The Da Vinci Code, Silas’s Strengths and Weaknesses

James Black

May 29, 2006

English 6th

Silas, the ghost like character of this story is the character I have chosen. Our story of Silas starts out with the fact he had run away form his family at the age of seven, but he did not have the name Silas then, he forgets his family given name. His father had frequently beating his mother for giving him an albino son; Silas had stabbed his father to death to stop the beatings and ran away. Silas had killed two sailors and had been sent to the prison of Andorra. Twelve years later, a strange force broke the ceiling above him leaving a crawl hole for him to escape from. Bishop Aringarosa had found Silas and brought him back to his church. Bishop Aringarosa had heard about the jail break and then gave Silas a bible that told of a man named Silas that was in jail, and gave Silas the name Silas.

The strengths that Silas really shows are displayed by his character. A main feature is that he is very persistent, and does not like to leave a mission incomplete, such as he kept going after the keystone. He does not disobey the orders he is given, does not hesitate to complete the task at hand. Silas doesn’t like hurting others unless it is in the name of God. He follows the teaching of the Opus Dei and is not tempted by a sexual urge, seeing the prostitutes, he tightens his cilice belt. These strengths really shape Silas’s character.

Silas’s weaknesses help show how arrogant he really is. His main weakness is that he wears the cilice, causing a weak point on his body. Another major weakness is that he lashes himself to repent and this seems relatively wrong and puts another weak point on him. He occasionally over reacts to small situations, like shooting Bishop Aringaosa while fending off the police. He doesn’t think things al the way through, such as attack Sister Sandrine in Saint-Sulpice. Theses weaknesses lead to Silas’s demise in the