1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. Background of the study Novel is a work of literature where the readers can picture the characters through their real complexity of temperament and motive. The temperament and motive that are owned by the characters in a novel will become the bridge for the readers to understand a certain novel with a clearer understanding. It is because the characters can help the readers to see a particular way of life. The events that occur will usually be plausible and the author will give a certain circumstances, such as violent or sensational occurrence in the plot. That is why a novel has served the interests and aspirations of people. There are some characteristics from a novel that can be explained here. The first one is that novel is a contemporary work of literature. Novels are one of the literary works that contain stories of now or events that happen in a relevant past. Moreover, novels are work of art where people can believe the stream of the story. It is because people who exist and the things in novels are recognizable as behaving and occurring in believable human ways. Not only that, novels are also familiarity because it shows everyday existence and also common people. Another characteristic that can be seen from a novel is that it becomes the object of identification. Through novels, the readers are given a sense of what it would be like to be someone else, of how it feels to be another identity. By reading novels, a greater closeness occurs because the readers can identify or empathize with the heroes and heroines of the novels. Dan Brown’s novel, The Da Vinci Code, becomes one of the novels that match the characteristic above. It is because this novel can bring the reader to the world of the fiction character. Dan Brown becomes the author that I chose for this thesis because he is controversial author. He shows the controversiality through one part of the novel where he describes Sophie Neveu, one of the female characters, as one of the descendants from Mary Magdalene and Jesus. By showing that part, pros and cons are raised because some people do not agree with that side that is written by Brown in his novel, The Da Vinci Code. Not only that, with Sophie Neveu as the 1 Petra Christian University 2 Important descendant from Magdalene and Jesus, a red line can be dragged which is, Neveu and her previous family becomes the first church instead of Jesus’s twelve disciples. That point also triggers the controversiality in the middle of the society. Since Brown is good at putting his ideas into his novel until he comes to a center where he raised disagreement in the environment, I chose him as the author related to the thesis that I am writing. The next thing that captured my attention about Dan Brown is because he is a brilliant author in expressing his ideas into a novel. He can unify many aspects such as the religiousity, art and social phenomena. He proves his ability in relating those ideas through one of his female characters, Sophie Neveu. Through her story while she was in her childhood, a story of Priory Sion. The wooden box that leads her into this organization, has the symbol of rose and that becomes the center of the unification of a certain thing with the social phenomena. Neveu takes part as Brown’s brain to explain the relation between this rose and the social phenomena that happen in the society. Instead of using a square sign saying “Do not Disturb”, Neveu explains that her grandfather used a rose on the door to deliver that message to people who wants to go inside his room. That proves Brown’s intelligence in unifying the ideas of needing privacy and the rose. With using Neveu, the main woman character, as a media to deliver his ideas, Brown manages to give a new way of thinking about a certain thing. That is why I chose him as the author. There are several reasons in choosing a particular novel from Dan Brown which is The Da Vinci Code. The first one is because this novel has a riddle- filled, code-breaking and exhilaratingly brainy thriller (Maslin.2003.p 1). In order to reach a certain thriller situation, The Da Vinci Code provides different symbols. The usage of the symbols and codes make me interested in using this novel as a media to analyze my thesis. There are codes that are connected to one of the woman character in the novel by Dan Brown, which is Sophie Neveu. One of the examples of the codes that has the relation with her is the first code that is found next to the dead body of the museum curator, Jacques Sauniere. One thing that is interesting from that code is the word “P.S.”. When other people see that letter as a meaning of additional information that needed to gain, Sophie Neveu sees that Petra Christian University 3 as something different. This main woman character sees the code that is represented in the letter “P.S.” as a nickname given by her grandfather when she was a child. Princess Sophie, is the real meaning that Sauniere wants to deliver to the reader of the code but only Neveu knows it. That one example becomes one of the reasons I am interested in using the novel that contains many codes inside. The next thing that captured my attention on this novel is because this is a novel in which there are implicit differences about the fact and the fiction of the Christianity and the art works in some chapter like Chapter 55 and Chapter 56. Behind the art works, which are used in this novel, lays an explanation from the Christian side, history and also the fiction part where these three different things are described clearly and convincing. The distinction between the art and religious side, however, can be easily understood with the help from another book such as Cracking The Da Vinci Code and The Da Vinci Hoax that are already published for public. Since it is a novel which implicitly gives a spot in the female character more power to control the situation, this becomes the last reason in choosing Dan Brown’s novel titled The Da Vinci Code. This particular novel implicitly gives a spot in the female character because this woman becomes an important figure in the novel. In order to support this statement there is an example where Sophie Neveu, the major woman character, always finds a way in saving Langdon’s life from being caught by the police and in helping Langdon to escape from a situation where they have to choose between their life and the Priory Keystone (Brown,2003,p 226). I choose a particular topic, which is about the main woman character. There are many discussions relating to women in this novel. In this novel, it is seen that the author, Dan Brown, is paying attention to the women characters as the guides to read this novel. It is because the author puts these women in important parts. One of the examples of the women who has a strong position in this novel is Sophie Neveu, the main woman character. Sophie Neveu, the granddaughter of the museum curator, becomes the central attention among other women characters because she becomes the one who is trying to find the truth about the death of Jacques Sauniere and also, she deals a lot with the codes that are left by her grandfather. She also faces so many obstacles in trying to know the murder of Petra Christian University 4 Sauniere ,and through the obstacles that she faces, she shows one important thing. It shows that Neveu is trying to make decision that is good for her and nobody can stop her before she gets what she needs. This topic is interesting because the woman character becomes the central point of the story and it shows that women start to be appreciated by the society and are given chances to take care of different kinds of situation that may become the obstacle in their life. Before going further, I, would like to explain some important terms in the title above. The word quest means a long search for something such as truth or knowledge (Longman-Dictionary of Contemporary English,2001). The quest in this thesis leads to the long search for the Holy Grail. Furthermore, I choose to give a spot on the main female character, Sophie Neveu, in The Da Vinci Code novel by Dan Brown because in my opinion this character becomes the central figure in finding the truth behind her grandfather’s, Jacques Sauniere, death. The journey in finding this truth, leads her to a quest which is The Holy Grail. From this main woman character, the structure of the story will be revealed piece by piece. By deconstructing the grammar of this novel Sophie Neveu will be seen through her roles as Subject – Object, Sender – Receiver, and Helper - Opponent in The Da Vinci Code. Before the statement of the problem, a brief picture of the story which leads me to choose a certain topic is given here. The story begins when a museum curator, Jacques Sauniere, got kill by a monk named Silas because he wants to know about The Holy Grail. Next to his dead body, Jacques Sauniere draws a pentacle on his stomach with his own blood. In the mean time, there is a cryptologist agent named Sophie Neveu, who happened to be Jacques Sauniere’s granddaughter, come to location of the murderer in order to help solving the codes.