"The man who seeks Revenge must remember to dig two graves: one for his enemy and one for himself" -Chinese Proverb *


The Machiavellian villian, who gained popularity as a key figure in Jacobean tragedy, remains popular and seductive in modern films even though the plays in which the role originated (The Spanish Tragedy, the Duchess of Malfi, the White Devil, the Jew of Malta) have long been forgotten. The Machiavel, who now makes his reappearance as the stylish terrorist in the film V for Vendetta, was usually a man legitimately wronged (think Titus Adronicus), yet his voracious appetite for vengeance, no matter how justifiable, makes him monstrous and ultimately condemns him. The method by which the Machiavel exacts his revenge is ornate usually involving complex plans, a gift for deception and disguise, as well as heaps of patience. The vengeance may involve "turning the sin against the sinner", but not necessarily so. The Byzantine nature of the murders carried out by the Machiavel raises them to the level of art. The machiavel doesn't wreak destruction simply to exact revenge, but he invests in his destruction symbolic content. Unlike Mickey Knox who kills because "it makes a statement" although he isn't "100% sure what it's saying", V is utterly cognizant of the symbolic significance of his acts-orchestrating dramatic executions accompanied with appropriate quotations from Shakespeare.


And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days. -Richard the Third Act I scene i

V is aware of his heritage and although he quotes Twelfth Night and MacBeth, he also quotes Richard the Third, one of the most famous Machiavels to grace the stage. Other popular modern Machiavels could include the Abominable Dr Phibes, Hannibal Lecter, and John Doe from Seven.


" ...if death
Is thereby hastened, I shall count it as a gain.
For death is gain to him whose life, like mine,
Is full of misery." Antigone

Although detectives desperately try to trace V, he is "like a ghost" leaving no trace of his identity. Antigone, from the Sophoclean tragedy by the same name, also leaves no trace of her presence when she buries her brother's body. Like V, Antigone is unflinchingly dedicated to justice, even sacrificing her upcoming nuptials to her beloved Haimon. Like V, her purpose is to educate despot who has become unjust and insane.

"The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta... for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily... it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V." V for Vendetta

But while Antigone's identity is clear, V's is obscure. Why he is taken to a detention camp is never disclosed. In fact, absolutely nothing of V's life before he is reborn is revealed. Like the villian in Poe's "Cask of Amontillado" these details are obscured partially to keep the audience focused on the plot. The details of V's personal history before Larkhill are unecessary and, therefore, omitted. Unlike Poe's narrator, V doesn't have a clear identity partially because his identity is obliterated by what was done to him, but he isn't the ghost of himself. Rather he is the ghost of all those disenfranchised by the Chancellor's opressive government. V lives underground, which is the domain of the dead. He is an almagam of traits of those opressed, thus he cultivates Valerie's Scarlet Carsons and cooks Gordon's "Iggy in the Basket" for breakfast. He is the desire for justice made flesh, which is why his face is never revealed, but also why his identity is so fluid.


Evey: Does it have a happy ending?

V: The way only celluloid can deliver.


V's praise of words in his televised speech is an inversion of the praise Virgil heaps on the power of paintings in Book I of the Aeneid. This was a banner year for books on film including almost a record number of books adapted to film or films about writers. Robert Scholes "On Reading a Video Text" places the medium of video in the same category as epic poetry for the Greeks and the Romans. According to Jung, art is "constantly at work educating the spirit of the age, conjuring up the forms in which the age is most lacking" ("On the Relation of Analytical Psychology to Poetry"). If this is so, we conjure the days in which words meant something, we yearn for the Arts (for V is fond of films, painting, sculpture, books, and music), and we long for those who believe in justice more than the quest to make money. For unique style instead of generic consumerism. And we long to believe that if there was simply one person willing to embody those ideals, we would all have the courage to follow his example.



* Taken from Alex Cox's film adaptation of The Revenger's Tragedy