정의와 사랑에 대한 단상

Musing on Justice and Love: Critical Reading of V for Vendetta

V for Vendetta (VfV, 1988) is a graphic novel that portrays the anarchist protagonist V s resistance against a fascist regime and the political awakening and existential transformation of his female successor, Evey. Its creators, Alan Moore and David Lloyd, represent an anarchist s politics for justice and love through V while encouraging their system-abiding readers to have a critical consciousness. In fact, V is more than an individual hero as he is a symbolic and historic subject of a resistance, and thus an identity that is ever available for appropriation. V and Evey s relationship is characterized by inter-subjectivity and a dialectic of destruction and creation. VfV utilizes this to offer a reinterpretation of justice and violence, and to bring about a possible inter-generational solidarity. The overarching significance of VfV lies in its emphasis on universal love and love for humanity as the hope for a social change, because it is love that allows the two characters to succeed the historic resistance. Here, Valerie is introduced as a figure who reminds V and Evey that the respect and faith in humanity and the foundation of social justice constitute universal love for others. Moore and Lloyd highlight Adam Susan s incapacity for mutual love to indicate the necessity of love, which nourishes mutual empathy and compassion required to establish a free and democratic community.