The Allure of Power (The Da Vinci Code & Codex)

People in power will often do whatever it takes to retain it, and this is clearly shown in the books The Da Vinci Code and Codex. In both books, the people holding positions of power go to extreme measures to keep their power when threatened. In The Da Vinci Code, the church used violence and murder to keep people quiet, and in Codex, the Duke used blackmail and threats.

One similarity between these two books is that the people in power in these books take extreme action to keep power in their hands. In The Da Vinci Code, the church is the one with power. Robert Langdon, Sophie, and the Priory of Sion are a threat to them, because they hold a secret that will cause power to shift from the church to the priory. In an effort to retain power, the church sends assassins to kill off these people and also gain the secret in one fell swoop. Similarly, in Codex, the Duke is in power, and the codex being found would be disastrous for him, as it contains a secret regarding his child that would ruin him if made public. To prevent this from happening, he makes sure all people searching for the codex stop immediately. He does this by making threats to them, usually monetary. When threatened, the people in power in both books took extreme action in order to retain their power.

A second similarity between the two books is that they both sent other people to do the work for them. The church sent people from the cult known as Opus Dei to take out the priory, and the Duke sent people he had hired to threaten Edward and others. The people in power wanted to retain their power, and they knew that if they went themselves, they ran the risk of being caught, and losing their power anyway. So instead, they sent other people in their place to do the dirty work for them and take all the risks, while they reaped the rewards from afar. People in power want to retain it, and as taking action themselves would lead to the loss of said power, the Church and the Duke in The Da Vinci Code and Codex respectively sent other people to do their bidding.

One main difference between the two books is that in one, violence was used, and in the other, it was not. In the Da Vinci Code, the church achieved its goals by simply killing everyone in the way. After they discovered the identities of the leading members of the priory of sion, they disposed of them by killing them. When Robert Langdon and Sophie got involved, they tried to kill them too. In fact, according to the book, the Crusades, which caused the loss of thousands of people’s lives, was conducted in order to try and stomp out all who knew about the secret. The church’s desire to retain power pushed it to slaughter droves of people to keep the power the held. In Codex, the Duke does not have anyone killed. Instead, he accomplishes his goals by threats and blackmail. Most of these threats have to do with money and jobs. In both books, the desire to retain power pushed these people to take extreme action, whether it involved violence or not.

In conclusion, the many similarities and differences between The Da Vinci Code and Codex all support the claim that people in power will go to extreme measures to retain it, which may or may not involve violence. Power is very attracting, and few people, once acquiring it will give it up. Therefore, they will turn to extreme methods to keep this power when it is threatened.