On The Da Vinci Code From The Perspective Of Feminism

The mystery-detective fiction The Da Vinci Code, written by American writer DanBrown in2003, has swept the publishing world by a storm since its release. This novel hasbeen listed atop the best seller list by the New York Times for about two years. The popularityof this novel undoubtedly has made Dan Brown a well-known popular and bestselling writernot only in the U.S. but also all over the world. The novel reinterprets the legends of the HolyGrail in the thrilling plots, exploding like a bomb in the field of theology and also arousingthe great interest of the historians, culture researchers as well as literature researchers. Variousreviews on it have been continuously published at home and abroad.When the readers ignore whether or not there are any historical and scientificinaccuracies in the novel and just study this work from the perspective of feminism, they canbe led to have deep reflections on the feminist issues, like the position and role of womenhistorically and in the present in the patriarchal world as well as the relationships betweenmen and women. Feminism is known to oppose androcentrism, support equality between menand women, and advocate men and women to develop a balanced, harmonious partnership soas to propel the human society to advance in a balanced and cooperative way. Throughanalysis of the novel from the perspective of feminism, the readers can understand that DanBrown uses the story of quest for the Holy Grail to criticize men’s oppression anddiscrimination against the women in the patriarchal culture, advocate improving women’sposition and developing a balanced and harmonious partnership between men and women.Only in this way will the human society truly realize balanced and harmonious development.Introduction of this thesis starts with the background studies on Dan Brown and hisnovel, its literature reviews at home and abroad, and general information on feminism.Chapter One analyzes how the novel criticizes androcentrism through disclosing men’soppression and discrimination against women. Chapter Two discusses how the noveladvocates improving women’s position by analysis of the image and role of the femalecharacters in the story. Chapter Three focuses on how the novel proposes to develop an equaland harmonious partnership between men and women by analyzing the symbols for genderbalance and the partnership between its hero and heroine. The analysis of this thesis finallyleads to the conclusion that women occupy an important position and play an indispensablerole, and that only by developing the balance between men and women, will a harmoniousworld come true. Just like hiding the codes everywhere in the story, Dan Brown intertwines the thoughts offeminism into the different pars of the novel. This paper interprets the feminist thoughts fromthe characters in the story so as to better explore the realistic significance of the novel.