The Da Vinci Code
Introduction
"Vitruvian Man" (Vitruvian Man), written by Leonardo da Vinci. Jacques Saunière, the Louvre's prestigious curator, is found murdered on the floor of the Louvre, his body posed in the pose of Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting, the Vitruvian Man. He wrote a secret message on his side and drew the symbol of a pentagram on his stomach with his own blood. The book is about the protagonist, Robert Langdon, a professor of religious symbology at Harvard University, who solves the problem of the prestigious Louvre Museum in Paris. The murder of curator Jacques Saunière. The meaning of the novel's title is that Saunière's naked body was found in the Louvre in the shape of Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting Vitruvian Man. Saunière wrote a cryptic message beside him and used his own Draw a pentagram symbol on his belly with blood. Hidden messages in some of Leonardo da Vinci's famous works, including the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, are revealed as they are being decrypted.
The main conflict of the novel revolves around two mysteries:
What secret was Saunière protecting that led to his murder?
Who was behind it? Planned this murder?
The novel unfolds several story lines simultaneously with different characters, and finally all the story lines come together and are resolved at the end of the book.
Solving the puzzle requires solving a series of puzzles, including the ordering of letters in words and number puzzles. The truth of the mystery ultimately points to the possible location of the Holy Grail and to two secret societies called the Priory of Sion and the Knights Templar. The Roman Catholic organization Opus Dei also figures in the plot.
The novel is Brown's second book with Rob Langdon as the protagonist. The previous one was "Angels and Demons", which took place in Rome and was related to the Illuminati.
Characters
Here are some of the main characters that drive the storyline. Character names containing puns, conjugations, or hidden clues seem to be Dan Brown's style.
Robert Langdon - a famous professor and scholar of religious symbolism at Harvard University. When the novel opens, he is lecturing in Paris and has made an appointment to meet with Jacques Saunière, the director of the Louvre Museum, but suddenly finds the French police appearing at the door of the hotel room. The police informed him that Saunière had been murdered and hoped that Langdon could go to the Louvre to help the police solve the case. In fact, Langdon was already the main suspect in the murder, but he had been kept in the dark. The police brought him to the crime scene in the hope of obtaining Langdon's confession.
Jacques Saunière - Director of the Louvre, secret leader of the Priory of Sion, and grandfather of Sophie Neveu. Before being murdered in a museum by Silas, an albino monk, Jacques Saunière gave Silas false information about the keystone of the abbey, which was said to contain hints about the correct location of the Holy Grail. After being shot in the abdomen, Jacques Saunière spends his final moments leaving a series of clues for his estranged granddaughter Sophie Neveu that she can use to unravel his death. mystery, while protecting the secrets kept by the Priory of Sion. Jacques Saunière may have been named after Bérenger Saunière, a real-life figure who was widely mentioned in the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail.
Sophie Neveu - granddaughter of Jacques Saunière. She was a codebreaker for the French government. When she was young, her parents died in a traffic accident and she was raised by her grandfather. Her grandfather often called her "Princess Sophie" and taught her how to solve complex word puzzles.
As a little girl, she once found a mysterious key in her grandfather's room, with two capital letters "P.S." engraved on it. Later, when she was studying in college, she once hoped to surprise her grandfather. , went directly to his grandfather's house in Normandy, only to find that his grandfather was participating in a mysterious religious ceremony. After this accident, she began to distance herself from her grandfather until his death.
Bezu Fache - Director of French Criminal Police Investigation. Tough, shrewd and determined, he was assigned to take charge of Saunière's investigation. Judging from the clues left by the dead curator, Fache believed that the killer was Rob Langdon, so he called him to the Louvre to confess. But Sophie Neveu secretly informed Langdon because she believed Langdon was innocent, which created an obstacle for Fache. Throughout the book, Fache secretly stalks Langdon because he believes that sparing Langdon would mean the end of his career. Bezu is not a common French name, but the name of a castle. The first impression that Bezu gives people is that of a zebu, because Bezu is the homophonic pronunciation of Zebu (zébu) in French. Fache is the French word for anger, but it is also a common French name.
Silas - an albino devotee of Opus Dei, who strictly abides by the spiritual disciplines of physical asceticism, was orphaned in Marseille when he was young, and then began his life of sin. He was imprisoned in Andorra in the Pyrenees for his entire life, and escaped only when an earthquake caused part of the prison to collapse. He was sheltered by a young Spanish priest named Aringarosa, who named him Silas and later became the head of Opus Dei. Before the action of the novel begins, Aringarosa puts him in touch with his mentor and tells him that he will accept a mission crucial to saving the true Word of God. Following his mentor's orders, he murdered Jacques Saunière and three other leaders of the Priory of Sion in order to obtain the Priory's keystone (clef de vo?te in French; keystone in English). The whereabouts of "The Key to the Vault"). Later, he found out that he had been deceived by the false news, and hunted down Langdon and Neveu in order to get the real keystone. He did not know the true identity of his mentor, but was just a complicit killer. He knew that this was a sin, but he still did these bad things because he firmly believed that his actions could save the Catholic Church.
Bishop Manuel Aringarosa - global leader of Opus Dei and patron of the albino monk Silas. Five months before the story in the book begins, he was summoned by the Vatican Holy See to attend a meeting at an observatory in the Alps in Italy. He was shocked to be told that within six months the Pope would withdraw his support for the Holy See. Support from Opus Dei. Since he believed that Opus Dei was the force that kept the Church from being divided, he believed that loyalty required that he take action to save Opus Dei. Shortly after meeting with Vatican officials, he was contacted by a mysterious figure who called himself "The Mentor" and learned the inside story of the secret meeting. The mentor told Aringarosa that he could give Aringarosa a stone statue that was very valuable to the church, which would help Opus Dei gain a great advantage in the Vatican. The name "Aringarosa" appears to be an (approximate) literal translation of the word "red herring" in Italian ("aringa rossa", "aringa rosa" literally means "pink"). "herring"), although this is not actually the Italian word for "red herring".
The Teacher - a mysterious figure throughout the story. He not only knows part of Opus Dei's conspiracy, but also knows the four elders of the Priory of Sion. Those four know The man who holds the keystone. He lured Aringarosa and promised to give him the greatest power in Opus Dei. Once the secret of the keystone is revealed, it will destroy his church. Aringarosa agreed to his proposal and was assigned to protect Opus Dei and the Church.
The Mentor used the influence of Silas and Aringarosa to carry out his plan.
André Vernet - President of the Paris branch of the Depository Bank of Zurich (seemingly fictional). He is surprised when Neveu and Langdon arrive at the bank and tell him that one of the bank's long-time customers, Jacques Saunière, has died and that the keys to his account are now in Neveu's possession. After Neveu and Langdon tried to use the key to open a bank safe without knowing the account number, Vinette became suspicious, stating that they had no legitimate business at the bank. When he saw newspaper reports that he suspected Neveu and Langdon were fugitives in Saunière's murder, he came back to find them, only to find that the two had indeed entered the correct account numbers and removed the money from Saunière's safe. items, they realized that according to the bank's strict regulations, the two were indeed legal customers of the bank, so they believed that they had an obligation to help the two escape. Pretending to be a bank driver, he tricked the police into letting Langdon and Nuff hide in the back of a bank truck. He later changed his mind and tried to stop the two, but Langdon stole the truck and fled with Neveu to the nearby castle of Langdon's friend Sir Leigh Teabing, thwarting Venet's plot.
Sir Leigh Teabing - British royal historian, royal knight, Holy Grail scholar, and friend of Robert Langdon, an independent millionaire living outside Paris In a castle, Langdon and Neveu took refuge here after escaping from the Zurich Depository Bank with the mahogany box containing the keystone. He told Neveu the "true" meaning of the Holy Grail (see below). After Silas and French police discovered them at Jazz's home at the same time, the three fled to England on Jazz's private jet, along with Jazz's driver Remy. When Neve unlocked the secret cylinder and took out the keystone, Sir explained the riddle meaning that they should go to the Temple Church in London to find the second key that could help them open the keystone. Combination lock with hidden clues. It should be noted that Sir Leigh's name is derived from the alphabetical changes and rearrangements of the names of Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, the authors of the book "Holy Blood and Holy Grail". The views in the book are similar to those of Sir Leigh. The views are very similar.
Rémy Legaludec - Leigh Teabing's chauffeur. After escaping to England with Teabing, Langdon and Neveu, he drove them to London's St. temple church. What no one else knows, however, is that he actually works for the Mentor. While they were in the Temple Church, he met up with Silas, who had been instructed to come here by his mentor. Before others could find and unlock the secrets that might be hidden within the church, he entered the church armed with a pistol, held Teabing hostage, and demanded Langdon hand over the keystone. After Langdon hands him the keystone, he and Silas escape in Teabing's car with Teabing as a hostage. Rémy Martin is a famous brand of Cognac, and Cognac also affected Remy's destiny.
The docent at Rosslyn Chapel - When he saw the mahogany box carried by Langdon and Neveu and realized that it seemed to be the same as his grandmother, who supervised the chapel The mind of the Foundation, who was giving the pair a guided tour of Rosslyn Chapel, was given another box in his possession that was an identical pair.
Guardian of the Rosslyn Trust - She is actually the wife of Jacques Saunière and the grandmother of Sophie Neveu. The tour guide was Sophie's brother. She believed they were targeted for assassination by the Church because they had learned the powerful secrets of the Priory of Sion. Both she and Saunière believed that Sophie's brother should be living in Scotland secretly. Despite speculation that Sophie's entire family was in the car, only her parents were in the car at the time.
Saunière claimed to authorities that Sophie's grandmother and her brother were also in the car. The guardian told Neveu and Langdon that although the Holy Grail and secret documents had been buried in the crypt of Rosslyn Chapel, the Priory of Sion had moved them to France several years ago. After reading the contents on the parchment inside the second keystone, she understood the current location of the Holy Grail, but refused to tell Langdon, only telling Langdon that he would figure out the location himself. She believed that the Priory of Sion had no intention of revealing the secrets of the Holy Grail at any predetermined time. She believes that even if the secret is revealed, such disclosure is meaningless, because even if the location of the real stone statue is not found, the world is showing the true nature of the Holy Grail and its spiritual power. She also revealed Sophie's true ancestry to Sophie Neveu.
Summary of important plots
Jacques Saunière is the leader of the Priory of Sion, so he knows the secret of the "keystone", that is, the keystone can reveal the hiding of the Holy Grail in turn. position, and he held documents that would shake Christianity and the Catholic Church to its foundations. He was killed in order to force him to give information to all members of the Priory of Sion.
The reason Sophie Neveu broke off contact with her grandfather was that during a school holiday, she originally wanted to give him a surprise visit, but instead witnessed him participating in a pagan sex act at their home in Normandy. Ceremony (Holy Marriage, Hieros Gamos).
The message Saunière wrote on the ground with a steganographic pen before his death also included "P.S.[1]: Find Rob Langdon." This is why Bezu Fache suspects Langdon is the murderer. Fache wipes out the trip before Langdon arrives so that Langdon doesn't know the police suspect him. By chance, when the police faxed the message to Sophie Neveu's office, Sophie saw the complete content of the message. She immediately realized that the message was actually addressed to her, because her grandfather had called her "Princess Sophie" (P.S.) when she was a child. From this she also understood that Langdon was innocent. While they were at the Louvre, she secretly told Langdon this by asking him to call her private voicemail and listen to her messages there.
To most people, the writing "P.S." is the abbreviation of the word "Post Script" which is very common in letters; however, to Sophie Neveu, this is But it is the abbreviation of "Princess Sophie" (Princess Sophie), the nickname given to her by her grandfather Saunière. So Bezu Fache was completely unaware of the true meaning of this abbreviation in Father Saunière's message, but Sophie Neveu clearly understood that the line "Find Rob Langdon" was written by her grandfather to herself. 's last words. In addition, the key to the safe kept by Saunière is engraved with the abbreviation of the Priory of Sion, which is also P.S.
The other three lines of Saunière's Blood Book, which appear to be prayers for the monks, actually hide some real clues by shuffling the spelling order of letters (see the transposition word-building game ). The first line is a set of Fibonacci numbers scrambled. The real contents of the second line "O, draconian devil!" and the third line "Oh, lame saint!" are "Leonardo da Vinci" (Leonardo da Vinci) and the English "The Mona Lisa" respectively. (Mona Lisa). The true meaning of these clues can lead to a second set of clues. On the glass outside the Mona Lisa, Saunière used the steganography pen of the Louvre Museum curator to write a message that could only be seen under ultraviolet light: "So dark the con of Man" (The Deception of Man) so dark). The second clue is another Leonardo da Vinci oil painting "Madonna of the Rocks" (Madonna of the Rocks) hanging nearby, hidden in the Louvre Museum; this work was later repainted and called The Virgin of the Rocks, hidden in the Louvre Museum. at the National Gallery, London).
Saunière hid a key behind the painting and wrote an address on the key with the curator's steganographic pen.
This key can open a safe at the Paris branch of the Zurich Depository Bank. Saunière's bank account numbers were those Fibonacci numbers in the correct order.
The instructions Saunière told Silas at gunpoint were actually an elaborate hoax. He told Silas that the keystone was buried in the Saint-Sulpice church in Paris. Precisely located on the ancient "Rose Line", which was the old prime meridian that defined the zero-degree meridian as passing through Paris before redefining the prime meridian as passing through Greenwich Observatory. ) on the underside of an obelisk. In fact, the message under the obelisk simply contains a reference to the Bible's Book of Job: "Hitherto shalt thou go and no further" (see Job 38 in the Old Testament) :11) A quotation from a text. It was only when Silas read this that he realized he had been deceived.
The keystone is actually a cryptex (a combination of cryptology and codex), a device invented by Leonardo da Vinci to convey confidential information. It is a cylindrical device. The rotatable parts on it (let's call it the password wheel) must be combined in the correct order to open it. If you open it with force, the bottle of vinegar inside will burst, and the words written on it will burst. The message on the papyrus dissolved. The mahogany box containing the keystone contained clues to the correct sequence of combinations of the cipher wheels needed to open the keystone, written in backwards handwriting in the same manner as Leonardo da Vinci's diary. While escaping to England on Teabing's plane, Langdon solved the puzzle and discovered that the correct combination of the cipher wheel should be "S-O-F-I-A", which is how Sophie's name was written in ancient Greek, which also means "wisdom." " means.
The keystone secret cylinder actually contains a smaller secret cylinder that contains the second puzzle of the cipher wheel combination. This puzzle says to find "a knight a pope interred" (note that the correct understanding of "a pope" in solving the puzzle should not be "a pope", but should mean "Alexander The ball on the tomb of "A. Sir Isaac Newton, there is a huge spherical sculpture on the tomb, but it is not what the riddle in the keystone is about. The riddle in the keystone really refers to the apple that led Newton to discover the law of gravity. The riddle believes that this apple "should be in the tomb", so the password wheel combination of the second secret cylinder should be "A-P-P-L-E", which is the apple.
The true identity of the "mentor" is actually Sir Leigh Teabing. He knew the identities of the leaders of the Priory of Sion and had their offices bugged. Remy is his assistant. It was Teabing who contacted Bishop Aringarosa with a fake French accent in order to hide his true identity and coax Aringarosa into funding the search for the Holy Grail. Teabing never intended to give the Grail to Aringarosa, but simply wanted to exploit Opus Dei's determination to find it. However, he believed that the Priory of Sion would renege on its oath to reveal the secrets of the Holy Grail to the world at the appointed time, so he planned to steal the Grail documents and reveal them to the world himself. It was he who informed Silas that Langdon and Sophie Neveu were at his castle. He didn't take the keystone from Langdon and Sophie because he didn't want to reveal his identity to them. He originally planned to have Silas break into his home and get the keystone, but when the police tracked the GPS device on Langdon's stolen truck and heard Silas shooting and went to search Teabing's house, Teabing's The plan failed.
Teabing took Neveu and Langdon to the Temple Church in London because he knew it was a dead end; he staged the hostage scene with Remy in order to obtain the keystone without revealing the true conspiracy. The phone call Silas received while in the limousine with Remy was actually from Teabing who was hiding in the back of the car.
In order to silence him, Teabing got rid of Remy by making him drink Cognac mixed with peanut powder, because he knew that Remy had a fatal allergic reaction to peanuts. Teabing anonymously reported to the police that Silas was hiding at Opus Dei's London headquarters.
During the showdown with Teabing in Westminster Abbey, before destroying the second secret cylinder in front of Teabing, Langdon secretly opened it and took out the contents inside. thing. As Teabing vainly begged Langdon to reveal the contents of the second cryptex and the secret location of the Holy Grail, the police arrived to arrest Teabing and take him away.
Both Bishop Aringarosa and Silas believed that they were saving the church, not destroying it.
After discovering eavesdropping equipment in the stables of Teabing Castle, Bezu Fache learned that Neveu and Langdon were innocent.
Outside Opus Dei's London headquarters, Silas, who was on the run from the police, accidentally shot Aringarosa. After realizing the terrible mistake he had been deceived into, Aringarosa asked Bezu Fache to hand over the coupon bonds in his briefcase to the families of the slain Priory of Sion leaders as a token of appreciation. A little compensation from my conscience. Silas was shot and died.
Image: Star of David.svg
The final message contained in the second keystone does not actually indicate Rosslyn Chapel, despite the fact that the Holy Grail was once buried there Below the Star of David pattern on the floor (the two interlocking triangles that make up the Star of David represent the "sword edge" and the "meal cup", which are symbols of male and female).
The tour guide at Rosslyn Chapel is Sophie's long-lost brother.
The keeper of Rosslyn Chapel is Sophie's long-lost grandmother, Jacques Saunière's wife.
Although all four leaders of the Priory of Sion were killed, the secret was not lost, as there was an (unspecified) contingency plan that would ensure the survival of the organization and its secrets.
The Inverted Pyramid of the Louvre Photography by Eric Pouhier The true meaning of the last message is that the Holy Grail is buried directly beneath the "inverted" glass pyramid of the Louvre (the "meal cup" that symbolizes women) Underneath the small pyramid-shaped building (that is, the "sword edge" that symbolizes the male, the relative position of the two pyramid-shaped buildings in the Louvre is somewhat similar to the relative way of the two triangles that form the Star of David), it is somewhat ironic that there is Langdon and Sophie almost fell into the glass pyramid when they first escaped from Bezu Fache. See La Pyramide Inversée at the Louvre for further discussion.
At the end of the novel, Rob Langdon and Sophie Neveu fell in love, and they agreed to meet in Florence.