V for Vendetta as Philosophy: Victory Through the Virtues of Anarchy

Alan Moore’s graphic novel V for Vendetta is a political narrative about a country’s loss of liberty and freedom. The novel shows how a free society can transform into an authoritarian state after it is ravaged by war and disease. It also demonstrates the lengths to which individuals are willing to tolerate the surrender of their freedoms for the sake of order and unity. V for Vendetta questions the rights and duties of the individual and the actions of an anarchist that inspires a revolt to those wrongs. It forces us to look at a society whose individuals are made to conform to the law through the use of surveillance cameras and enforcement officers who gather up people in unmarked vans and place them in concentration camps. This chapter takes a close look at Moore’s graphic novel to determine the limitations on the freedoms placed on individuals by a state through a philosophical/ethical lens and examine how its lessons relate to the real world.