a complete summary with everything you need to get a good grade on a test about V for Vendetta. With chapter summaries, an explanation of the title and why it fits the chapter, chapter timeline and important things per chapter, all the more common characters explained, important places and attacks ...
, Book OneEurope After The
Rain
V for Vendetta the story of V’s personal revenge.
Chapter one: The villain
A villain is someone who participates in or devoted to crime (a person who is just generally evil). In this chapter the fingerman can
be seen as evil since they try to rape Evey. V calls himself evil in chapter one and the fingerman see V as something evil to, but V
does save Evey from being raped which also makes him a hero the opposite of a villain.
Timeline
V and Evey are getting ready (separately) while the radio of the voice of fate is playing in the back.
Evey enters the world of prostitution.
She approaches someone to make some money, but they turn out to be fingerman (the secret police).
The fingerman try to rape her.
V shows up and stops the fingerman from raping Evey. Killing three of the fingerman, two do survive.
V and Evey watch as London’s house of parliament explodes. They also see the fireworks that come right after the explosion
(in the shape of a v). Both were orchestrated by V.
Later the surveillance forces report to the Norsefire governments leader Adam Susan. The people reporting are Conrad Heyer,
Brian Etheridge and Eric Finch.
Adam Susan instructs Derek Almond to meet with Rodger Dascombe at Jordan tower to fabricate propaganda to explain the
bombing.
Easter eggs or Important things
Page 9: There is a picture of a camera with a sign that says, ‘for your protection’. That means that the citizens of London are being
watched every second of the day.
Page 10: There is a big contrast between the beautiful dress described on the radio and the one Evey is putting on.
Page 10: On the radio they say ‘this is the face of London’ with a picture of Evey in the same picture.
Page 11: On the poster that is near Evey when she gets raped, is a written text of the exact opposite of what is happening in the
story. ‘Strength through purity, purity trough strength.’
Page 12: V quotes Mac Beth (a hero on the battlefield).
Page 12: End of the quote V says ‘till he faced the slave’ exactly when he stands before Evey. Meaning that Evey can be seen as a
sort of slave of the government, because she has to do everything for the government and follow their rules.
Page 14: The quote of remember remember the 5th of November and the fireworks all lead back to the tradition that started after
Guy Fawkes tried to blow up parliament.
Page 14: The government control everything up to the last second. You can see that because in the beginning of chapter one hey
predicted it would rain at 12:07 and it did start raining the exact minute it became 12:07.
Book One Title: Europe After The Rain, refers to what is left of Europe (England being one of the only European countries left) after
the Rain (the war or the nuclear bombings)
Panopticon: behaving better because you know ou are watched.
Chapter Two: The Voice
The voice can be connected to Lewis Prothero. He is the original voice of the fate state radio (the voice of fate). The state radio is
one of the ways they can control their citizens, by spreading lies, hope, propaganda and other stuff necessary. Also having a voice
can help you express something and will get you heard. Letting their people have a voice is irrelevant to the Norsefire government.
Timeline
Starts of with Lewis Prothero doing the voice of fate and spreading propaganda about the explosion of the parliament (they
pretend fate is a person by letting Lewis talk for it. It is actually more of a computer/AI).
Derek Almond and Rodger Dascombe comment on Lewis his doll collection.
V brings Evey to the Shadow Gallery (his home). It is full of eradicated books, music, art and films.
Lewis Prothero is in a train with a few others.
V attacks the train, and he kidnaps Lewis Prothero.
Mr. Finch head of government police says that if he is going to crack the case of the disappearance and the explosion he
needs to get in the head of the suspect, which scares him a bit.
,Easter eggs or Important things
Page 18: In V’s home plays the song ‘dancing on the streets’ it is a civils rights anthem. Therefore, forbidden to listen to.
Page 18: In V’s library one books stands out, it is a book on the French revolution. The government banned it, to not give people
inspiration to go against them.
Every sort of music is censored except for military songs.
Chapter Three: Victims
Victims are people who are harmed, killed, injured or helpless. This happens a lot in V for Vendetta because many people get killed
by fingerman/V. The whole of London is oppressed and are therefore victims of the government.
Timeline
Mr. Finch Finds a violet carson (a sort of rose) thought to be extinct.
He also sees a V sign on the wall of the train. Something V left behind for him find.
V asks Evey to talk about the nuclear war, the Thames that busted and her mother’s death and the rise of the Norsefire
government
Evey talks about how the Norsefire government brought back order, but wiped out anyone undesirable: black people,
immigrants, gays and radicals (including Evey her father, he got taken away on her 12th birthday).
Lewis Prothero wakes up in a uniform near a fake resettlement camp.
Mr. Finch and the Leader talk about V and the abduction of Lewis and who can do the propaganda in his place now that is in
unavailable.
Evey says to V it is them against the world.
Easter eggs or Important things
Page 18: The rose Mr. Finch finds on the train is a symbol of a better world.
The abduction of the Lewis Prothero is a very strategic move, because the voice of fate is a big part of the government’s
propaganda distribution. Therefore, is it an unescapable thing in the lives of the people of London (they are forced to listen to it
every day). When V kidnaps Lewis, the consistency of listening to the radio every day will be broken, because he is not there to
speak for the fate computer. That leaves the government weaker because they can not spread their propaganda. V’s assault on the
media is pointed critique on the role of the media in their society.
As the government tries to explain away the destruction of Parliament, the idea of control as a veneer is introduced. As long as the
government can convince the population that the state has power and control, they maintain it. If that image of stability is damaged
and the cracks are made visible, the hold over the people weakens.
Chapter Four: Vaudeville
Vaudeville is een populair muziektheater met liederen dat ontstond op basis van het Franse improvisatietoneel (it is caberet).
Timeline
V simulates a scene from Larkhill for Lewis Prothero (he served as its commander and worked ovens for corpses).
They do a tour of inspection and Lewis sees his dolls dressed as prisoners.
V shows Lewis the medical compound (the place where they held experiments on the prisoners).
They stop by room 5 (roman letter five so V). Lewis remembers it was v that was locked in that room.
V burns all of Lewis his dolls in the ovens (that he used to work at).
V gives Lewis Prothero back and a security guard finds him lying on the ground.
Derek Almond tells Rodger Dascombe that they have found Lewis Prothero, but he is not himself anymore (he is deranged).
Easter eggs or Important things
Page 34: you can see room 5 where V was held. The roman letter for the number 5 is V, so that is where V got his nickname.
Chapter Five: Versions
You can have different versions of something, but you can also become a different version of yourself. That is what happens to V in
this chapter he becomes a different version of himself, one more drawn to anarchy than justice.
Timeline
Leader Susan praises fascism, the Nordic race, he denounces freedom and individual liberty and speaks of his love of Fate
(the supercomputer that runs the state).
V speaks to The Old Bailey (a statue meant to symbolize justice). He scorns “Madam Justice” for falling in line with fascists
and then blows up the statue.
At the Shadow Gallery, V and Evey come up with a way that Evey can help with V’s plans.
, At Westminster Abbey, Bishop Anthony Lilliman, speaking for the state, warns people about a dark force that is approaching
and reinforces Britain’s.
Easter eggs or Important things
Page 37: The people do the same greetings to Adam Susan as they did to Hitler during World War II.
The iron statue at the Old Bailey courthouse Lady Justice (statue represents the solidity and constancy and dependability of law to
ensure justice). However, the oppressive laws applied by the Norsefire government render the statue into a symbol of injustice.
That is why V destroys the statue as a symbolic attack on the so-called justice the state mandates.
“O Beauty, ’til now I never knew thee” In the Shakespearean play, this phrase is spoken by King Henry VIII when he takes the hand
of Anne Boleyn for the first time. Anne was Henry’s second wife and lover. If we consider the context of V for Vendetta, we find
striking similarity in progression of history where Anarchy is V’s second love. Justice was V’s first love, but afterwards, he found
justice to be biased. In his dialogue with Justice, V mentions his admiration for Justice from a distance, believing in both the
physical and ideological beauty that she seemed to personify (V for Vendetta, 40). However, V reveals that he has found the truth
of Justice, “you always did have an eye for a man in uniform (V for Vendetta, 40)”. V claims that Justice is biased towards those
who control and run it, the authorities – the men in uniform. V further alludes to Justice as the biblical Israeli queen Jezebel, for her
manipulative and scheming immorality.
Chapter Six: The Vision
In this setting with everything V is trying to accomplish The Vision can mean the vision V imagens for the future of London or the
vision of the fate computer.
Timeline
Derek Almond and his wife Rosmary are talking with Conrad Heyer and his wife Helen about V and his attack on the old bailey.
The bishop Anthony Lilliman talks with someone about his speech, he also thought it was a bit much, but the fate computer
decided that he needed to say those things in his speech.
The bishop (a serial pedophile) takes a teenage girl into his chambers, unaware that his latest victim is Evey, operating under
V’s direction.
V is taking one of the Violet Carsons that he grows in the shadow gallery and takes it with him.
Dennis the right handman of the bishop talks to the extra fingerman stationed outside the church. They talk about the VIPs of
the state needing more protection.
Easter eggs or Important things
Page 48: V is referencing a poem by William Blak when he is picking a rose in preparation for his murder of the reverend, he
begins reciting the last two verses of the poem. "Bring me my Chariot of Fire". The significance of its placement in the graphic
novel is because it suggests that V himself is a Chariot of Fire, in that moment in the graphic novel, he is preparing to rescue Evey
from rape perpetrated by the reverend. Even more so, V is a Chariot of Fire for all of England itself. He is the force that is carrying
the people of England out of the tyranny of Norsefire.
Chapter Seven: Virtue Victorious
Virtue means ‘behavior showing high moral standards. Evey does not have those in this chapter because she aids V in his plan of
killing the bishop. Victorious means ‘winning something.’ V obviously succeeds in his plan to kill the bishop, so he is victorious.
Timeline
Evey opens the widow so V can get in.
V kills the guards standing outside of the bishop’s place.
The bishop instructs Evey to take her dress of, but instead she hits him with a lamp and runs away.
V confronts the bishop and while he does that, the people in the ear can hear him through the video camera’s but they cannot
see V.
Easter eggs or Important things
V quotes a song of the Rolling Stones, another banned musical group—and takes on the form of an ironic “devil,” attacking and
delivering justice to the supposedly and moral Bishop.
You can see the hypocrisy of the entire Norsefire society in this chapter because everyone seems to know that the bishop Lilliman
is a pedophile, and yet nobody does anything about it.
Chapter Eight: The Valley
a low area of land between hills or mountains, typically with a river or stream flowing through it.
Timeline
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