Voila! In view a humble vaudevillian veteran cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of fate. This visage is no mere veneer of vanity is a vestige of the vox populi now vacant to vanish. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. [laughs] Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honour to meet you and you may call me "V."
What impression are we supposed to get from this introduction? How does this help us to think about whether we are supposed to like him or not?
After the Old Bailey is blown up, Chancellor Sutler and his advisors "sit" in a conference. What is the significance of the fact that Sutler appears on a screen instead of in person? Why does he appear larger than everyone else in that room? And what are we to make of his short monologue?
Gentlemen, this is a test. Moments such as these are matters of faith. To fail is to invite doubt to everything we believe, everything that we have fought for. Doubt will plunge this country back into chaos and I will not let that happen. Gentlemen, I want this terrorist found and I want him to understand what terror really means. England prevails.
This relates to a question I raised in class today: why is it bad to have negative emotions about our government?
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Towards the end of the segment that we watch, V and Evey have this conversation:
Evey: Can I ask about what you said on the tele?
V: Yes.
Evey: Did you mean it?
V: Every word.
Evey: You really think that blowing up parliament is going to make this country a better place?
V: There's no certainty, only opportunity.
Evey: I think you can be pretty certain than if anyone does show up, Creedy will black-bag everyone of them.
V: People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.
Evey: And you are going to make that happen by blowing up a building?
V: The building is a symbol,as is the act of destroying it. Symbols are given power by the people. Alone a symbol is meaningless but with enough people blowing up a building can change the world.
Evey: I wish I believed that was possible,but every time I see the world change is always being for the worst.What we see here are two opposing views on the possibility of changing the government. V is convinced that he can effect a positive change, but Evey says that change is never good, at least not from her experience. How do their respective characters reflect their opinion on changing the government? On whose side are we supposed to be?
I would argue that having negative emotions against our government is not a bad thing. If someone has negative emotions about their government then they are obviously upset with something the government is doing. According to John Locke the government's main purpose is to serve the governed, and if man has negative emotions towards the government then the government needs to change to better accommodate its people. This is why governments across the world are always changing.
ReplyDeleteI personally love the was V introduces himself. You would have to be very clever and somewhat sarcastic to come up with something like that. If you go through it carefully you notice that he tells her what he is all about, what he is against and what he wants to do, although I'm pretty sure she didn't know what he was trying to say. The fact that he is very proper and polite at the same time as being mysterious and clever makes me like his character a lot so far.
ReplyDeleteEvey is the "peaceful protester" and V is more of the "radical" violent type. Both bring in two different views of how to change the world/society. I think V's way of change is much more impacting and even a lot more interesting. Even though the watcher maybe couldn't come up with his ideas I think the watcher is on his side because he is so interesting, and I think Evey will eventually change to be more like V.
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