< V for Vendetta

V for Vendetta/Characters


Main Characters

V

The main protagonist is an Anti-Hero that nevertheless goes by very idealistic anarchist creeds. Appearing as a dark figure in a Black Cloak and wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, V's real name is just as unknown as his face that is only described by Dr Surridge as being "pathetically ugly". Swearing to bring down the repressive order that now rules England, he builds the Shadow Gallery with art pieces he saved from destruction and uses it as his headquarters. From then on, he patiently and skilfully destroys various symbols of power, disrupts Norsefire's orwellian surveillance system and emits subversive tracts and TV appearances.

A Warrior Poet, V is a philosophical, eccentric yet generally unflappable man with a quirky sense of humour that even his protégée has a hard time getting.

Later, we learn that V is actually a codename taken from his room number - 5, which is "V" in the Roman numeral system - back when he was jailed in the concentration camps that were created by Norsefire to "purify" the state. After being chosen with 4 other prisoners to undergo some terrible tests on human beings, he becomes incredibly intelligent, strong and agile, and burns down the whole camp, setting himself free along with many other prisoners.

After taking Evey in and raising her as an heiress, V meets his fate at the hands of Eric Finch and dies in the arms of Evey, leaving her with some last words and instructions, making her swear to never see his face but to understand what he stood for.

Evey Hammond

A 16 year-old girl who was saved in extremis by V from the bloodthirsty "Fingermen", the state's police force. V then takes Evey in the Shadow Museum and becomes her mentor, educating her according to his anarchistic beliefs. A gentle, naive but temperamental girl Evey, is intrigued by her mentor but initially agrees to stay under his wing, shielded in the Shadow Gallery. She then tries to learn more about him but he evades her and eventually leaves her out in the outside to fend for herself.

She meets Gordon Dietrich who eventually takes her in and becomes her lover. After Gordon's murder at the hands of Allistair Harper, V recaptures Evey right before she exacts revenge on Harper. Finding herself jailed, Evey is put through exactly the same treatment as V, back in the concentration camp and almost loses her mind. This is where she meets Valerie, apparently an inmate who lives next to her room, and learns about her story and the reasons that put her in the concentration camp.

Evey eventually fathoms what V tried to make her realize and takes her place as his successor, taking in Dominic Stone as her own successor.

Eric Finch

The main antagonist of the series is an officer from Scotland Yard, now renamed "The Nose". Melancholic, somewhat jaded, Eric Finch is still determined to find and punish V, even more since the death of Delia Surridge. Otherwise without ambitions and rather pragmatic, he simply believes that order is better than chaos.

Still, by the end of the series, he experiences a total catharsis and understand what atrocities were committed by Norsefire. And, though he kills V, he no longer desires to serve the government and walks away tranquilly from a now freed London.


The Norsefire Government

Commander Adam Susan

The cold, merciless and dictatorial head of the state is in fact a derisory and deluded man who has long fallen in love with the Big Brother-like computer that controls the entire administration of his country: Fate.

Failing to connect to his people, he believes that there is no place for freedom in this world. But despite his stance and apparent insensitivity, he totally falls apart when he realizes that V himself has hacked inside Fate and has been recording all the information that passed through it. Devastated, Commander Susan tries to find solace in his people, only to be shot dead in the head by the vengeful Rosemary Almond, who blames him for having destroyed her life and that of her husband.

  • Asexuality
  • A Date with Rosie Palms: He masturbates to the the Fate supercomputer.
  • A Man Is Not a Virgin: Averted. He is.
  • Cybernetics Eat Your Soul
  • Evil Is Petty: In the film, he offhandedly abuses his power to put the 1812 Overture (the music V played while destroying the Old Bailey) on the blacklist, simply because "[He] never wants to hear it again"
  • Machine Worship: The Fate supercomputer is the only thing he truly loves. Mixes elements of Cargo Ship in with the worship.
  • Necessary Evil: In the film, after a year of failing to catch V, he tells his propaganda machine not to make people think the Norsefire government is wonderful and blameless, but to remind the people "Why they need us". It doesn't work.
  • President Evil
  • The Aloner/ It's All About Me: He is a solipsist, he believes that only he, god, and fate are real.
  • The Evils of Free Will: Believes that individual freedom and personal liberties are dangerous and frivolous and seeks to replace them with a uniformity of thought, word, deed and purpose.
  • Those Wacky Nazis: Alan Moore was obviously inspired by Hitler when he wrote Susan.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Upon seeing that Fate has been hacked in by V.

Derek Almond

The alcoholic, uptight and high-ranking Director of The Finger doesn't figure prominently in the story but his death is a major catalyst to the story of his wife, Rosemary. Being one of the most powerful men in a totalitarian government apparently turned him into an abusive, ungrateful and violent husband to his yet gentle and faithful wife.

Upon trying to stop V from killing Delia Surridge, he didn't realize that he forgot to charge his pistol and ends up killed by V.

Roger Dascombe

The smart-mouthed and mocking director of The Mouth, which oversees propaganda and media in Britain. In the film adaptation, he appears to be a cynical man who is a part of Norsefire only to increase his own power.

In the novel, he is used as a decoy by V and is shot dead by the army after they investigate the Mouth, which V had infiltrated to promote his own agenda.

Conrad Heyer

The good-hearted but weak-willed director of The Eye, the government's surveillance section, is also the Henpecked Husband of the ruthless Helen Heyer who uses him as a means to an end.

Not featured prominently either but he gets his own moment of glory upon beating Allistair Harper to death for sleeping around with his wife, something he discovers when V sends him the videotape of his wife having sex with Harper.


Peter Creedy

The Director of The Finger after Almond's death. His role in the movie is expanded massively, to the point of becoming The Dragon and even a Big Bad at the end.

The Larkhill Three

Lewis Prothero

The former commander of the concentration camp Larkhill, Prothero has gone on to become a political pundit with a state-sponsored TV show in the film.

In the novel, he acts as "The Voice Of Fate", a radio program that passes off as Fate's actual voice to relate the various happenings of the country and give the news flash to the population. His very particular voice allowed him to do this.

  • Complete Monster: So very much. His favorite part of serving at Larkhill was walking among the inmates and hand-picking the subjects for human experiments. Even the other personnel at Larkhill hated him.
  • Confirmation Bias: In-Universe, His "TV show".
  • Cruel Mercy
  • Dirty Coward
  • Fat Bastard
  • Laser-Guided Karma: Although V doesn't kill him, he ends up literally crazy and unable to speak.
  • Miles Gloriousus: He often likes to play up his Military service, making himself out as a hero. In reality, he was a sadistic bully who got a kick out of beating on innocent people.
  • Moral Myopia: He cares far more about his doll collection than he did about the people he tortured at Larkhill. And seeing the dolls burned in the same ovens where he roasted people makes him lose his mind.
  • Mouth of Sauron: In the novel.
  • Psychopathic Manchild: His Doll collection and his often petty and immature personality (Firing a technician for making his nose look big and being mentioned as always needing to get his way in the film) turn him into this.
  • Speak of the Devil: In the film. While Prothero showers, he watches himself on TV, ranting and wishing he could meet "the terrorist" face-to-face. He then turns around, and finds V smirking at him.

Archbishop Anthony Lilliman

Once a priest in the Larkhill camp (he provided "spiritual support" for the guards) he is a child molester and now promoted to Archbishop of the Anglican Church.

Dr. Delia Surridge

The Chief Medical Officer of Larkhill, she did human experiments on the prisoners. After Larkhill's destruction, she became consumed by guilt over what she had done. She used to be in a relationship with Finch.

Supporting Characters

Rosemary Almond

The gentle, demure but abused wife of Derek Almond. After his death, she is left to fend for herself, the Government refusing to give her any pension for being an official's widow. She resorts to going out with the sleazy Roger Dascombe, only to lose him as well. She is eventually expelled from the high society she used to acquaint with and ends up being a showgirl to support herself. Blaming the Government for having ruined her life and her marriage, she decides to murder Commander Susan herself and shoots him in the head when he greets her without even recognizing her. She was probably killed afterwards but is only shown being battered by the Fingermen.

Helen Heyer

The scheming, arrogant and domineering wife of Conrad Heyer, in stark contrast to Rosemary, is a Magnificent Bitch who plans to take control of Norsefire through her husband, with her being the power behind the throne.

Manipulative, fairly attractive and extremely shrewd, she uses bribery and sex to get men to do her bidding and is pretty good at it. Still all her plans go awry when V understands her intentions and sends a videotape of her screwing with Allistair Harper to Conrad. She then leaves her heavily wounded husband to die, showing her true colours. She is then reduced to sell her body to survive, after being rebuffed by Eric Finch.

Dominic Stone

A sergeant at the Nose and Finch's sidekick.

Valerie Page

An unseen character (besides some clips on a movie screen) that is only talked about throughout the novel. A lesbian actress who gained substantial acclaim in her day, she was among the people that were first taken to the Larkhill concentration camp. She was actually V's next door cellmate and sent him a letter written on toilet paper explaining her life and why she was sent to the camp with him. Avenging her is V's main motivation. She was subjected to the same human experiments as V, but didn't survive it.

Gordon Dietrich

Alistair Harper

A vicious Scottish crook who starts off as a player in the Black Market, he and his men are recruited by Creedy to be Creedy's private side army, a group of thugs who can do anything without being obviously linked to the government. Creedy has fond dreams of using the force of the Fingermen and Harper's thugs to push himself to the head of the government.

Unfortunately for Creedy, Harper is also working for Helen Heyer, who pays better.

  • Black Market: Appears to more or less control what we see of it.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: Implied to have inflicted one on Creedy, who pleads for a quick death. Harper refuses, saying "I wouldn't waste the bullet" and goes to work with his knife instead.
  • The Dragon: To Creedy. In the overall power structure, probably closest to being The Brute.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Has a superficial layer of charm, but there is a very nasty and cruel bastard hiding beneath the surface.
  • Knife Nut
  • The Starscream: Soon after Creedy recruits him he agrees to serve as Helen Heyer's mole within Creedy's organization, then she makes it plain that he'll be head of the Finger if anything should happen to Creedy...
  • Violent Glaswegian: Although he is more clever and self-controlled than is normal for this trope, he is a Scotsman with a mile-wide violent streak, so still counts.
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