V for Vendetta is about an anarchist man who
attempts to destroy the fascist dictatorship due to its several ways to control
people’s lives. However, this man’s face
is never shown since, whenever he appears, he is wearing his mask. That’s why V
does not only represents the figure of a man wanting to take revenge of the
damage they have caused him and lots of other people, V represent an idea, a
powerful concept.
The main point that called mi attention was the
issue of identity throughout the whole narrative. V's identity is represented in many ways in the book. We can interprete the V letter every time he appears to the public and in his destructions as a clear symbol of his identity. But one of the most important aspect to consider is that we, as readers, never have the opportunity to confirm whether this character is actually a man
or a woman, since the book does not even mention or imply it. Even when V is
not wearing the mask, his face is never shown.
Besides, the story of his past is quite fuzzy, and the
book only implies that he calls himself “V” as well as the Roman numeral V,
since that was the number of the room in which he was during the experiment that caused many people's death. But, appart from that, we cannot go beyond that information.
In an interview, Alan Moore stated the
following:
“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.”
In other words, he wanted us to carefully analyze
the ambiguity of this character and decide whether V is actually a hero or a
villain, a normal or an insane man. However, at the end of the book there is an important moment when Evey considers to unmask V after his death, but then she realized that the ideal that he represented for, or the role that he played in this society along with each of his actions, outweigh the importance to know the identity of the man who was behind the the mask, the concept of revenge, justice and freedom.
Chris, M. (2012). Quicklet - V For
Vendetta. Hyperink: http://www.hyperink.com/Quicklet-On-V-For-Vendetta-b260
MacDonald,
Heidi (2006). "A for Alan, Pt. 1: The Alan Moore interview". The
Beat. Archived from the original on 2006-04-04. http://web.archive.org/web/20060404210249/http://www.comicon.com/thebeat/2006/03/a_for_alan_pt_1_the_alan_moore.html.
Retrieved 2006-04-06.
Macarena, I have also very briefly mentioned this aspect in my entry and although it was not as developed as yours, I've found a lot of information regarding this and I think what the author tried was to go beyond V as a man and represent an idea through V which I consider is the anarchy in opposition to the other ways of administration (capitalism, communism, etc) but understood as a subversive system in which everyone is the owner of their own destiny and not as a chaotic disorder as Moore stated in other interview given on Anarchism. In fact, as the author strongly believes in that idea in order to run the world, I think V represents it and as ideas don't die, neither anarchism nor V would die and actually that's a part of the novel in which V says "ideas are bullet proof", hence, I find myself in accord with you in the sense that I also believe that more than V's identity, face and past what really matters are the concepts that he represents, which obviously go beyond his or her human figure.
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ResponderEliminarMacarena, I enjoyed reading your comment about V's identity. Besides, your comment is pretty much related to mine. Answering the statement about Orwell, V can be viewed either way (hero or villain). V's procedures are anarchist and basically like a terrorist's, but the greater aim of freedrom and balance give the impression to dominate his outrageous behavior.
ResponderEliminarIn addition, it can also depend on what side are you. Perhaps this can sound silly or absurd, but if you are in favor of that kind of governmentm of course he would be a villain. On the other hand, if you share some of his convictions or some of those beliefs have been hurt by the government: he is a hero. If we take a look at "Batman" we can see that for The Gotham people he's a hero, but for the police he increases anarchy leading him to a villain.
Another thought that comes to my mind is that perhaps he was a hero by being a villain. So, at the end, with all the information offered on the Internet plus the comic, it's up to you to come up with an answer.
I believe that that is the beauty of this character; we are left with the decision whether V is a male or a female, if he/she is the bad guy or the good guy, if what he/she does is because of the right or the wrong reasons. WE are the ones to interpret this. But does this really matters?
ResponderEliminarAfter thinking a lot about it, as I briefly mention this identity issue in my post too, I came to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter what the identity of V is, the only thing that matters is that, after reading this graphic novel, are we going to take V’s stand in some way regarding our lives? Or maybe regarding the system we are immersed in? Did we learn something from V’s ideology? What’s right? What’s wrong? Can I do something to make things better? Will I?
This does not mean that from the second we finished the book we will become anarchists and will spend the rest of our lives marching and fighting the system, but we certainly have to fight for what we believe in and what we think is worth fighting for, of course.