Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Alan Moore's V for Vendetta. Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.
V for Vendetta: Introduction
V for Vendetta: Plot Summary
V for Vendetta: Detailed Summary & Analysis
V for Vendetta: Themes
V for Vendetta: Quotes
V for Vendetta: Characters
V for Vendetta: Symbols
V for Vendetta: Theme Wheel
Brief Biography of Alan Moore
Historical Context of V for Vendetta
Other Books Related to V for Vendetta
- Full Title:V for Vendetta
- Where Written:London, United Kingdom
- When Published:September 1988-May 1989.
- Literary Period:Postmodern Graphic Novel, Cold War Science Fiction
- Genre: Postmodern Graphic Novel, Dystopian Science Fiction
- Setting:(A dystopian vision of) London, England, 1997-1998
- Climax:Evey Hammond’s decision to become V
- Antagonist:Adam Susan, the Leader / Peter Creedy / Helen Heyer
- Point of View:V for Vendetta is a comic book or graphic novel, meaning that the usual distinctions between first, second, and third person don’t exactly apply to it. At times the captions voice the characters’ inner thoughts (i.e., first person), while the corresponding panels show scenes the characters don’t have access to (i.e., third person omniscient). Elsewhere, the captions establish the date and time of the action (third person omniscient), while the panels show events from a particular character’s point of the view (first person). In this way, Moore blurs the line between the third and first person.
Extra Credit for V for Vendetta
Hollywood? No Thanks: Alan Moore comic books have been adapted as Hollywood films on many occasions: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Watchmen, From Hell, and, in 2006, V for Vendetta. While Moore was paid for selling the film rights to all of these comic books, he has distanced himself from every film based on his work. Of the cinematic adaptation of V for Vendetta, he said, “It’s a thwarted and frustrated and largely impotent American liberal fantasy of someone with American liberal values standing up against a state run by neoconservatives—which is not what the comic V for Vendetta was about.”
Viva la revolution: V for Vendetta has had a major influence on radicals and revolutionaries across the world, and the Guy Fawkes mask in particular has become a symbol of resistance. During the Occupy Wall Street movement of the late 2000s, thousand of protesters wore Guy Fawkes masks as they protested the American financial system. In Egypt and other parts of the Middle East in 2011, demonstrators wore Guy Fawkes masks as they marched against their governments. V would be proud.