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Book 2, Chapter 6
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in V for Vendetta, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Freedom and Anarchy
Bigotry
The Power of Symbols
Vendettas, Revenge, and the Personal
Fatherhood, Mentorship, and the State
Summary
Analysis
It is June 11, 1998. A man is running away from two other men, trying to get into a building before they catch him.
We open in medias res—we don’t know what’s going on, or why the man is running away. Moore jumps back and forth between dates in this chapter.
Themes
We then flash back to April 15, 1998. In Gordon’s building, Gordon tells Evey that she’ll need to leave soon, since he’ll be storing some items in her room. Gordon suggests that Evey stay in his room. Evey tentatively asks Gordon if he likes her, and in response, he kisses her. We see panels in which Evey and Gordon are having sex.
Evey’s desire for a father figure has a sexual side, and in this sense, Evey’s condition reflects Freud’s theory of the Electra complex (the female counterpart to the Oedipus complex). Freud theorized that women are attracted to their fathers, in a sexual way. As they grow older, women overcome this and become adults. Because Evey lost her father at a young age, however, she’s locked into an attraction for father figures.
Themes
On June 11, 1998, Gordon runs through the door of his building, pursued by two men. He yells to Evey to hide in his room and be very quiet. Evey does so.
Gordon protects Evey, but he can’t protect himself for very long.
Themes
While Evey hides in Gordon’s room, the two men who’ve chased Gordon tell him to come outside—they just want to talk. They mention that Gordon owes them money from the items he’s been shipping on the black market. Gordon opens the door, willing to talk. When he does so, one of the men stabs him with a long sword, killing him.
Gordon’s willingness to reason with his enemies is his undoing—because he doesn’t resort to violence, he’s violently murdered. Evey and V debate about the merits of violence throughout V for Vendetta, and here we see why defensive violence may be justified.
Themes
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Hours after Gordon is stabbed, Evey comes downstairs and finds him dead. She’s traumatized by the sight—she remembers the death of her mother, the disappearance of her father, and the disappearance of V. Slowly she walks back upstairs, opens a drawer by her bed, and pulls out a gun.
After chapters of rejecting violence of any kind, Evey now decides to settle her scores on her own terms—using violence, but not as part of V’s plans. The gun she takes from Gordon’s room, it would seem, will be used to avenge Gordon.
Themes
