The Da Vinci Code Literary Elements

The Da Vinci Code Literary Elements

Genre

A mystery-detective novel

Setting and Context

The plot of the book unfolds in the Hotel Ritz Paris in 00:32 and lasts throughout the next day. Professor of religious symbology Robert Langdon woke up from a phone call. He was reported of an unexpected guest, who later told him about the murder of the Jacques Saunière, who was the curator of the Louvre. The protagonist, decided to help, but the situation is even more mysterious than it seemed. And the events turn around against him. So, now Langdon has to get out of a series of mysterious events and open the mystery of the curator's murder with the help of Sophie Neveu, the agent from DCPJ's Cryptology Department.

Narrator and Point of View

The third-person, omniscient. Some parts of chapters are written from the first point of view.

Tone and Mood

Tone is very emotional. While solving mysteries it seems to be slightly accelerated; it is sad while Sophie recollects Saunière, though sometimes it’s humorous.

Protagonist and Antagonist

Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu are protagonists of the story, while Leigh Teabing is the antagonist.

Major Conflict

The main conflict is protection of the truth. The protagonists try to find out the truth and to protect the main secret of Priory of Sion from those who want to spoil it.

Climax

Exposing Leigh Teabing’s criminal intentions and discovering the reason of the curator's murder.

Foreshadowing

Sophie is guessing which of her secret secrets hid her grandfather in cryptex. Leigh Teabing repeatedly questioned Sophie and Robert's intentions and behaved suspiciously during their first meeting.

Understatement

N/A

Allusions

The main allusion is the name of the albino Silas, because he got it from the priest, who found his life situation similar to that of the Holy Silas. This Saint accompanied Paul the Apostle in his missionary journeys.

Imagery

Imagery is mostly used to describe works of arts for reader to visualize it more realistically. It also used to describe the characters, their feelings, appearance and style of clothing to understand the type of person that is in front of us.

Paradox

People are in the pursuit of the truth all the time, but they are not ready to accept it.
Doing ‘the will of God’ with the ‘means of devil’.

Parallelism

"About the three additional murders? Absolutely. It answers a lot of questions—the issue of your grandfather's desperation to pass on the keystone, as well as the intensity with which Fache is hunting me."
The sanctuary has played host to the baptisms of the Marquis de Sade and Baudelaire, as well as the marriage of Victor

Every knight was on his back, but three of the knights had their legs extended straight out while two had their legs crossed.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

‘I know I heard the door, he thought, moving forward until he could see the entryway’
‘heard the door’ means heard the door opens.
I can't put a bullet through a Da Vinci!
‘Da Vinci’ is metonymy, that represents the general name for art pieces by Leonardo Da Vinci.

Personification

An uneasy silence fell.
The wooden box has gone
Tonight, three thousand miles from home, the accolade had resurfaced to haunt him at the lecture he had given.
It is impossible for inanimate objects to behave in such a way in literal sense of the word.

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