Dare or not to dare?

Dare or not to dare?

Dare or not to dare?

V v/s Winston Smith. Some might say that there is no way of comparing them. The first one despises the system and wants his vendetta, the second one also despises the system, however, he works in it (Ministry of Truth) and he doesn’t want any vendetta, he gets to question his current situation as a citizen of Oceania but he never actually acts towards fixing what he thinks is wrong. Although it is difficult for Winston to do something about his current situation because he actually works for “Big Brother” and they are all under “constant surveillance”, it is also difficult for V, since all the characters that he is looking for have a “high” role in society.

Let’s start with Winston. He strongly disagrees with the oppression that Big Brother through the different ministries has on people. “DOWN WITH THE BIG BROTHER” he writes in his diary, knowing the consequences of it if he was to be caught by the Thoughtpolice. His ideals are reflected somehow upon his actions. He is interested in knowing more about the Brotherhood and he even involves with O’brien, a man who deceived him making him think that he was a member of this Brotherhood but later turned out to be a loyal member of the Inner Party. Added to this, he rented a room above Mr. Charrington’s shop, who is a member of the Thoughtpolice. Where I want to finally get is when Winston is tortured and is forced to face his “worst nightmares” in room 101. “‘You asked me once’, said O’brien ‘what was room 101. I told you that you knew the answer already. Everyone knows it. The thing that is in room 101 is the worst thing in the world.” (Orwell). Once Winston leaves room 101, after being tortured in all sorts of ways, he finally loses everything human inside him. He becomes part of the mass, his critical thinking or repudiation to injustice had been left behind due to his suffering. Big Brother had won. “But it was alright, everything was alright, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother” (Orwell). What can a man do against this kind of oppression? From my point of view, not much.

As for V, we don’t know much about his identity but the kind of tortures he had to endure are well described. His torture was the thing that unchained his thirst for justice, unlike Winston, his torture made him sit quietly and follow the system without question. While V seeks vengeance upon those who tortured him back at Larkhill, he also seeks to awaken people in London, make them realize the apathetic life they live. For that, symbolically V blows public buildings, so as to remark the repudiation towards the established and to cause a reaction on regular people. For me, this is daring. This can be labeled as following your ideals. V doesn’t care about dying, as long as he fulfills his purpose. He knows that his work will transcend and will be set as maybe an example to follow. This is why we don’t care about V’s true identity. All we care about in the end is his ideas.

To sum up, at least for me, the big difference lies in the fact of daring or not daring. We might keep our own ideals even in a context in which fear has taken everything from us, even our thoughts on a better life. People are not important, because we are expendable.What really matters are our ideas, because ideas transcend and are bullet proof.

References

Moore, Alan y David Lloyd. «V for Vendetta.» DC Comics, 1989.

Orwell, George. «1984.» 1949.