Moral Vigilantism In Alan Moore's V For Vendetta

Another perspective surrounding the American criminal justice system is that people only criticize the system because the results they wanted did not occur. Some people go as far as to say, “THE criminal justice system doesn 't work” (Haberman). But why do people have these strong feelings against the American criminal justice system? Haberman’s interesting viewpoint answers that question when he says, “It seems to be a popular pastime: trashing the system when it does not produce the results you want.” From this quotation one can consider that some people disparage the system so heavily because they disagree with the rulings, not because the judgements are wrong, but simply because they do not like them.

Criminal Justice Today: An Introductory Text for the 21st Century (13th Edition ed.). Retrieved from

According to Joseph Cambell, “A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” Any everyday person can become a hero as long as they have used their life for something important or special. A hero is somebody who is brave and passionate by putting others before themselves and do not act cowardly in hard situations and continue to face challenges to help others. Heroes put others before themselves to help their society. This is also considered as sacrificing which is another major part of being a hero.

Oppression is often portrayed in a negative light. Those who fight oppression are frequently regarded as heroes. The opposite is true for Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s book, V for Vendetta. V for Vendetta totes a mysterious character who goes by the alias of V. V is a villain who will stop at nothing to achieve his end goal: freeing England from the Norsefire regime. Many would see V as a hero due to the fact that he is trying to free a country and its civilians from an oppressive government.

Joseph Campbell once said, “A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” Being a hero doesn’t mean being “super”, it means having the courage to run towards danger when everybody else is running away from it. Heroism is the courage, the bravery to risk his/her life in order to save somebody else’s. In the article, Where I Find My Heroes, Oliver Stone states, “Who is heroic?

Film is specifically made to be sold. Film is an art that is also a source of income. No matter the format, be it big budget or independent, film is a commercial product. According to Comolli and Narboni in their essay “Cinema/Ideology/Criticism”, film is “transformed into a commodity”. Film is “a product, manufactured within a given system”, is it the product of the ideologies that dominates where it was constructed.

Heroes in our society are revered and respected as Joseph Campbell reminds us: “A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself” (Joseph Campbell). Heroes exist in all societies and throughout history. Maybe they are not always on the news or from the movies, but their words and their actions never fail to resonate across their feats. A hero gives of himself and dedicates himself to causes which better others and their society unlike individuals who are self serving, greedy, and cruel.

In the book To Kill A Mockingbird Jeremy Atticus Finch shows that he is heroic. There are numerous ways he shows this. He keeps calm when in a dangerous situation. Jem also is brave and courageous. Jem puts other first and he protects others.

John Proctor: An Everyday Hero Heroism does not only involve people such as Batman and Superman. Heroes can be everyday people that stand up for others or act in courageous ways. A good example of this idea comes from Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, where accusations of witchcraft lead to Witch Trials in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, and ultimately the deaths of several innocent people. The main character, John Proctor, has a history he is not very proud of, as he committed adultery with a young girl named Abigail Williams. Despite this, he stands up for people in the play who cannot do it themselves, while characters like Abigail and Judge Danforth are against him.

Deterrence and the Death Penalty: The Views of the Experts. The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1973-), 87(1), 1. doi:10.2307/1143970 This article was written by Michael L. Radelet and Ronald L. Akers. They both consulted experts on criminology and criminal behaviour to evaluate the effectiveness of the Death Penalty.

A virtuous hero is someone who, despite the odds, follows their morals. Virtue itself is not born into a person, but is a choose everybody has. In life not everyone is born into a positive environment or family, but they can choose to be virtuous, or not. Similarly people who were born into privilege can still choose the wrong path. The choose to be virtuous is not easy;it requires sacrifice, and there is temptation to do what is easy and go against set morals.

James McTeigue’s film, V for Vendetta is about a fascist government dubbed the Norsefire party taking power through fear and intimidation, the only person opposing them is an anarchist vigilante whose only moniker is V. The director uses the character V to illustrate the idea of revenge, whilst reinforcing the theme through the use of camera angles, sound, lighting and symbolism throughout the film. Throughout the film, McTeigue uses V to display the idea of revenge in his film. This is explained in that while V is a person, the director gives him lines of dialogue that represent what he has become such as the line “Beneath this mask there is more than flesh, beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof” this indicates

In the criminal justice system, the corrections component is also responsible for the rehabilitation of the convicted individual. It is their duty to attempt to make the defendant a productive member of society once again. Based on the individual’s behavior while incarcerated, the court and corrections officials may decide to place them on parole, which ensures that the individual will comply with the rules of society once they are fully released from the system. The criminal justice system is an essential role in the organizational structure of not only the United States but also in countries around the world. If there were no criminal justice system to administer punishment, the world would be unstructured, disorganized, unjustified, cruel, and not to mention a chaotic place for it citizens.

In a not too distant future Britain is filled with torture cells, unfair punishments and prejudice against minorities, although through all this chaos one masked man known only as “V” dares to stand against the government thus being labeled as a terrorist. Little is known about the masked vigilante only that he is an anarchist revolutionary trying to bring down the government and convince the people to rule themselves. In the following essay I will be doing a full analysis on the movie titled “V for Vendetta” Focusing mainly on analyzing the character “V” and also analyzing themes such as Identity, Rebellion, and Anarchism. The motive of the essay is to explain “V’s” ideals and purposes to end the essay with an explanation to why V for Vendetta has been used by libertarians and anarchists to promote their ideals. The movie “V for Vendetta”

In the case of the death penalty, it has the added bonus in guaranteeing that the person would not offend again. Supporters of harsh punishments argue that the would-be criminal would consider the costs versus the benefits of committing a crime. If the costs outweigh the benefits, then it is assumed that he would stop what he is doing, effectively ‘deterred’. Furthermore, the usage of harsh punishments to effectively deter crime is ethically justified as it prevents more people from falling victim to crime. However it is extremely difficult to judge a punishment’s effectiveness based on its deterrence effect, consequently we must consider other variables that would entail a person to commit a crime.