On The Biblical Archetypes Of Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon Trilogy

Dan Brown is a famous novelist in contemporary American. His Robert LangdonTrilogy has got worldwide attention by its exciting story. Based on Northrop Frye’sarchetypal critical theory, this article intends to analyze the biblical archetypes ofRobert Langdon Trilogy through text reading, and point out that the creativeinterpretation of religion is not a subversion of traditional Christian ethics, but thewriter’s rational thought about faith and religion issues.This whole thesis includes six chapters. The first chapter introduces DanBrown’s life and works, summarizes the current research on Dan Brown’s novels athome and abroad, and points out the purposes and methods of this research. Thesecond chapter mainly analyzes how the natural images in the novels, including fire,water and lambs respectively, applied and developed the biblical archetypes. Amongthese natural images, fire and water generally inherited the symbolic meaning in theBible while lambs were mostly presented in an ironic way. The third chapter analyzesthe biblical archetypes of the characters in the novels. The writer not only reshapedGod, Jesus and Satan, but also changed their fate subjectively. The fourth chapterdiscusses the biblical archetypes of the plot including crucifixion, redemption andresurrection. The writer expressed his bewilderment and confusion to the God andfaith by ironically representing the biblical plot. The fifth chapter points out DanBrown’s rebellion and conversion to the traditional Christian ethics in the respects ofthree aspects, which are religion and science, male and female, human and god,respectively. The writer’s creative interpretation of religion expressed his good wishesto build an ideal new world, though it seems to be rebellion. The sixth chapter makesa conclusion for this article and points out that faith is the common theme in thetrilogy.