V for Vendetta

V for Vendetta is a graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated mostly by David Lloyd, set in a dystopian future Britain where a mysterious anarchist works to destroy the fascist government and profoundly affects the people he encounters.

About the book

The series is set in a future Britain where, in the chaos following a limited nuclear war that left the country mostly physically intact, a fascist one-party state has arisen. It resembles the Nazi regime?including government-controlled media, secret police, and concentration camps for racial and sexual minorities?but with a British cultural flavour, and a greater reliance on technology, especially closed-circuit television monitoring in the mode of George Orwell's 1984. (CCTV had not yet become common in the UK at the time Moore wrote the series.) When the series begins, political conflict has ended, the death camps have finished their work and been closed, and the public is largely complacent, until "V"?a terrorist and self-proclaimed anarchist, who wears a Guy Fawkes mask and has an improbable array of abilities and resources?begins an elaborate, violent, and theatrical campaign to bring down the government.

Related Topics:
Nuclear war - One-party state - Nazi - Concentration camp - Sexual minorities - Closed-circuit television - George Orwell - 1984 - Terrorist - Guy Fawkes

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V himself is something of a cipher, whose history is only hinted at; it is strongly suggested that he is physically and mentally abnormal. The bulk of the story is told from the viewpoints of other characters: V's admirer and apprentice Evey, a world-weary policeman who is hunting V, and several contenders for power within the fascist party. V's destructive acts are morally ambiguous, and a central theme of the series is the rationalization of atrocities in the name of a higher goal, whether it is stability or freedom. The character is a mixture of an actual advocate of anarchism and the traditional stereotype of the anarchist as a terrorist and advocate of anarchy in the sense of chaos.

Related Topics:
Anarchism - Anarchy

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The series was Moore's first use of the densely detailed narrative and multiple plot lines that would feature heavily in Watchmen. The backgrounds of panels are often crammed with clues and red herrings; literary allusions and wordplay are prominent in the chapter titles and in V's speech (which also often takes the form of iambic pentameter).

Related Topics:
Watchmen - Iambic pentameter

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The structure of the book also bears a strange resemblence to Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera, with several direct parallels. The Shadow Gallery doubles for the Phantom's Lair, and Evey's abduction and education mirrors that of Christine Daae's.

Related Topics:
Gaston Leroux - Phantom of the Opera - Christine Daae

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