Sandip Malhi L6NS IB English SL

V for Vendetta Book 1 Review:

Character Analysis

is introduced to the reader as a complex character to build a judgement on; he is first seen as a heroic figure for saving Evey (meaning she could be a damsel in distress) from the corrupt finger-men, however he seems to have kidnapped her, transporting them both to his headquarters. Chapter 1, where this action takes place, is titled The Villain. Does this mean V is the villain or is it the finger-man who tries to rape Evey? This ambiguity adds to the mystery what sort of character V is. Vs actions are confusing because it shows multiple sides of him (hero or villain), and as a reader, to understand a character one must distinguish his type of character to understand the plot more. Therefore this mystery man intrigues the reader to continue reading in order to find out what sort of persona V possesses and how his numerous personalities contribute to the novel. Firstly, V is initially shown as a random figure on the first page walking towards a mirror backstage of a theatre which would suggest he could be quite theatrical and artistic, which is further supported by the fact he wears a mask and costume, which are common objects found in the theatre. Other interpretations could suggest that V is hiding his true identity for a multipurpose one reason is that he does not get caught by the government when he performs his terrorist actions, such as blowing up the Houses of Parliament. It could be said that the specific image of his costume is a regeneration or reincarnation of Guy Fawkes (who nearly 400 years before tried to enact a Parliament bomb scare). Another reason why V may be wearing the costume is for support and comfort of what is hiding underneath the mask and possibly V has had a traumatic past experience by which he needs to hide his face and body. V is artistic and appreciates the arts of life like literature (in particular his collection of numerous books of Shakespeare on page 18), films, fine art and music such as Dancing in the Streets. This vast cultural and philosophical knowledge possibly increased his intellect, which is shown by him creating explosives and the ability to hack computers. During the scenes when Evey attempts to seduce a finger-man, he is seen quoting lines from MacBeth such as on page 12 he says But alls too weak for brave MacBethwell he deserves that name. As well as an artistic individual he could be quite intellectual too reciting Shakespeare, as interpreting Shakespeare can be quite difficult in the modern era, but this creates an eerie or mystique scene as one would not expect this. A major theme in the book is vigilantism and whether V is anarchist or liberal (a freedom fighter). Judging by his revenge to attack members of the government who worked at Larkhill concentration camp where he was forced to live in harsh conditions, it is seen that V is a murderer. On the other hand his violence (through martial arts) was only aimed at specific individuals involved in the concentration camps such as Lewis Protheroe and his abduction from the train, Bishop Lilliman and his molestation actions towards young women (and so fed a poisoned wafer) and Dr Surrage and her experimentation to prisoners in the camp. V may be campaigning for freedom in the fascist society, which is similar to Nazi Germany, shown by the quote on page 19, they eradicated some cultures more thoroughly than they did others. Meaning that coloured people and all celebratory cultural customs were removed or censored representing the extreme society the UK is living in giving an excuse to some of the characters bizarre personas thus allowing V to combat against this evil. Alan Moore may be using V and his beliefs for freedom as a metaphor for the development of the Cold War which was based on two major conflicting ideologies (capitalism versus communism), but in the case of the novel is it anarchism versus fascism and since the book was released in 1981 could be used as a subtle tactic to message the world that the government need to do something drastically against the Soviet Union. This subtle suggestion could be shown by Eveys story

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about Soviet Russia and its nuclear war (which during the 1980s was a dangerous time as the bridge for nuclear war was nearly closing in). It could be said that V is a sociopath, unable to let out any deep emotional feelings or sympathy towards Evey, Lewis Protheroe or other characters. However these feelings may be hidden behind the mask and the tough exterior as a way of enforcing his anarchist beliefs, and that his hard exterior was formed by the lack of sympathy he received when he was tortured at Larkhill. V is viewed as superhuman which was caused by Batch 5 in the concentration camps meaning he has developed advanced strength, reflexes, endurance and pain tolerance. However he is shown to have affection and emotions when an image of him crying is shown on page 86 when watching images of a woman, possibly a woman he loved up till this point he is seen to be spineless and cold, which is a great cliffhanger Moore uses to evoke the reader to continue reading the next book about how his emotions are conveyed onwards. Over time, Vs philosophy of life when he discusses his killings show that he does think about what he is doing, and he does not have a heart of stone. He talks to himself after a dispute with Evey on page 64, there is more behind and inside V than any of us had suspected. This could mean that V has many other layers which are not shown at the surface but beneath which could be interpreted as his feelings he feels man-slaughter is monstrous but it needs to be done in order to be heard and gain true freedom. Furthermore, there is juxtaposition: where V is trying to tackle problems going on in the country, he is also creating problems for other people such as Evey by keeping her underground in his home locked away. Book 1 shows Vs introduction to his character and the types of situations he gets involved in to overthrow the government; in the end, Vs main purpose may have been to gain an apprentice or successor when he dies, which ends up being Evey, a young vulnerable girl who he may be able to easily indoctrinate. Finally the readers are shown that this is possibly caused by Batch 5 and his psychiatric breakdown has led him to have a magnetic personality allowing himself to control other individuals by drawing them in, using his eyes. Examples of this are when abducting Evey, or pretending to be positive feedback in the research of Dr Surrage. However, this could be suggested by Moore that women can be a little gullible and easily convinced by men in the society.

vey is the first character introduced in the graphic novel (and one of the only female characters). Perceived as a lonely innocent girl from her initial image, it is quite ironic how her facial expression looks quite upset despite the voice of fate commenting good news that the country is in good supply of food. This unexpected twist by the literary device, irony, puzzles yet interests the reader to find out why Moore has shown this specific panel and how this image leads onto the story. It is later discovered that due to the loss of Eveys parents and the situation she has been left in (poverty), it has led her in desperate measures to become a prostitute. Her character is further established as young and vulnerable when she looks up to V on page 12, as though V is a ray of hope. Her character begins to build a relationship with V, and this trust builds when she begins to understand him a bit more to an extreme it could be said that this is Stockholm syndrome, where she tries to express empathy towards her captor. However this may be Vs plan and Evey is slowly being indoctrinated by V to show a possible state-control-free world she could be living in. She trusts him enough to reveal the story of her parents and her past: a contemporary reader would view this as an unrealistic world due to the extreme nature of elephant extinction and the disappearance of London by the Thames and that some facts such as a President Kennedy were non-existent during the 1980s. The reader could say that Evey is introduced as one-dimensional and that she is a needy and forlorn girl. However she unravels her many layers and complexities when she stays and relies on V and has an active involvement in his schemes (such as the Bishop Lilliman murder). Later she makes a realisation that she has done wrong when V convicts her of helping his schemes: and as for me involving you, I seem to remember that you were the one anxious to make a

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deal. This could show that she is indecisive of what she wants but this is typical of every teenager of what they want to gain and become later in life. Eveys complexity and her aid to helping V could suggest that she is becoming a side-kick; her trust in V is broken when she discovers his sinister nature however she is still nave not to realise the purpose behind this murder. She can be seen as immature where she disputes with V and her body language shows how she storms off. Evey is simultaneously hardened, dependent and risk-taking, nave and educated, all in a way that is not so much complex as confused because none of these characteristics can be successfully integrated into a single personality. David Lloyds images also help the reader understand what Evey is like. Lloyd portrays her to be a distressed young girl who may be a little youthful, therefore using the stereotypical blonde haired blue eyes image. Images later enhance this image of Evey to be quite provocative when she plots against the bishop: such as on page 50 when Eveys cleavage is shown. This may be how Lloyd wants us to view this universe: it is male-dominated in a fascist world therefore women must be more promiscuous in order to gain attention. This scene also shows us that religion and religious male figures are also corrupt and that sex is used for the wrong reasons when he tries to rape Evey. Evey is seemingly no more than a woman in the wrong place at the wrong time before she gets swept up in events beyond anything she had ever imagined. She soon finds herself deeply involved in Vs complex plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, and as that happens she also begins to discover the man behind the mask, a tortured soul seeking vengeance against those who betrayed him and others like him, in the past, and unsurprisingly she develops strong feelings for him.

ther characters have minor roles, having fewer lines than the two main characters; most of these characters have governmental posts. Government figures are seen in the novel to be the root of evil by introducing the political ideology of fascism, removing homosexuals and those from other background other than whites. What is confusing and ironic is the fact that Dascombe still keeps his job despite his flamboyant and gay personality and speech he uses. This possibly shows the corruption that the government keep up to retain the best workers in government. That, or Dascombe cleverly keeps his sexuality in the closet when speaking to men of higher authority in the workplace in order to keep his job and sanity. It can definitely be said that his body language can be interpreted as gay seen by his body language on page 16 and his spoken discourse is written as oooooh and w-e-l-l-l which is quite gossipy talk, usually found between female speakers. Dascombes character is not fully development until he has more active involvement in Book 2. Lewis Protheroe could be seen as the first major antagonist of the book when it is discovered he was a leader of the Larkhill Concentration Camp which he kept V in. It was quite unusual to discover He collects dolls. You know. Wouldnt think it would you? Big man like that collecting dolls. Hes sensitive. This brings another layer to the harsh exterior of bossy Mr Protheroe, voice of fate; psychologically, it could suggest he is unable to produce real sentimental feelings towards humanity and has an artificial love towards plastic and porcelain not to flesh and blood: giving the reason why he allows the numerous deaths and experiments take place at Larkhill. This metaphor for artificial love is a bigger idea that the government do not really care for the people and will only reward them if they are alive in this case when Mr Almond dies Mrs Almond has no compensation leaving her to suffer. This also may be a gender equality issue that Mrs Almond remained a housewife as most women were deemed to be lessequal than men and so they have no experience of work. Back to Mr Protheroe, Vs destruction of the dolls is his revenge on the new fate. The use of close-ups enhances the facial expressions to show the audience the distress Protheroe goes under as well as the speech such as noooooooooooo. His lexis begins to change using words such as please instead of the

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usual imperatives he demands, which shows an ironic role-reversal that the government are only strong if united, which is Adam Susans belief. Adam Susan also has a materialistic life for machines. Moore creates an extended metaphor that society is dependent on technology to survive (like the BBC and computers); however they cut peoples social lives and so locks down their emotions a modern example of this is Facebook. Instead of Adam Susan speaking to an individual in real life, a nonsense political speech such as Adolf Hitlers, using a powerful choice of words and ideas to describe on what to do with the country, changes into a dramatic monologue; his hard word and determination to create change in the country could be a cause of his sad life. His nonsense monologue is aided by the images progressing to an unknown object/person (climax) in his speech intriguing the reader to read more. In the end he becomes over passionate on fate: the computer (or Voice of Fate) instead of a real human being. That is to saywhy can we not fall in love with our machines nowadays? It certainly is not right to most people however the machine has taken over his life and so he treats the computer verbally and physically like his partner such as on page 39 he says My love, I would stay with you forever, would spend my life with you. Dr Surrage is a late but important character in Book 1 presented as the only other major female role in a male-dominated society; it is a shock to the reader she has gained a prestigious job as a scientist due to the unbalanced gender-equality regime. Not said to be a bad character, she only had self-interest for her medical research however the fact her diary states she did tests on humans shows herself to be a complex character. Disliking Protheroe could give her a new light and likeability from the audience as well as the fact she can be a sympathetic woman (is this the case of all women?) but in the end she ends up having a taste of her own medicine when injected and killed by V. She is not entirely sympathetic as she uses humans as opposed to rats in Larkhill, but this is to speed up the process and accurate results of research. All in all her character is complicated and needs discovering more. It could be said that her appearance is quite masculine and so this is represented by her personality, but still her femininity is shown when V overpowers hers, like Evey, drawing you into a relationship using his eyes of a magnetic personality. Overall governmental figures are portrayed to be extreme and insane, except for Mr Finch (where V in Book 2 represents his respect for this good man). Characters such as Mr Almond, Dr Surrage, Lewis Protheroe have numerous sides where the readers is entertained whether by having sympathy of the humour of Vs revenge taken on by V. V and Evey are shown to be the major two characters to develop a plot and this is to introduce complex issues, events and themes in the later books.

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