4. What
harm has been done to humanity by the biblical narration or that of Milton’s in
The Paradise Lose? What sort of damage does narrative like ‘The Vinci Code’ do
to humanity?
-> According to bible, women are inferior and they are
considered as the root of problem. They are responsible for their sufferings.
The role of men and women is also decided in Bible like Eve is always in
Kitchen and Adam does the intellectual talks. Milton has given argumentative
nature to Eve. Eve is silent, but she is able to convince Adam to eat apple in
Paradise lost. In Christianity Bible doesn’t allow people to ask questions
because their knowledge about religion is very limited. In this text many
people became enemy and killed one another in the name of religion. According
to Leigh Teabing some problems are solved if religion is removed from human
life. Robert Langdon keeps the secret of
the Holy Grail and the Sarcophagus, he kneels down before it and it can be called
the damaging of humanity, it’s like a pilgrimage of Robert.
8. When
we do traditional reading of the novel ‘The Da Vinci Code’, Robert Langdon,
Professor of Religious Symbology, Harvard University emerges as protagonist and
Sir Leigh Teabing, a British Historian as antagonist. Who will claim the
position of protagonist if we do atheist reading of the novel?
-> From the view of an atheist, Leigh Teabing would be the
protagonist. He wanted to reveal the truth so that people would be free from
sorrow. Robert becomes a secret keeper as he says, “let them keep the faith and
not let know the truth”. Teabing said- you can liberate the people if you
reveal the truth. Money is a cover up and Teabing wanted to reveal truth. By kneeling
down before Sarcophagus, would be the destruction for humanity. It is like a
pilgrimage of Robert. Robert is the blind disciple when he tells the incident
of his falling in the well and at that time he thought that Jesus is there with
him to save him. Through these points from the view of an atheist, Leigh
Teabing can be called as the protagonist of this movie.
5. What
difference do you see in the portrayal of 'Ophelia' (Kate Winslet) in Kenneth
Branagh's Hamlet, 'Elizabeth' (Helena Bonham Carter) in Kenneth Branagh's Mary
Shelley's Frankenstein or 'Hester Prynne' (Demi Moore) in Roland Joffé's The
Scarlet Letter' or David Yates's 'Harmione Granger' (Emma Watson) in last four
Harry Potter films - and 'Sophie Neuve' (Audrey Tautau) in Ron Howard's The Da
Vinci Code? How would justify your answer?
-> Women are always portrayed as a double marginalized
one. Whether it is about the reality or it is about the film, the position of women
is same. First if we talk about Ophelia in Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet, she is
slight different than the Hamlet of Shakespeare. Kenneth Branagh takes more
freedom in portraying woman. At the end Ophelia goes in madness. Elizabeth is also
killed in the movie. Hester Prynne is out casted from the society. And all these
three women are portrayed from the view point of male or through the eyes of
male. But obvious, that the body of women are more objectified. Sophie’s
physical appearance is more controlled in film. No doubt that the movie’s theme
“Feminine Sacredness” has played a vital role in portraying the female
character like Sophie. But what camera played is also important thing.
7. Have
you come across any similar book/movie, which tries to deconstruct accepted
notions about Hindu religion or culture and by dismantling it, attempts to
reconstruct another possible interpretation of truth?
-> In Indian literature such is the trilogy by Amish
Tripathi. In that ‘Meluha’ series we can see such deconstruction and
reconstruction of myth with new interpretation. Writers like Jay Vasavada and
his book ‘JSK’and Kajal Oza Vidhya’s portrayal of women and comparing women
with history is tried to deconstruct accepted notions about Hindu religion or
culture and by dismantling it, attempts to reconstruct another possible
interpretation of truth.
3. You
have studied ‘Genesis’ (The Bible), ‘The Paradise Lost’ (John Milton) and ‘The
Da Vinci Code’ (Dan Brown). Which of the narrative/s seem/s to be truthful?
Whose narrative is convincing to the contemporary young mind?
-> In Milton’s Paradise Lost all destructions happens to
humanity like, Eve’s fall happens and that’s why in every circumstances everyone
blame women or dislike them. Argumentative discourse is shown by Milton but all
thinks that women are not meant to claim and if they claim their all opinions
are wrong and leads to disasters of mortality. In ‘The Vinci Code’ one damage
is shown for human kind is that at the end when Robert Langdon also becomes
blind follower of Christianity when he talks about accident happened to him and
he falls down into well, that time he says that Jesus is there with him to save
him and at the end of the movie when finally he found that “Holy Grail”.
Instead of revealing the secret about Holy Grail means the Sarcophagus of Mary
Magdalene, he becomes secret keeper that time.
