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Chapter 100
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Da Vinci Code, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Conspiracies and Secrets
Art and Symbolism
Faith vs. Knowledge
Sacred Femininity and Revisionist History
Power and Manipulation
Summary
Analysis
Knowing his options are betraying Sophie or getting shot, Langdon doesn’t respond to Teabing. He walks away with the cryptex, considering Saunière’s riddle—if he can solve it, he can bargain for Sophie’s life. He gazes out at the College Garden, whose apple trees are blossoming, feeling the Grail is within reach. Meanwhile, Teabing privately believes Langdon is coming around to his opinion that the truth must be revealed. Having learned from surveillance that Saunière wanted to meet Langdon, Teabing assumed the curator intended to censor his colleague’s new manuscript. Yesterday afternoon, Silas called Saunière pretending to have information on his family’s murders and implied Sophie was in danger. Saunière had immediately set up a meeting at the Louvre.
By remaining silent, Langdon fools Teabing into thinking he is on board with his scheme—manipulating the manipulator. It’s worth noting the apple trees Langdon sees in the garden, as the fruit is often used to symbolize fallen womanhood because of the apple Eve ate in the Garden of Eden. Teabing assumes that Langdon, because he is also a scholar, will prioritize knowledge over everything else. He even timed his scheme to coincide with Langdon’s visit to Paris—to prevent Saunière from silencing Langdon and recruit him to his cause. Teabing easily manipulated Saunière by threatening Sophie’s life, demonstrating both Teabing’s ruthlessness and the curator’s love for his granddaughter.
Themes
Teabing thinks Langdon, unlike Sophie, understands that the Grail is bigger than their individual lives. Langdon returns, claiming to have solved the clue. He will open the cryptex if Teabing lets Sophie go. Sophie protests, saying Saunière would rather the secret be lost forever than stolen by his murderer. Believing Langdon is lying about having solved the cryptex, Teabing knows he must kill them both. Lowering his gun, he tells Langdon to set down the keystone. Sensing what Teabing is planning, Langdon sees only one way to protect Sophie and the Grail. Earlier, when he stood at the window, he sensed the Grail calling to him as “a worthy soul.” Now, he leaps upward, launching the cryptex into the air.
While Teabing desires the Grail’s treasure trove of knowledge, he also desires the power it will grant him—specifically, power over the Church. Langdon, on the other hand, has been helping Sophie out of pure intellectual curiosity rather than selfish ambition. Because Langdon understands that knowledge is not a means to an end but the end itself, the novel suggests that he is worthy of knowing the Grail’s location and protecting it—which is what he aims to do in this scene. Additionally, his and Sophie’s survival depends on keeping the cryptex away from Teabing, who has been corrupted by his love of power and influence.
Themes
Teabing shoots, missing Langdon. He lurches to catch the falling cryptex, but he hears the glass vial shatter. Weeping, Teabing pulls the cylinder apart but sees no dissolving papyrus. The cryptex dials spell out “APPLE.” As Sophie holds Teabing at gunpoint, Langdon explains the apple symbolizes the demise of the sacred feminine in Eden and references the fruit which inspired Newton’s life’s work. He pulls the papyrus out of his pocket and reads what’s written there. Teabing begs to know what it says, but Fache bursts in. The abbey’s security recognized Teabing as a missing person earlier. As he is carried away, Teabing begs Langdon to tell him the Grail’s location. Langdon reminds him that “Only the worthy find the Grail.”
