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Chapter 28
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
In Saint-Sulpice, Silas retrieves an iron candle holder from the altar to break the tile at the obelisk’s base. Not wanting to wake Sister Sandrine, he removes his robe and uses it to muffle the battering. The tile breaks. Silas is surprised to find a stone tablet engraved with the words Job 38:11. He turns to the Bible sitting on the altar. Meanwhile, Sister Sandrine trembles in the balcony. The fresh wounds on Silas’s back have shocked her. Certain Opus Dei is searching for the keystone, she rushes to her room and retrieves a sealed envelope containing four phone numbers, which she begins to dial. Below, Silas finds the referenced verse, which reads “HITHERTO SHALT THOU COME, BUT NO FURTHER.”
By breaking the tile, Silas leaves behind undeniable evidence of his strange mission. Presumably, finding the keystone is worth the risk of capture. Silas’s self-inflicted wounds make Sandrine afraid of what he might do to her. The reader’s understanding of Sandrine’s role expands: she is not only a sentry but a messenger, ostensibly meant to call certain people should anyone try to access the obelisk’s hiding place. The verse Silas reads reveals to him what the reader has known since Saunière’s death: the curator and sénéchaux all told him the same lie.
Themes
