V for Vendetta
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the 2006 film, see V for Vendetta (film).
V for Vendetta is a ten-issue comic book series written by Alan Moore
and illustrated mostly by David Lloyd, set in a dystopian future United
Kingdom imagined from the 1980s about the 1990s. A mysterious
anarchist named "V" works to destroy the totalitarian government,
profoundly affecting the people he encounters.
The series is set in a near-future Britain after a limited nuclear war,
which has left much of the world destroyed. In this future, a fascist party
called Norsefire has arisen and is the ruling power. "V", an anarchist
revolutionary dressed in a Guy Fawkes mask, begins an elaborate,
violent and theatrical campaign to bring down the government. A film
version of V for Vendetta was released in 2006.
Background
The first episodes of V for Vendetta were originally published in blackand-white between 1982 and 1985, in Warrior, a British anthology comic
published by Quality Comics. The strip was one of the most popular in
the title and featured on several covers during the 26 issues of Warrior.
Internally, V for Vendetta is divided into three "books". Warrior was
cancelled at the end of the second book. Three years later, DC Comics
reunited Alan Moore and David Lloyd to finish the series, which was
published in ten monthly issues, then collected in hardback and trade
paperback. David Lloyd's artwork for V for Vendetta in Warrior was
originally published in black-and-white, giving it a harsh chiaroscuro
effect that worked very well with the grim subject matter. In the DC
Comics version, the artwork has been "colourised" in pastels, which
some fans feel compromises its effectiveness. Lloyd, however, has
stated that he always intended for the artwork to be in color, and it was
initially published in black and white for financial reasons because color
would have been too expensive.
Cover of Warrior #19, highlighting the comic's conflict between anarchist and fascist
philosophies.
In writing V for Vendetta, Moore drew upon an idea for a strip titled The
Doll he had submitted to DC Thomson when he was twenty-two years
old. In "Behind the Painted Smile",[1] Moore revealed that the idea was
rejected as DC Thomson balked at the idea of a "transsexual terrorist".
Years later, Warrior editor Dez Skinn invited Moore to create a dark
mystery strip with artist David Lloyd.[2] Lloyd and Moore considered
several proposals, including one titled Vendetta that set the story in
1930s United States. The setting developed through their discussions,
moving from 1930s United States to near-future Britain. As the setting
progressed, so did the character's development; once conceived as a
"realistic" gangster-age American, he became, first, a policeman
rebelling against the totalitarian state he served, then became a heroic
anarchist.
Moore and Lloyd conceived the series as a dark adventure strip
influenced by British comic characters of the 1960s, as well as Night
Raven, a Marvel UK strip which Lloyd had previously worked on with
writer Steve Parkhouse. Editors Dez Skinn and Graham Marsh came up
with the name V for Vendetta. David Lloyd developed the idea of
dressing V as Guy Fawkes after previous designs followed the
conventional superhero look.
During the preparation of the story Moore made a list of what he wanted
to bring into the plot, which he reproduced in "Behind the Painted
Smile":
"Orwell. Huxley. Thomas Disch. Judge Dredd. Harlan Ellison's "Repent,
Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman, Catman and The Prowler in the City at the
Edge of the World by the same author. Vincent Price's Dr. Phibes and
Theatre of Blood. David Bowie. The Shadow. Night Raven. Batman.
Fahrenheit 451. The writings of the New Worlds school of science fiction. Max
Ernst's painting "Europe After the Rain". Thomas Pynchon. The atmosphere
of British Second World War films. The Prisoner. Robin Hood. Dick
Turpin...[1]"
The political climate of Britain in the early 1980s has also been cited as
an influence on the work,[3] with Moore positing that Margaret
Thatcher's Conservative government would "obviously lose the 1983
elections", and that the Michael Foot-led Labour government that
replaced it, being committed to complete nuclear disarmament, would
allow the United Kingdom to escape relatively unscathed after a limited
nuclear war. However, Moore felt a post-holocaust Britain would be
quickly subverted by fascists.[1] Moore's predictions were perceived to
be unlikely and, addressing this when DC reissued the work, he noted:
Naïveté can also be detected in my supposition that it would take something
as melodramatic as a near-miss nuclear conflict to nudge England towards
fascism... The simple fact that much of the historical background of the story
proceeds from a predicted Conservative defeat in the 1982 General Election
should tell you how reliable we were in our roles as Cassandras.[4]
When Warrior was cancelled in 1985 (with one completed episode
unpublished due to the cancellation), several companies attempted to
convince Moore and Lloyd to let them publish and complete the story. In
1988 DC Comics published a ten-issue series that reprinted the Warrior
stories in colour, then continued the series to completion. The first new
material appeared in issue #7, which included the unpublished episode
that would have appeared in Warrior #27. Tony Weare drew one
chapter ("Vincent") and contributed additional art to two others
("Valerie", "The Vacation"); Steve Whitaker and Siobhan Dodds worked
as colourists on the entire series. The series, including Moore's "Behind
the Painted Smile" essay and two "interludes" outside the central
continuity, was then collected as a trade paperback, published in the US
by DC's Vertigo imprint (ISBN 0-930289-52-8) and in the UK by Titan
Books (ISBN 1-85286-291-2).
[edit]
Plot
November 5, 1997, London. A vigilante known as V rescues a young
woman, Evey Hammond, from a gang of police agents (known as
"Fingermen") who are about to rape her after arresting her for
prostitution. After dispatching the Fingermen, V heads to a rooftop with
Evey and detonates a bomb inside the abandoned Palace of
Westminster, emulating the failed 1605 Gunpowder Plot. V takes Evey
to his secret lair, which he calls "The Shadow Gallery". Evey tells V her
life story, describing the nuclear war of the late 1980s which eventually
led to the fascist coup d'état in Great Britain, after which her father was
rounded up as a political prisoner and presumably killed.
Investigation of V's bombing is assigned to Eric Finch, the head of "The
Nose" -- the regular police force -- and an experienced investigator who
serves the government out of a love of order rather than political
conviction. Through him are met other figures in the Party, including the
Leader, Adam Susan, who is fixated on the government's computer
system, Fate; Dominic Stone, Finch's partner; Derek Almond, head of
"The Finger", the secret police; Conrad Heyer, head of "The Eye", the
visual surveillance branch; Brian Etheridge, head of "The Ear", the
audio surveillance branch; and Roger Dascombe, in charge of "The
Mouth", the branch in charge of broadcasting propaganda.
V next blows up the Old Bailey, and confronts three Party figures to
accuse them of and execute them for past atrocities: Lewis Prothero,
the propaganda broadcaster who serves as the "Voice of Fate"; Bishop
Anthony Lilliman, a paedophile priest who represents the Party in the
clergy; and Delia Surridge, an apolitical doctor who once had a
relationship with Finch. V drives Prothero insane after incinerating his
prized doll collection; Lilliman is killed by being forced to consume a
cyanide-laced communion wafer; and Dr. Surridge dies from a lethal
injection. However, because Surridge expressed remorse for her
previous actions, her death is painless. By the time V kills Surridge,
Finch has discovered that all of V's victims worked at a concentration
camp near the village of Larkhill, and alerts Derek Almond to V's plans.
V is surprised by Almond while attempting to escape from Surridge's
home. Unfortunately for Almond, he had forgotten to reload his gun after
having cleaned it earlier that same night, and is killed by V.
Finch begins to read a diary kept by Dr. Surridge, discovered at her
home. It reveals all of the victims' previous histories with V, an inmate at
the Larkhill camp who was subjected to a medical experiment run by Dr.
Surridge, in which he was given hormonal injections with a drug called
"Batch 5". Eventually, V, known to the camp's staff as the "Man from
Room Five", began tending a garden with camp commander Prothero's
approval, using related chemicals to later break out of the camp while
attacking camp guards with mustard gas and napalm. V, the only
prisoner to have survived the death camp, chose to eliminate its
surviving officers to prevent the government from discovering his true
identity. Finch notes that while V made sure Surridge's diary was easy
to find, he had also ripped out pages that may have contained
information about his identity. With no records of his real identity
existing, V can operate covertly.
Four months later, V breaks into Jordan Tower, the home of The Mouth,
to broadcast a speech that calls on the people to take charge of their
own lives. He escapes by forcing Roger Dascombe into one of V's own
costumes, causing him to be fatally shot by police who storm the room.
Eric Finch, in going over the crime scene, is introduced to Peter Creedy,
a petty criminal replacing Almond as head of The Finger. Finch is
provoked into assaulting Creedy in frustration of Creedy's lack of
appreciation of V's capability and over a personal remark Creedy made
about Dr. Surridge. Following the incident, the Leader sends Finch on a
forced vacation.
Evey has developed a strong attachment to V, but has begun to
challenge his methods. After a confrontation in the Shadow Gallery, she
finds herself abandoned on a street, unable to find V. She is taken in by
Gordon Deitrich, a petty criminal with whom she becomes romantically
involved, and they cross paths unknowingly with Derek Almond's widow
Rose; after the deaths of her husband and Dascombe (with whom she
had been in a forced relationship with), Rose is forced to work as a
burlesque dancer, and consequently develops a strong hatred for the
Party. Creedy begins organizing a private militia, hoping to use V's
destabilization of the Party to mount a coup against the Leader.
When Gordon is murdered by Scottish gangster Alistair Harper, Evey
attempts to kill him in revenge but is arrested and accused of attempting
to murder Peter Creedy as he was meeting with Harper. In her cell
between multiple bouts of interrogation and torture, Evey finds a letter
from an inmate named Valerie, an actress who was imprisoned for
being a lesbian. Evey's interrogator finally gives her a choice of
collaboration or death; inspired by Valerie's courage and quiet defiance,
she refuses to give in and is told that she is free. To her shock, Evey
learns that her imprisonment was a hoax constructed by V, designed to
put her through an ordeal similar to the one that shaped him. He reveals
that Valerie was another Larkhill prisoner who died in the cell next to
his; the letter that Evey read is the same one that Valerie had passed
on to V. Evey's anger finally gives way to acceptance of her identity and
freedom.
The following November, exactly one year after the Parliament
bombing, V destroys the Post Office Tower and Jordan Tower, causing
the death of Etheridge, and effectively shutting down The Eye, The Ear,
and The Mouth. The subsequent lack of government surveillance
causes a wave of violence and hedonism which is violently suppressed
by Creedy and Harper's street gangs. Meanwhile, V notes to Evey that
this is not "The Land of Do-As-You-Please" end result he wants but
rather the mere chaos in "The Land of Take What You Want" — an
interim period that he intends to follow up with the establishment of true
anarchy, a voluntarily orderly society. Finch's assistant Dominic realizes
that V has had access to the Fate computer since the very beginning,
explaining his foresight; this news accelerates the mental collapse of
the Leader.
Finch travels to the abandoned site of Larkhill, where he takes LSD. His
hallucinations lead him to an intuitive understanding of V, and returning
to London, he deduces that V's lair is inside the abandoned Victoria
Station. V confronts Finch as he enters the station. V, who has indicated
his own martyrdom, lets Finch shoot him. The wounded V returns to the
Shadow Gallery and dies in Evey's arms. Evey considers unmasking V,
but decides not to; instead, she assumes his identity, donning one of his
spare costumes. Meanwhile, Rose Almond's private vendetta has led
her to assassinate the Leader. In the ensuing chaos, Harper kills
Creedy, shortly after Finch reports the news that V is dead. When Evey
appears to the crowd as V, a general insurrection begins.
Evey completes V's final act of subversion. As requested by V, she
destroys 10 Downing Street by giving her mentor a "Viking funeral" with
an explosive-laden Underground train containing his body, sent to
detonate beneath the desired location. She rescues Dominic from a
mob and takes him back to the Shadow Gallery, implying that she
intends to train him as her own successor. Finch observes the chaos
raging in the city before heading to the countryside. All forms of
authority in Britain are now gone; its future is left uncertain.
[edit]
Characters
[edit]
Major characters
V: A masked anarchist who seeks to systematically kill the leaders of
Norsefire, a fascist dictatorship ruling post-apocalyptic England.
He is well-versed in the arts of explosives, subterfuge, and
computer hacking, and has a vast literary, cultural and
philosophical intelligence. V is the only survivor of an experiment
in which four dozen prisoners were given injections of a
pituarin/pinearin compound called "Batch 5". The compound
caused vast cellular anomalies that eventually killed all of the
subjects except V, on whom many people believe it granted
enhanced strength, reflexes, endurance and pain tolerance,
though there is no confirmation of this in the book; V maintains
that he is just a man. Although Dr. Surridge believes V was driven
insane by the injection, the possibility that he feigned insanity as
the first step towards freedom is left open. Throughout the novel
V almost always wears his trademark Guy Fawkes mask, a
shoulder-length wig of straight dark-brown hair and an outfit
consisting of black gloves, tunic, trousers and boots. When not
wearing the mask, his face is not shown. When outside the
Shadow Gallery, he completes this ensemble with a circa-1600's
conical hat and floor-length cloak. His weapons of choice include
daggers, explosives and tear gas. He is supposed to have taken
his name from the Roman numeral "V", the number of the room
he was held in during the experiment. This is the main
explanation of the origin of his name, as it is stated in the book.
However, other theories may explain his nom de guerre. For
instance, there is a clear echo in his name of the rallying cry used
by Winston Churchill in the struggle of the Allies in World War II to
overcome the Axis Powers: "V for Victory!". Here it is simply
transformed into "V for Vendetta". It should also be noticed that
the V within a circle is merely an upside-down anarchy sign
without the slash marking an A symbol. At the end of the book, V
lets Chief Inspector Eric Finch shoot him, and dies in Evey's
arms. Evey then assumes V's identity and gives V himself a
Viking funeral by placing V inside a bomb-laden train whose
eventual destination is 10 Downing Street. V is the only character
whose speech bubbles look "distorted and twisted", instead of
being perfectly oval, possibly to show that the mask distorts his
voice. In Watchmen, another work by Alan Moore, the character
Rorschach also wears a mask and makes use of the same
distorted speech bubbles whenever wearing it, and normal
bubbles when not. Whenever V quotes another author, the
quotation marks are perfectly visible.
Evey Hammond: The main character of the story, a teenage girl who
is saved by V from the "Fingermen". She is taken under V's wing,
learns of his past, his current battle against the government and
eventually becomes his successor, as well as finding a future
successor in Chief Inspector Eric Finch's partner, Dominic Stone.
Eric Finch: Chief of New Scotland Yard and Minister of
Investigations, which has become the "Nose", Finch is a
pragmatist who sides with the government because he would
rather serve in a world of order than one of chaos. He is
nevertheless honorable and decent, and trusted by the Leader
because he is reliable and without ambition. He eventually
achieves his own catharsis and self-knowledge, expressing
sorrow over his complicity with Norsefire's atrocities;
nevertheless, he is the one who kills V. He is at one point referred
to as Edward Finch (an error on the part of Helen Heyer). Finch
serves as the main antagonist of V and parallel protagonist of the
story, if V is to be taken as the villain.
Adam J. Susan: Also known as "The Leader", he is the head of the
Norsefire Party and the official Leader of the country, although his
power is largely ceremonial. Susan is in love with the Fate
computer system and prefers its companionship to that of his
fellow human beings. Susan, as his own mind slips, also
expresses a solipsist belief that the only existing beings are him
and 'God' (referring to the Fate computer). He is adherent of
fascism and racist notions of "purity", and genuinely believes that
civil liberties are dangerous and unnecessary. He appears to truly
care for his people, however, and it is implied that his embrace of
fascism was a response to his own loneliness. In the end of the
novel, he is assassinated by Rose Almond, the widow of one of
his former lieutenants. In the film adaptation, he is renamed
"Adam Sutler".
[edit]
Minor characters
Main article: List of minor characters in V for Vendetta
Gordon Deitrich: He is a petty criminal specializing in bootlegging
who harbors and later flirts Evey Hammond. He is murdered by
Alistair Harper, a ruthless gangster who is trying to expand
Scotland's organized crime syndicate into London.
Lewis Prothero: The former Commander of "Larkhill", the
concentration camp that once held V, he later becomes "The
Voice of Fate", the government radio broadcaster who daily
transmits "information" to the public. He is driven insane by a
combination of an overdose of Batch 5 drugs and the shock of
seeing his prized doll collection burned in a mock recreation of
Camp Larkhill. He remains incapacitated for the rest of the story.
Bishop Anthony Lilliman: The voice of the Party in the Church,
Lilliman is a corrupt priest who sexually abuses the young girls in
his various parishes. Like Prothero, he worked at Larkhill before
being given a higher employment by the state. Lilliman was a
priest who was hired to give spiritual support to the prisoners
being given Batch 5 drugs. He is killed after he almost rapes Evey
Hammond (who is dressed up as a young girl) when V forces him
to take communion with a cyanide-laced wafer.
Delia Surridge: Larkhill camp doctor whom V kills by lethal injection.
Surridge is also the only one of V's former tormentors who feels
remorse for her actions, and apologizes to him in her final
moments of life.
Derek Almond: High-ranking official of the Norsefire government. He
ran the government's secret police, known as the Finger. He
guessed successfully that Surridge would be the last of V's
targets and runs to her house to prevent him, before he was killed
by V. Almond is replaced by Peter Creedy. While Almond does
not figure heavily in the story, his death sets in motion one of the
novel's major story arcs; that of his widow, Rose, who is left
penniless and traumatized by the loss of her husband, who was
cold and abusive toward her but whom she nevertheless loved. In
her grief and desperation, she blames her plight on Norsefire's
leader, Adam Susan, and assassinates him at the novel's climax.
Rosemary Almond: The abused wife of Derek Almond. When
Almond is murdered, Rose becomes depressed and turns to
Roger Dascombe for company. She is forced to become a
showgirl as a means of supporting herself after Dascombe's
death at the hands of V. After V shuts down the surveillance
systems, she uses the opportunity to buy a gun and assassinate
Adam Susan.
Helen Heyer: The ruthless, scheming wife of Conrad Heyer. She
uses sex and her superior intellect to keep her husband (for
whom she feels nothing but contempt and only sees as a means
to an end) in line, and to further her own goal of ultimately
controlling the country after he becomes Leader. Parallelly, she
flirts with Ally Harper and turns him against Creedy. Ultimately,
her master plan collapses and she is last seen offering her body
in exchange for protection and food to a semi-drunken gang after
being rejected by Finch (whom she hoped would join her in taking
over what was left of the Party after her husband, Peter Creedy
and Alistair Harper are all killed) and after anarchy has spilled into
London.
Peter Creedy: A coarse, petty man who replaces Derek Almond as
Security Minister of "the Finger" after the latter's death. His
ambition is to replace the weakening Susan as Leader, but as
part of Mrs. Heyer's plot, he is killed by Alistair Harper's thugs
shortly after seizing power.
Conrad Heyer: In charge of the "Eye", the agency that controls the
country's CCTV system. He is subservient to his wife Helen, and
she intends for him to become leader, leaving her as the power
behind the throne. In the end, V sends Conrad a videotape of
Helen being unfaithful and he snaps, killing her lover Alistair
Harper but sustaining a fatal wound from Harper's straight-edge
razor in the process. When Helen learns what he has done, she
is enraged at the destruction of her plans and leaves him to bleed
to death, setting up a video camera connected to their TV so that
he can watch himself die.
Dominic Stone: Younger policeman who is Inspector Finch's
assistant. Dominic is the one who figures out the connection
between V and the former Larkhill camp staff and V's hacking into
the "Fate" computer system. At the end, Dominic is rescued from
a mob by Evey and recruited to be her apprentice now that she is
V - much as V did with her.
Valerie Page: A critically acclaimed actress who was imprisoned at
Larkhill when the government found out she was a lesbian. Her
tragic fate at the hands of the regime motivated V to become a
freedom fighter and revolutionary.
Roger Dascombe: The technical supervisor for The Party's media
division and the Propaganda Minister of "the Mouth". During V's
attack on Jordan Tower, he is set up as a dummy "V" and killed
by the police whilst the real V makes his escape.
Alistair Harper: Scottish organized crime boss who kills Evey's lover
Gordon. Initially he and some of his men are hired by Creedy to
temporarily bolster the police force after V destroys the
government's surveillance equipment, but Helen Heyer recruits
him to her side to ensure Creedy's downfall by offering to place
him in charge of the Finger after Conrad comes to power. He
temporarily becomes Helen's lover. After Creedy's takeover,
Harper fulfills his end of the bargain with Helen and kills Creedy
with a lethal slash from his straight razor. He is beaten to death
by Conrad as he fatally slices his neck.
[edit]
Themes
The series was Moore's first use of the densely detailed narrative and
multiple plot lines that would feature heavily in Watchmen. Panel
backgrounds are often crammed with clues and red herrings; literary
allusions and wordplay are prominent in the chapter titles and in V's
speech (which almost always takes the form of iambic pentameter, a
poetic meter reliant on five pairs of syllables, the second syllable of
each pair being more stressed than the first; its most famous usage has
been in the many works of Shakespeare).
V reads Evey to sleep with The Magic Faraway Tree. This series is the
source of "The Land of Do-As-You-Please" and "The Land of TakeWhat-You-Want" alluded to throughout the series.
[edit]
Anarchism versus Fascism
The two conflicting political viewpoints of anarchism and fascism
permeate the story. [5] The Norsefire regime shares every facet of
fascist ideology: it is highly xenophobic, rules the nation through both
fear and force, and worships strong leadership (e.g. the führerprinzip).
As in most fascist regimes, there are several different types of state
organisations which engage in power struggles with each other yet obey
the same leader.
The fascist regime embraces total corporatism. An important aspect of
corporatism is the total identification of society with state, and to think of
society as a body where the different institutions are organs. This is
reflected by institutions named after parts of the body: the detective
branch of the police is The Nose; the surveillance organizations are The
Ear and The Eye; the uniform branch of the police is The Finger (and
those who work for them are called Fingermen); and the state-controlled
media is known as The Mouth.
In creating this system of control, Moore provocatively evokes
mainstream English political thought, namely Thomas Hobbes'
Leviathan, which imagined the state as one vast corporate gestalt, with
its legitimacy founded on the need to maintain order and prevent
indiscriminate violence (as was hinted at in the Norsefire backstory).
The sovereign formed the natural 'head' of the society, which perhaps
explains the anatomical nomenclature of the various arms of state
government.
To keep this body healthy, fascist ideology prescribes cleansing it of
unhealthy elements (i.e. the motto Strength Through Purity), thus, the
totalitarianism and concentration camps. In issue #5, Delia Surridge
recapitulates the Milgram experiment as explanation of why ordinary
people, such as she, engage in such obedience. The connection to
Anglican Christianity and Purity Through Faith is a typical feature of
clerical fascism in Roman Catholic countries (i.e. southern France of the
Vichy regime 1940-44, Spain under Francisco Franco 1939-75, the
Independent State of Croatia under Ante Pavelić 1941-45, and Austria
under Dollfuss and Schuschnigg 1933-38); such a form has taken hold
specifically in England where, in reality, the Church of England (The
Anglican Church) is 'established' with the Queen at its head and the
state. This explains why, in story continuity, violent anti-Norsefire
rebellion engulfs the non-Anglican parts of the United Kingdom (e.g.
Scotland).
The anarchism proposed by V is classic and built specifically around the
ideas of Mikhail Bakunin, who is often associated with the idea that the
old society has to be torn down before a new one can be built upon its
ruins. In issue #2, V has a fictional dialogue with Madame Justice and
concludes that anarchy has taught him that "justice is meaningless
without freedom", a phrase which closely parallels similar statements by
Bakunin:
“
Freedom without Socialism is privilege and injustice and Socialism without freedom is
brutality.[6]
Several anarchist (or similar) traits encountered are related to 1960s
counterculture. V's tactic of humiliating and ridiculing the fascist regime
to destabilize it is like the ideas of the Situationists. In issue #8, the
phase between fascism and anarchy is called Verwirrung, a German
word meaning "confusion", but used here as reference to The
Illuminatus! Trilogy (Book One of the trilogy is so titled). It also may be a
direct reference to Discordian philosophy in general, as many other
aspects of the series (chaos, the creative arts, anarchism, and the
obsession with the number "5") draw similar parallels. An aspect of
1960s counterculture was the idea that domestic partnership and its
legal forms can constitute a power imbalance between two people
where one controls and dominates the other. This is exemplified by the
relationships of Mr. and Mrs. Almond as well as Mr. and Mrs. Heyer, but
this aspect is not developed theoretically.
[edit]
Identity
V himself is something of an enigma whose history is only hinted at.
The bulk of the story is told from the viewpoints of other characters: V's
admirer and apprentice Evey, a sixteen-year-old factory worker; Eric
Finch, a world-weary and pragmatic policeman who is hunting V; and
several contenders for power within the fascist party. V's destructive
acts are morally ambiguous, and a central theme of the series is the
rationalisation of atrocities in the name of a higher goal, whether it is
stability or freedom. The character is a mixture of an actual advocate of
anarchism and the traditional stereotype of the anarchist as a terrorist.
Moore stated in an interview:
...the central question is, is this guy right? Or is he mad? What do you, the
reader, think about this? Which struck me as a properly anarchist solution. I
didn't want to tell people what to think, I just wanted to tell people to think and
consider some of these admittedly extreme little elements, which nevertheless
do recur fairly regularly throughout human history.[7]
Moore has never clarified who V supposedly was, beyond stating "that
V isn't Evey's father, Whistler's mother, or Charley's aunt"; he does
point out that V's identity is never revealed in the book. The ambiguity of
the V character is a running theme through the work; it is left for the
reader to determine for himself whether V is sane or psychotic, hero or
villain. Before donning the Guy Fawkes mask herself, Evey comes to
the conclusion that V's identity is unimportant compared to the role he
plays, making his identity itself the idea he embodies.
This lack of personification through a fixed identity has also been
construed as a way of creating an "Everyman" character, reinforcing the
examples of personal responsibility taken throughout the book. This
"Everyman" character is further illustrated through the use of Evey, a
young, insecure, uneducated person, slowly evolving into "V".
[edit]
Number 5 and letter V
There are numerous references throughout V for Vendetta (both
potentially intentional or unintentional) to the number 5 and letter V,
which is itself "5" in Roman numerals:
The title of each chapter begins with the letter V.
The character V is seen reading and quoting from Thomas Pynchon's
novel, V.
Beethoven's fifth symphony is used by V and noted for the prominent
use of three short notes and one long, which is the Morse Code
identifier for the letter V (this code was used as a call sign by the
BBC during World War II, most famously in the sense of V for
Victory).
V is identified as the prisoner from Room V at Larkhill Internment
Camp.
V's hideout is accessed from the closed Victoria tube station, the
damaged sign of which resembles a sideways V when Finch
locates it.
V's personal motto consists of the Latin phrase Vi Veri Veniversum
Vivus Vici (By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered
the universe) - five words that begin with the letter V. V mentions
the origin of the phrase is Faust.
Guy Fawkes Night happens on November 5.
The government consists of five branches which are identified with the
five senses.
At Larkhill, V is injected with Batch "5".
V's last word, at the end of the series, starts with a V.
Much of V's dialogue is in Iambic Pentameter.
[edit]
Adaptations
[edit]
Music
David J of the band Bauhaus and Love and Rockets, who has
collaborated with Moore on other projects, recorded a version of V's
song "This Vicious Cabaret" and other music inspired by the book,
which appeared on an EP titled V for Vendetta. According to David,
Moore proposed the idea for him to compose music for a set of lyrics
that made up an entire chapter of the novel. Within an hour of receiving
the lyrics, David had composed the music for the entire chapter.
Pop Will Eat Itself also included several references to V for Vendetta on
their 1989 album This is the Day...This is the Hour...This is This! - the
song Can U Dig It?" includes the lyric "we dig V for Vendetta" and the
chorus finishes with the line "Alan Moore knows the score". Another
track, "The Fuses Have Been Lit", includes references to "the voice of
Fate" and "The Land of Do-As-You-Please".
The progressive metal band, Shadow Gallery took its name from V's
hideout, as admitted in their website's FAQ. They also have an album
named Room V, another obvious reference.
Progressive nineties Brit-pop band Jocasta wrote the song "The Land of
Do-As-You-Please" on their 1997 album release, No Coincidence,
released by Epic/VP music. Referenced throughout the song is V's
television speech to the British population, and the book he reads to
Evey.
The Spanish metal and hip hop band Def Con Dos has a song titled "V
de Vendetta" included in their 1991 album Tercer Asalto.
7th Son, a Las Vegas based metal band, wrote a song called "V" or "V
for Vendetta" and used to have an alternate logo that was an adaptation
of a V for Vendetta movie poster.
Now-defunct Raleigh, NC based punk band The Trepanators had a
song called "V", whose lyrics were mostly comprised of the famous
nursery rhyme repeated throughout the story and film ("Remember,
remember, the fifth of November...").
British rock band Vicious Cabaret took its name from V's song "This
Vicious Cabaret".
[edit]
Theatre
The Swedish production company Stockholms Blodbad staged a live
theatrical adaptation of the comic in 2000 under the title Landet där man
gör som man vill, which translates into The Land where you do as you
please.
[edit]
Film
The first adaptation of V for Vendetta ever filmed for the screen is one
of the scenes in the documentary feature film The Mindscape of Alan
Moore and was shot in early 2002. The dramatization contains no
dialogue by the main character, while the Voice of Fate is used as an
introduction.
Main article: V for Vendetta (film)
A feature film adaptation was released on 17 March 2006, directed by
James McTeigue (first assistant director on The Matrix films) from a
screenplay by the Wachowski brothers. Natalie Portman stars as Evey
Hammond and Hugo Weaving as V together with Stephen Rea, John
Hurt and Stephen Fry. John Hurt, who played the renamed High
Chancellor Adam Sutler in the film V for Vendetta, also played Winston
Smith in the 1984 film adaptation of George Orwell's novel, Nineteen
Eighty-Four. Originally slated for a 5 November 2005 release, to
coincide with Guy Fawkes Night and the 400th anniversary of the
Gunpowder Plot, it was postponed until March, possibly due to the 7
July 2005 London bombings, although producers denied this was the
reason.[8]
Alan Moore, however, distanced himself from the film, as he has with
every screen adaptation of his works to date. He ended cooperation
with his publisher, DC Comics, after its corporate parent, Warner Bros.,
failed to retract statements about Moore's supposed endorsement of the
movie.[9] After reading the script, Moore remarked:
"[The movie] has been "turned into a Bush-era parable by people too timid to
set a political satire in their own country… It's a thwarted and frustrated and
largely impotent American liberal fantasy of someone with American liberal
values standing up against a state run by neoconservatives—which is not
what the comic V for Vendetta was about. It was about fascism, it was about
anarchy, it was about England."[10]
He later adds that if the Wachowskis had wanted to protest what was
going on in the United States, then they should have used a political
narrative that spoke directly at the USA's issues, similar to what Moore
had done before with Britain. The film changes the original message by
arguably having changed "V" into a freedom fighter instead of an
anarchist. An interview with producer Joel Silver suggests that the
change may not have been conscious; he identifies the V of the comics
as a clear-cut "superhero… a masked avenger who pretty much saves
the world," a simplification that goes against Moore's own statements
about V's role in the story.[11]
Co-author and illustrator David Lloyd, by contrast, embraced the
adaptation.[12] In an interview with Newsarama, he states: "It's a terrific
film. The most extraordinary thing about it for me was seeing scenes
that I'd worked on and crafted for maximum effect in the book translated
to film with the same degree of care and effect. The "transformation"
scene between Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving is just great. If you
happen to be one of those people who admires the original so much
that changes to it will automatically turn you off, then you may dislike
the film—but if you enjoyed the original and can accept an adaptation
that is different to its source material but equally as powerful, then you'll
be as impressed as I was with it."[13]
A novelization of the film's screenplay was written by comic writer Steve
Moore (no relation to Alan Moore).