomed Vernet lives among the rich but wishes only to be immersed
in culture.
Vittoria
:
Vittoria - A woman in Langdon’s past. She appears only
in his memory and demonstrates the difficulty he has maintaining relationships.
Remy
Legaludec :
Rémy
Legaludec - Manservant to Leigh Teabing and participant in the plot to recover
the Grail. Rémy is a mercenary who gets involved in the plot only for the
money.
Jacques
Sauniere :
Jacques
Saunière - The curator at the Louvre,
and Sophie’s grandfather. His murder sets off the chain of events that takes
place in the novel. Saunière’s scholarly passions include Leonardo Da Vinci,
goddess iconography, and puzzles. He is also secretly the head of the Priory of
Sion, the secret brotherhood charged with protecting the Grail, and a
descendent of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.
Reference
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