Schwendeman 1

Hannah Schwendeman
Jen Malone
English 242 B
12 December 2012
V and the Leader: Hero and Villain Unraveled
He leaps off buildings! He blows up Parliament! He wears a cape! At the beginning of
Alan Moores graphic novel V for Vendetta, we assume V is the hero; he is wearing a mask and
saving an innocent womans life while quoting Shakespeare. Meanwhile, we assume that the
Leader is the villain as he is the head of a fascist government, ruining London with his
controlling agenda. But as the plot continues these ideas become muddled as V is inserted into
more and more morally ambiguous situations, murdering and eventually torturing citizens of
England for his own personal gains. Then, we see what the Leader has relinquished in order to
serve his cause, even if it is a fascist cause. We become sympathetic, because all the Leader
wants is someone (or something) to love him; his humanity strips away the idea of the villain.
Then, we realize that the two figures are incredibly similar in their relationships to their ideals
and in their personality. As the Leader and V continue to look more identical, the labels of good
and evil become disarrayed until they are utterly useless. The novel mirrors V and the Leaders
lives, philosophies and positions in order to force readers to question their definitions of hero and
villain, good and evil, because in reality these ideas are not so black-and-white.
The first few pages of V for Vendetta present both V and the Leader in their stereotypical
roles as hero and villain, leaving little room for ambiguity. When we first meet V he is saving
Evey from a horrifying group of policemen who are planning to rape her while quoting Macbeth;
he is spectacular, powerful, and immediately a hero figure. Evey treats him like Superman,
exclaiming Youyou rescued me! Like in a story! I dont believe it! (13). The imagery, the
spectacle, the cape, and the final moments of blowing up Parliament all add up to someone far
more than human, a hero. Right after V saves Evey, we meet the Leader, who is facing away

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from the reader in a powerful chair in a dark room. Once again, the imagery evokes power, but
the sort of power that is held by an evil man. He is consistently alone, merely monitoring the
world instead of living it, unlike V who is always right in the action. Later, he yells at Mr.
Almond, looking positively inhuman with black eyes, a rage-filled voice, and a gaping mouth.
Here, the Leader is never out of the shadows and is cast as the stereotypical antagonist to Vs
heroic position. This chapter in which the reader is introduced to V and the Leader is entitled
the Villain, a label that seems easy to place at first as one character flies off buildings and
another runs the world from his commanding throne. Exactly who this title is meant for becomes
a difficult subject as the novel continues and these initial impressions are slowly muddled.
As the plot progresses, V commits a series of murders that cause the reader to doubt his
motives and position in the novel. In just the second chapter, V hops onto a train and kills several
government officials, leaving them in the car along with his symbol for the police to find. These
men appear to be murdered at random, solely for spectacle. When Mr. Finch investigates, he
exclaims that V slaughtered them like cattle! (24). This scene is not Vs most heroic moment,
but those men were pawns of a corrupt government and probably deserved it. Next, V
assassinates a priest with a poisonous host. This event chips away at his hero image, but the man
was an immoral, child molesting priest so maybe he deserved it, right? Later (after several more
murders), V imprisons Evey in the same conditions he faced at a concentration camp, torturing
and starving her for days without reason. She is ragged, bald, and sickly by the end of this
treatment, accepting death. Obviously, no hero, no right minded human could put someone
through this kind of situation; here, V is cruel and insane with a warped sense of justice. Then,
Evey becomes transformed, and V explains he did it because I love you. Because I want to set
you free (167). She experiences a resurrection, naked and sacred, and suddenly the
imprisonment seems minor, almost justified. With each incident, the moral ambiguity is

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heightened as V not only murders the enemy, sometimes arbitrarily, but also tortures those who
trust him. All these events cause the reader to suspect that their original impressions of V may
have been wrong, but do not entirely break down his hero image as he continues to dance
between good and evil.
The incredible similarities between these two seemingly opposing characters are brought
forth as the motivations and philosophies of the Leader and V are placed side-by-side. Initially
we see the Leader, utterly alone in several scenes as he gets out the car, as he walks through
hallways, and sits down in front of the Fate computer. Through these frames, the Leader is
discussing his position, and the loneliness it brings, saying I sit here within my cage and I am
but a servantI have so very much. I have so very little (38). He depicts the selfless leader,
who gives up his life to serve his country in the best manner he can. At the same time, his
motivation appears to be an infatuation with the Fate computer, explaining I worship her though
I am not worthyI am her slave (38) and later proclaiming his love for Fate. These few pages
present the Leader as a noble, but mentally unstable man. On the next page, V begins his
conversation with Lady Justice, a discussion where he plays both parts. He states that while he
used to love Lady Justice, he knows she has had an affair with a soldier, Vs manifestation for the
fascist government. V feels that Lady Justice has betrayed him by aligning herself with the
fascists; he claims that she is no longer his Lady Justice but anothers, as though the very idea
she embodies had been altered by his government. Then V explains that he too has been seeing
another woman, stating Her name is anarchy. And she has taught me more as a mistress than
you ever did (41), demonstrating that Vs society has caused him to turn away from a structured
justice and accept lawlessness instead. Once again, the reader receives the image of a proud, but
crazy person who forms intimate relationships with ideals. In these few short pages, we are told a
great deal of information about these two characters. Firstly, that they are incredibly alike in their

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devotion to their values with the Leader fully embodying the fascist philosophy and V
personifying chaos. This dedication is manifested in a similar manner as each figure expresses
their ideologies through inanimate objects. Neither V nor the Leader is conversing with an actual
person in this chapter, but speaking directly to their ideals as the Leader worships the Fate
computer and V talks to the statue of Lady Justice. The text parallels these two seemingly
contrasting characters to demonstrate how similar the Leader and V are; both are profoundly
dedicated to their ideologies and transfer this dedication to objects, both are in positions of
enormous power, and both are at least slightly insane (if not completely demented). In essence,
we are shown that although their core philosophies are different, their personalities and
expression of these ideologies are incredibly similar.
The parallel between V and the Leader continues as each are killed in almost identical
situations just frames apart; however, even in death, these characters roles remain ambiguous.
The Leaders death is almost tragic as he is killed right when he attempts to regain human
contact. When Rosemary is walking up to the Leaders car to assassinate him, he says while
extending a friendly hand So niceso nice meeting someone (234); these are his final words
before he is shot pointblank. Such a sympathetic end is certainly uncharacteristic for someone
who is supposed to play the villain. A page later, the scene of Vs death is anything but heroic as
he is shot by Mr. Finch in a dank subway alley, trailing blood away from the scene. For such an
important moment, there is no spectacle, no grand finale. Neither dies the way we might have
expected when the novel began; there is no showdown or climax between the Leader and V. Both
individuals die in an unceremonious manner with their roles undefined to the bitter end.
Despite his affinity for anarchy, V is just as controlling as the Leader. While V is giving a
tour of his home, he showcases a room filled with televisions monitoring London, the same
cameras that his fascist government utilizes to spy on citizens. V has been fighting against this

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fraudulent system, but he uses the exact same technology for the same purpose as his supposed
enemy. Throughout the novel, it seemed that V would completely overhaul the current structure
and bring freedom back to London. Here, we cannot help but wonder if London would be any
better off with V as its head. Once again, the actions of the Leader and V are mirrored as each
spies on society for their own gain. This spying completely detracts from Vs heroic image
because it shows that like the government, V does not trust the citizens of London. Although V
has been preaching about chaos and the beauty of lawlessness, he seems to follow the same
regimented patterns as his fascist government, demonstrating that V may not be the answer to
Londons problems, as we previously assumed.
At first, V and the Leader are obvious in their roles in the novel: protagonist and
antagonist. But the text slowly bends these ideas as V tortures and murders while the Leader
wishes for love. The uncertainty of these characters role brings forth the question: is V any
better than the Leader? Is any hero better than their villainous counterpart? From a graphic novel,
perhaps we expected a simple hero vs. villain, costumed man vs. evil doer kind of plot. V for
Vendetta turns this black-and-white story on its head, initially providing a simple identity for V
and the Leader then slowly but surely causing these labels to be doubted until the ideas of good
and evil seem utterly useless. For all his imagery and spectacle, V is not a hero and despite his
fascist rule, the Leader is not a villain. To place such definitions on these characters is to strip
them of their complexities. V for Vendetta creates such morally ambiguous characters to
demonstrate that in the real world, no one can be so easily labeled as good or bad. We live in a
world of grey areas, where no one is the villain and no one is the hero, not even a man leaping
off buildings in a cape and mask.

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Works Cited
Moore, Alan, David Lloyd, Steve Whitaker, and Siobhan Dodds. V for Vendetta. New York:
Vertigo/DC Comics, 2005. Print.