Reflection on V for Vendetta

I think the one thing that struck me most in class was the discussion of destruction versus creation. I couldn't help but consider the gender roles in V for Vendetta when we were discussing V's inability or at least lack of attempt at creation. Instead the role of creator was left to Evey. This falls much more into traditional (comfortable?) gender roles than did Avram's creation of Yod. I also find myself wondering how much the dynamics of the book would have changed if Evey had been a male character. Since, as Professor Jackson pointed out, Evey had no role as a love interest in the novel, would it have worked just as well with an "Adam" character? Or would we be left feeling as though a man wouldn't be ready to create a new order after V finished with his destruction? I'm really not sure.

Also, with regard to whether or not V is a "good guy" I would argue that he is not. I'm not even entirely convinced that he is the protagonist of the novel, I found myself feeling far more interested in Evey's character, if only because she was much more three dimensional. I believe someone mentioned that while V is represented as the antithesis of Norsefire, which is decidedly evil, being the antithesis of something evil doesn't automatically make him good. That said, I'm not sure that V is as antithetical to Noresfire as he would like to be. Like Norsefire, it seems as though he has decided that he alone gets to determine who is human enough to be worth saving. For the government, that was people of the 'Nordic race,' and for V it was anyone who hadn't been too contaminated by the government, and even then he may have set those who might be worth saving on a path to destruction, unless they could find a way 'free' themselves after he created mass chaos. Also, in his treatment of Evey, it seemed that he was trying to mold her in his image by subjecting her to the same treatment (minus Batch 5) that he and Valerie had been subjected to. While he may have felt justified in do this, he did to her exactly what the scientists at Larkhill had done to him, which really puts them on the same level in my opinion. I'm sure that those scientists felt just as justified as he did in performing their experiments, and equally sure that V wouldn't have hesitated to kill Evey had she not passed his test. While there is the chance that V's actions produced more positive results than the actions of those in power, I don't believe he occupies the moral high ground in any way.