The Da Vinci Code

 "The Da Vinci Code" novel -

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.