V for Vendetta: Revolutionary or Madman?
In the Alan Moore/David Lloyd graphic novel (and subsequent James McTeigue film) V for Vendetta, a 1984-like totalitarian government is created as an alternate history version of Great Britain. Thought and individuality are discouraged, as the military police go around suppressing any kind of behavior (homosexuality, political dissidence, etc.) and place people in camps. The sole leader of the revolution is a shadowy figure known only as "V", a man wearing a Guy Fawkes mask who speaks only in iambic pentameter. While he is enigmatic, one may wonder whether or not he is insane as well. Are his motives purely for the freedom of the people who live under this regime, or is he a madman who seeks to sow anarchy and chaos? Though his methods are mysterious and strange, and he is most certainly mentally damaged and traumatized by his experiences under Norsefire, I argue that V ultimately wishes for freedom and a restoration of liberty to the people of England.
V's primary modus operandi is taken from Guy Fawkes, a revolutionary whose Gunpowder Plot was the inspiration for V's own work. V models his own actions around Fawkes' failure to blow up King James I on November 5th. V's own culminating event takes place on the fifth of November, marking this parallel. With this in mind, he wanted to tap into the public consciousness and remember what Guy Fawkes did - trying to depose a Protestant king with his daughter. By identifying himself with this heroic revolutionary, V became a symbol for everyone who was oppressed by Norsefire and needed things to change. "He is all of us," Evey says to Finch at the end of the film; this is meant to show that V acted as a surrogate for the oppressed, the undesirables, who met with persecution and death at the hands of the regime. With that in mind, V does not necessarily want anarchy for his people - simply freedom from oppression.
V's relationship with Evey Hammond (played by Natalie Portman in the film) may also seem at first to be vaguely insane, and not unlike The Phantom of the Opera. It is revealed at the end of the film that V is in love with Evey, and so that might have influenced the things he puts her through. He places her in a cell in order to "free her of her fear," to get her to understand the things that are at stake if they do not act. Sneaking her the letters that Valerie Page, a lesbian who was tortured and killed by Norsefire, wrote, Evey begins to recognize the true evil of the regime. This reeducation of Evey, without her consent, arguably makes V no better than Norsefire; however, the reason V acts the way he does is to do these nasty things so that no one else has to. The sacrificial element of V is very evident in his death scene, where his body is sent down the Underground tunnels with explosives to blow up Downing Street, an amazing sight that reveals his plans for his people to the world.
In conclusion, the character of V from V for Vendetta does not want anarchy - he just wants to protect all those who are disenfranchised by the Norsefire regime. He adopts the Guy Fawkes personality to help people "remember, remember the fifth of November," and he sacrifices his own life to achieve these goals.
Works Cited
Itzkoff, Dave. "The Vendetta Behind 'V for Vendetta'". The New York Times, March 12, 2006.
Print.
McTeigue, James. (dir.) V for Vendetta. Perf. Hugo Weaving, Natalie Portman, Stephen Rea.
Warner Bros. Pictures, 2006. Film.
