Portfolio Essay 3

Huanxi Zhang

ENG113B TTH

Jeffrey Klepper

Dec.13.2013

Evey in V for Vendetta Analysis

There are a number of different parts between V for Vendetta film and graphic novel. Though they both involve repressive governments that monitor their citizens’ behavior, hunt after any voice of resistance. Both governments control the media, and enforce their tyrannies with terror-inducing branches of themselves. And, most importantly, both involve an encounter with the horrifying that tests the value of truth. This is embodied in Evey Hammond. In this character, the creator of each film and graphic novel reveals his opinion of the resilience of the human spirit and its thirst for truth in not exactly same ways.

The difference is a difference of emphasis in film and graphic novel, which deals with the resilience of human determination. Evey Hammond and her respective torture experiences typify this. On the other hand, reached a point where her knowledge of what was right and true outweighed any torture or death she might face. For her, denial was worse than death or anything else. Sure, one could argue that the first two differences were factors that added to her resolution. Or it could be said that her torture was not as severe.

"Remember, remember, the fifth of November. Gunpowder, treason and plot. I know of no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot." (14)

This story is talking about the future of the British scene, when turmoil in the world, while the British controlled by the dictator Adam Sutler, led by authoritarian governments to limit their freedom of speech, control public opinion, creating panic, developed a curfew, and the clandestine manufacture virus weapons and whatever is in the living body to do experiment. Secret police monitor air as the people with anything, any immigrants, Muslims, homosexuals and opposition parties, who had the plague or sent to concentration camps would die, the people under the dictatorship of silent resentment at Sutler, tends to numb.

Evey is not introduced as a would-be teenage prostitute, although she is supposedly on her way to a sexual encounter with Gordon Deitrich when she is caught and nearly raped by Fingermen during the city curfew, being subsequently rescued by V. And the background of her family is changed. In the film, she has an older brother who is killed by a virus that was secretly developed from the experiments on V and other inmates at Lark Hill. Her parents become political activists and participate in anti-government protests. The Hammonds are arrested by the Fingermen and die in Belmarsh prison. Evey's last memory of her mother is of watching her head being covered by a black bag as she is dragged away. Suddenly orphaned, Evey is sent to a child reclamation camp, "re-educated" and released back into society.

In the comic book series, V abandons Evey after he kills Lilliman; in the film, she runs away from V, then goes to Deitrich for protection. Evey does form a relationship with Deitrich, but the two do not become lovers, as he is homosexual. Soon after, however Dietrich is mercilessly beaten by Party Leader Peter Creedy as he raids Deitrich's home and captures him, official revenge for satirising the Chancellor on television. V gets to Evey before Creedy does and captures her himself, though she is led to believe she's in the hands of the Fingermen. The ensuing sequences involving the torture Evey undergoes, the inspiration she finds in Valerie's letters, with her character's transformation, which are taken from the graphic novel.

Unlike in the graphic novel, Evey does not personally take up the mantle of V after his death, but she does grant him his final wish and give him a Viking funeral in a train car filled with explosives. Unlike the graphic novel, London's chief of police, Inspector Eric Finch, discovers her. Also, unlike the comic book series, Creedy and his men have already mortally wounded V, thus he is dead by the time Finch finds them. Finch, who secretly sympathizes with V's cause, lets her pull the lever triggering the explosives. Evey and Finch then watch as Parliament is destroyed by V's funeral car, ending Norsefire's oppressive reign over England.

During the scene where Eric Finch tells his partner Dominic Stone about his visit to Larkhill - and his feelings about the chain of events of everything that had happened and everything that was going to happen - a very short shot of Evey Hammond can be seen. She wears a turqoise dress while tending to a bouquet of Scarlet Carsons and then turns away: the reflection in a mirror behind her sharpens, revealing either Eric Finch or Domonic Stone sipping a drink while in a chair. This seems to suggest the two end up in a relationship after the film concludes as, unlike the shots of other events, this does not occur in the movie itself.

When Evey is tortured by the “government” into betraying V. Although we see that V was the one who was behind the torment of Evey, she does not give in and betray him. This change in storyline led to Evey becoming apart of the cause, in terms of overthrowing the government. (Rich) The main character in V for Vendetta use violence to obtain results and reaches out to the citizens in order to achieve his goal in revolting against the government. V also helps achieve his main goal through violence. By changing the tactics in V for Vendetta, the citizens overthrew the government, thus having the movie end happily. The novel ends with the main characters brainwashed and the government succeeds in stopping the rebellion. These changes were effective because it gives the audience feelings of hope for society in the future.

Works Cited

Rich, Joshua. “V for Vendetta.” Entertainment Weekly, 869 (2006): 10-11.

Moore, Alan. “V for Vendetta.” Illus. David Lloyd. New York: Vertigo-DC Comics, 2005. Print.

Bulloch, Douglas. "V is for Vendetta: P is for Power a Film Reading of V for Vendetta." Millennium - Journal of International Studies, 35.2 (2007): 431-434.

Williams, Tony. "Assessing V for Vendetta." CineAction, 70.70 (2006): 16-23.