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.

Plot

Volume 1: Europe After The Reign

Consists of: Chapter One, The Villain; Chapter Two, The Voice; Chapter Three, Victims; Chapter Four, Vaudeville; Chapter Five, Versions; Chapter Six, The Vision; Chapter Seven, Virtue Victorious; Chapter Eight, The Valley; Chapter Nine, Violence; Chapter Ten, Venom; and Chapter Eleven, The Vortex.

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London, 1997. V rescues a young woman, Evey Hammond, from a gang of police agents?known as "Fingermen"?who are about to rape and kill her as punishment for her attempts to solicit them. After blowing up the now-closed Houses of Parliament, V takes Evey to his secret lair, which he calls "the Shadow Gallery". Evey tells V her life story, describing the nuclear war of the late 1980s, and the fascist coup in which her father became a political prisoner.

Related Topics:
Houses of Parliament - Coup

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The investigation into the bombing is assigned to Eric Finch, an experienced investigator who serves the government out of a love of order rather than political conviction. Through him we meet other figures in the corrupt Party, including the Leader, Adam James Susan, a recluse who is fixated on the police state's computer system, "Fate".

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V next blows up the The Old Bailey, and confronts three Party figures to accuse them of past crimes: Lewis Prothero, the propaganda broadcaster who serves as the "voice of Fate"; Bishop Lilliman, the Party's representative in the clergy; and Delia Surridge, a seemingly apolitical doctor who had a personal relationship with Finch. Through torture, and the destruction of his collection of dolls, V drives Prothero insane after killing the others. Finch's research reveals that all three victims were officers at the infamous Larkhill Resettlement Camp, and that over the previous several years, every other staff member from the camp has been killed, apparently by V?the vendetta of the title. V is the only survivor of the camp, and no records exist of his real name. All that is known is that he was subjected to medical experiments in the camp, similar to those of Josef Mengele, which apparently caused V's transformation into a brilliant and obsessive avenger.

Related Topics:
The Old Bailey - Propaganda - Vendetta - Josef Mengele

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Volume 2: This Vicious Cabaret

Consists of: Prelude; Chapter 1, The Vanishing; Chapter 2, The Veil; Chapter 3, Video; Chapter 4, A Vocational Viewpoint; Chapter 5, The Vacation; Chapter 6, Variety; Chapter 7, Visitors; Chapter 8, Vengeance; Chapter 9, Vicissitude; Chapter 10, Vermin; Chapter 11, Valerie; Chapter 12, Verdict; Chapter 13, Values; and Chapter 14, Vignettes.

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Six months later, V breaks into the broadcast centre for the Party, to broadcast an anarchist speech that calls on the people to take charge of their own lives; he escapes by a cruel and fatal ruse, which leads to Eric Finch being suspended.

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Evey has developed a strong attachment to V but also begun to challenge his morality. After a confrontation in the Shadow Gallery, she finds herself abandoned on a street, unable to find V. She is taken in by Gordon, a petty criminal, and they cross paths unknowingly with Rose Almond, the widow of a policeman killed by V; Rose has been forced to work as a burlesque dancer and has consequently developed a strong hatred for the Party. Creedy, a petty criminal-turned-leader of the secret police, begins organising a private militia, hoping to use V's destabilization of the Party to mount a coup against the Leader. V, maintaining surveillance on all of these various factions, appears to be manipulating them against each other.

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When Gordon is murdered by a gangster in Creedy's employ, Evey attempts revenge but is arrested, detained, and tortured. In her cell, Evey finds the memoir of a former inmate, Valerie, an actress who was imprisoned for being a lesbian. Evey's interrogator gives her a choice of collaboration or death; inspired by Valerie's defiance, she refuses to give in, and is told she is free. Her imprisonment was a hoax constructed by V, to put her through a spiritual ordeal like the one that shaped him. He reveals that Valerie was another Larkhill prisoner, who died in the cell next to his; the memoir that Evey read is the same one that V read, reconstructed from memory. Evey's anger gives way to acceptance of her new identity.

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Volume 3: The Land of Do-As-You Please

Consists of: Prologue; Chapter 1, Vox Populi; Chapter 2, Verwirrung; Chapter 3, Various Valentines; Chapter 4, Vestiges; Chapter 5, The Valediction; Chapter 6, Vectors; Chapter 7, Vindication; Chapter 8, Vultures; Chapter 9, The Vigil; Chapter 10, The Volcano; and Chapter 11, Valhalla. The series also includes two interludes, Vertigo and Vincent.

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November 1998. V destroys the Party's communication and surveillance centre (housed in Post Office Tower), spurring a wave of wanton violence and hedonism which is violently suppressed by Creedy's street gangs. Meanwhile, V notes that this is not the end result he wants?mere chaos in The Land of Take What You Want?but rather a interim period which he intends to follow up with the establishment of true anarchy, a voluntarily orderly society. Finch's assistant Dominic realises that V has had access to the the Fate computer since the very beginning, explaining his seeming foresight; this news accelerates the mental collapse of the Leader.

Related Topics:
Post Office Tower - Chaos

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Finch travels to the abandoned site of Larkhill, on the Wiltshire Downs, where he takes LSD. His hallucinations lead him to an intuitive understanding of V, and returning to London, he discovers that the Shadow Gallery is hidden in Victoria Station, part of the abandoned Underground network. Finch enters the underground and mortally wounds V, who escapes to die in Evey's arms. Evey chooses not to learn V's identity, but to assume it, donning one of his spare costumes. Meanwhile, Rose Almond's private vendetta has led her to assassinate the Leader. In the ensuing chaos, Creedy's own men kill him, while Finch reports the news that V is dead. When Evey appears to the crowd as V, a general insurrection begins.

Related Topics:
LSD - Hallucination - Victoria Station - Insurrection

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Evey completes V's final terrorist act, the destruction of 10 Downing Street by giving her mentor a "viking funeral" with an explosive-laden Underground carriage containing his body set to detonate at the desired location. She rescues Dominic from the mob and takes him back to the Shadow Gallery, implying that she intends to train him as her successor. Finch observes the anarchy raging in the city before heading to the countryside. All forms of authority in Britain are now gone; its future is left uncertain.

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