Roger Dascombe Character Analysis

An important agent of the Norsefire government’s broadcasting system, Roger Dascombe is one of the more ambiguous secondary characters in V for Vendetta. His talents for broadcasting and propaganda are so immense that the people of London go years without realizing that the Fate Computer has no actual voice—the true “Voice of Fate” is a human being, Lewis Prothero. Dascombe seems more aware of his government’s contradictions and hypocrisies, even if he only dares to speak of these hypocrisies in coded language. For instance, Dascombe mentions that Prothero is “sensitive” for collecting dolls—an obvious euphemism for queer or homosexual—and then calls the Leader “sensitive,” too. Dascombe’s awareness of the sexual hypocrisy in his society—in other words, of secret homoeroticism in an intensely homophobic society—suggests that he may be gay himself. Later, however, he seems to proposition Rosemary Almond, though we never see the end results of his proposition. In the end, Dascombe’s sexuality, as well as his true feelings about Norsefire, remain a mystery—he seems to be another bureaucrat, withholding his personal feelings to perform his job.