The Da Vinci Code

Judicial Police cryptologist Sophie Neveu serves a wide range of narrative functions. Her code-breaking expertise—as well as knowledge of her grandfather’s penchant for obscure riddles—provides valuable and timely insight as she and Langdon follow Sauniére’s trail of cryptic breadcrumbs. Without her keen intuition, she would never have found the key hidden behind Da Vinci’s Madonna of the Rocks. She also displays a fearless audacity by threatening to deface the painting unless the Louvre guard lays down his weapon.

Her second function is that of sounding board. Her ignorance of Church history provides justification for Langdon’s lectures about The Gnostic Gospels, the divine feminine, the Priory of Sion, and the Sangreal documents. Sophie acts as proxy for Brown’s readers for whom most of this obscure information is also new. Her third function in the story is to be the final piece of the puzzle. As the modern-day descendant of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, Sophie represents every hidden truth the Church wants to bury. To imagine that Jesus, whom millions of Christians have always believed was sacred and untouchable, was in fact a mortal man with a wife and a daughter is startling indeed.

Although he dies in the opening pages, Sauniére’s presence is felt keenly throughout the novel. His secrets propel the narrative forward, and his tantalizing trail of clues keep Langdon and Sophie busy as they decipher his codes and track down the Grail. As the Grand Master of the Priory of Sion, Sauniére follows in the footsteps of Da Vinci, Isaac Newton, and Jean Cocteau. He is a hero, and a clever one; he is not only willing to die to protect his secrets but has the wherewithal to leave a series of complex clues for his granddaughter while dying a slow and painful death.

As Sauniére’s clues are revealed, his character is explored. He is a man with in-depth knowledge of goddess lore, a pagan celebrant who keeps ancient traditions, and a loving husband willing to sacrifice everything—his own marriage included—to protect both the Grail and his family. The reader’s perception of Sauniére evolves alongside Sophie’s understanding of him. Initially, he is a mysterious curator, keeper of ancient lore, and participant in a dark ritual that estranges him from his granddaughter. Over the course of the novel, Brown reveals him to be a both devoted family man and protector of one of the oldest secrets in the world, a dual existence.

Judicial Police Captain Bezu Fache is the driven, lead investigator in the Jacques Sauniére murder case. Tenacious as a pit bull, Fache has a reputation—carefully cultivated—for always solving the case. Like many of the other characters, Fache is motivated by his own obsessions, in his case, the preservation of his reputation. Fache is ambitious. For example, he understands how to use the media to his advantage, forestalling a press conference until he heroically arrives on the scene. His single-mindedness nearly causes him to arrest an innocent man.

Brown also includes a mysterious connection between Fache and Aringaros. However, Fache’s religious devotion suggests that such a connection might not be so preposterous after all. Fache is a man dedicated to his job, and he does it well, if a bit too strictly by-the-book. His adherence to procedure always leaves him just a step behind Langdon and Sophie.

Silas, the Opus Dei monk with albinism, embodies the dangers of blind faith and Biblical literalism. Silas’s utter devotion to both Bishop Aringarosa and the Teacher reflect the pliability of a troubled and simple mind. While his relationship with Aringarosa is understandable in light of Aringarosa’s care and mentoring, the Teacher is little more than a disembodied voice ordering him to kill. Yet, he obeys. Discarded and adrift from a young age, Silas desperately craves structure and guidance, and he finds both inside the lofty walls of the Church. With no other parental figures, Aringarosa becomes his de facto father. Silas will do anything for the man who saved his life, including murder and self-flagellation.

People with albinism—a lack of skin pigmentation—have often faced discrimination for their physical differences. Silas experiences the stigma of his pale skin in the frightened, averted glances of society. His powerful physical presence and monk’s robe create the impression of someone otherworldly, and society shuns him for his difference. The paradox of Silas’s whiteness is that white is traditionally associated with purity and goodness; for Silas, his pallid skin becomes a blank slate on which the Church inscribes its prejudice. 

Aringarosa is the spiritual leader of Opus Dei, a “deeply devout Catholic sect” (1). He represents the conservative wing of the Church, which is at odds with its nascent, more progressive wing. Between 1962-1965, the Vatican convened the Second Ecumenical Council (Vatican II) in which many substantial changes were made to the rites and practices of the Church—conducting mass in English rather than Latin was one such change. The purpose of Vatican II was to make a Church heavily steeped in medieval tradition relevant to the 20th century. Some, however, resisted the change. For Aringarosa, the changes of Vatican II represent a dilution of traditional orthodoxy and an abdication of responsibility: “Look around you, Cardinal. People have lost respect. The rigors of faith are gone. The doctrine has become a buffet line” (448).

Aringarosa sees the Church’s flock as sheep waiting to be led rather than independent souls seeking spirituality on their own terms. Yet, despite his hardline approach to Church orthodoxy, Aringarosa is the only character who, in some ways, truly embodies the teachings of Jesus. He provides sanctuary to a young Silas in spite of his physical differences and violent history; he raises and mentors him, and he undoubtedly loves him in his own way. When he fears Silas has veered too far off course, he tries to rein him in, to protect him from the consequences of his actions. He even offers to donate the returned Vatican bonds to the families of those killed by his young protégé, even though Silas’s victims were members of an organization opposed to everything Aringarosa stands for. In many ways, the bishop is Brown’s most complex, nuanced character.

Teabing’s manservant, Rémy, appears to be a quintessentially stoic if slightly elitist butler. As with most of Brown’s characters, appearances are deceiving. Teabing employs Rémy to spy on the Priory. Unlike Silas, Rémy is in it for the money. After a lifetime of service, he dreams of an early retirement and sees Teabing merely as a means to an end. His obsession with the big score blinds him to Teabing’s duplicity and proves to be his undoing. When Langdon threatens to shatter the keystone on the floor of the Temple Church, Rémy is so afraid of losing his payout that he reveals himself to Langdon and Sophie, in direct violation of Teabing’s orders.

While the breach of protocol is the final straw, Teabing is skeptical of his manservant from the beginning: “The Teacher had feared all along that Rémy might need to be eliminated when the mission was complete, but by brazenly showing himself in the Temple Church, Rémy had accelerated the necessity dramatically” (415). Rémy’s death is a result of his sloppiness and greed, but his character also represents every working class laborer who dreams of swift upward mobility, of joining the ranks of the elite whom they once served.