Supatranut Singhanuwananon
5506040111
Superhero Analysis: V for Vendetta
‘Everybody is special. Everybody. Everybody is a hero, a lover, a fool, a villain.
Everybody. Everybody has their story to tell’,1 a physically and mentally wounded man under
the name V from Room Five of Larkhill, a camp for undesirable minorities, makes its
statement. The statement draws my attention. How can a hero be a villain too?
When we were children, most of us usually had similar ideas of qualities superheroes
should posses: super power, considerable strength that somehow armed with deadly weapons,
and a strong will to fight against those scary ugly monsters. It is effortless to distinguish the
good from the bad, the superhero from the villains. However, the aforementioned concept of
superheroes may be slightly different for V. Despite its immense strength, high knowledge in
chemistry, philosophy and politics; and great martial art skills, V is still unlikely a superhero
in that way.
The story of V for Vendetta portrays the futuristic United Kingdom under the fascist
regime called Norsefire. The people are deprived of their rights. The media is completely
monitored and controlled. The unwanted group of people like homosexuals, Jews, Muslims
and political riots are marginalized. The authorities put them together in Resettlement Camp.
The camp, more likely a prison, is also a place where horrific medical experiments are
conducted. V is one of the guinea pigs. An attempt to create a stronger breed of humans using
a pharmaceutical approach fail in most cases except for V. However, before the scientists
have a chance to make use of it to its full potential, the explosion destroyed the camp. The
man imprisoned in Room Five, the only successful experimental result, breaks the jail and
1 Moore, Alan, and David Lloyd. V for Vendetta. Vol. 01. New York: Warner, 1988. Print. 23
kills the officials. After the incident, it decides to hide its true identity by donning a Guy
Fawkes mask and officially becomes known as V as it is the Roman numeral for five.
Obviously, for it, V is for vendetta as well.
The story does not give a clear background of V before it is placed in the camp.
However, as the story develops, the marginalized, tortured and distorted V gradually reveals
its complex characteristics. We can see both hard and soft sides of the character. V displays
its violence and viciousness in many scenes. According to its introduction to Evey, the young
prostitute it saves from being raped and later becomes its confidante, V affirms that its
determination is to wreak its vengeance on the fascist government: “…the only verdict is
vengeance; a vendetta held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall
one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous”.2 The vengeance includes killing and
bombing. It kills many government officials. In order to ultimately demolish the power of the
government, it bombs the Parliament. While we almost judged V from its heartless terrorist
acts, in some scenes, V unfolds its sentimental side. After Evey decides to leave for no
obvious reason, V puts off the mask, throws it at a mirror and bursts into tears. The
combination of its roughness and sensitivity that is displayed makes the character more real
and convincing. Hence, V is not at all a flat character, but distinctively sophisticated.
Even though V primarily fights against the government for its own revenge, its action
also awakens the people’s doubt in their government. There is a time when V hacks the
government’s main broadcasting channel to deliver its speech, “Good evening, London.
Allow me first to apologize for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the
comforts of every day routine- the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition. I
enjoy them as much as any bloke… And where once you had the freedom to object, to think
2 "Memorable Quotes: V for Vendetta (2005)." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 01 Aug. 2012.
<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0434409/quotes>.
and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your
conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well
certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but
again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror.”3 The
speech highly motivates the passive people, who once only do whatever the authorities
command, to think critically and stand up for their right. The speech also revives the sense of
being humans and not controllable robots. This results in people’s coalition, largely formed a
year after V’s speech has been broadcasted, to rise against their vicious fascist government. V
is not only a superhero behind a mask. V is a provocative idea that challenges every state
where its people forfeit their basic rights. Men perish, but solid established ideas do not; and
that makes V a great hero.
As mentioned, V is not a mere superhero in a form of a man, flaunting its great power
in a fancy costume. It is the idea that everybody in like society can relate to. The idea of
liberation that V conveys impacts on my thoughts. From my observation, Thailand underwent
the similar situation in 1973 in which the people’s uprising was so powerful that it overthrew
the military government. This is historic proof that any idea that is solid enough to be
transformed into action can change the society. I believe that men are born free and equal.
Our liberty should never be taken away from us by any one for any cause. Thus, whenever
any government or rulers try to curtail our freedom to think, the society would need a
superhero like V to shake our thoughts, and provoke our action to take back what belongs to
us.
Now to answer the question, how can a hero be a villain too? V provides me a certain
perspective. Like V says, there are both a hero and a villain in all of us no matter who we are.
3
Ibid.
It reinforces the fact that people are different in their own ways. V’s message decoded: our
society is in desperate need of room for differences.