V for Vendetta

In V for Vendetta, Alan Moore creates a world deprived of many freedoms and pleasures set in a futuristic totalitarian England. Living in a fascist government, the humanity has endured repression and restriction. The concepts of resistance and revolution come forth throughout the book thru a single character, V. Struggle for rights and freedom heightens and ignites with the protagonist’s, V, actions and words. It is thru his story that the reader understands the oppression and cruelty behind an authoritarian government. When V talks with Evey we learn that the government would take anyone who was different: Black, Pakistanis, and homosexuals. In search for strength, the government has turned to unity and therefore removed anything that caused change or made individuals unique. In the book, V portrays revolution as revenge just as the title itself suggests. Since the beginning, the murders committed were not directed towards the head of the government but those who were involved with V’s past. Seeing the pain, anguish, and torture endured by the victims in the resettlement camp, the reader understands how V suffered the full injustices of the government. In the book, V compares the society to a company as they become the workers and the government the management. He stirs the community and awakens them to realize what they have allowed for many years by telling them they have neither spine nor pride. V utilizes violence to oppose the government and calls for action from the people. He mentions, “You gave them the power to make your decisions for you.” By calling for action and reinforcing power to the society he fills them with strength to stand up and fight for what they believe and rights. Yet by hiding his identity and strategizing killings creates and idea of terrorism and insanity which causes fear to the people.

            By having a series of images displayed to the reader, the illustrator and writer have a better way to enhance and clearly convey their ideas and the moods behind them. In the passage in which Evey helps V by going to see the bishop, Tony Lilliman, the illustrator creates a series of moods of anxiousness and forewarning. The passage changes scenes from what’s happening between the bishop and Evey arriving, to V, to the guards and how they all come together. The changing of scenes with the background voice of the bishop reading a religious piece on each scene intensifies the effect of anticipation. The bishop speaks of an evil which adds to the images of V attacking the guards and heading for him. The sense of anxiousness continues as the reader learns from bits thru the investigators voice recordings of what happened when V poisoned the bishop with a communion wafer. Here the illustrator played with how the story is unfolded as the reader learns what occurred along with the investigators. Thru this use of images the writer can clearly demonstrate to the reader the mood the characters feel and the tone of the setting.