Gifts of Control: Pseudo-Feminism in The Da Vinci Code

Abstract

Since its publication in 2003, The Da Vinci Code written by Dan Brown came as a big hit to the world and has been listed atop the bestseller list by New York Times for about two years. The novel recounts a story of Sophie and Langdon questing the Holy Grail and then discovering an ancient secret behind it, namely, the marriage and an descendant of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. Most criticisms are concerned with historical and religious meanings, contributing to the public outcry for “radical feminist” of the novel in potentially threatening Christianity. However, it should be noted that the so-called great cause of unveiling Mary Magdalene, the silenced goddess, victimizes the modern female, Sophie. Despite the proliferation of current studies, there seems to be an oversight with regard to “cryptex” which is mentioned about sixty-nine times in the novel. Nevertheless, readers are easily entrapped by this negligence into men’s phony concern for women, in particular their masked manipulation of Sophie. From this vantage point, the present article, drawing on gift theories, aims to reveal the pseudo-feminism in the novel. It is argued that Sauniere’s cryptexes, presented as unconditional gifts for Sophie, are actually complicit with patriarchal ideology and finally force her to sacrifice self-identity for reciprocation. In the end, the paper pinpoints the practical implications of the novel for women in the contemporary world to remain vigilant and rational towards faux-feminism.