Literary Criticism In Alan Moore's V For Vendetta

Bonnie Crabb

Humanities 340

Rough Draft Literary Criticism

Can you imagine walking where the streets are dark and cold with no glimmer of excitement and joy as security cameras watch your every move? Alan Moore certainly could. In fact, he felt he was living in such a place. He saw 1980s England as a fascist society where the lower class were being oppressed. In Moore’s graphic novel, V for Vendetta, he depicts that point in history through the story of future London under the Norsefire Regime. History plays a very important role in Moore’s story and his ideologies about class distinction are very prominent. For these reasons, a cultural poetics and Marxist literary criticism analyzes the story of V for Vendetta in a very interesting and informative way. Using these two literary criticisms I will analyze how the historical time period and economic class Alan Moore was brought up in shapes his view of the class distinctions in his graphic novel and specifically how the Shadow Gallery, Evey, and Rose show how prevalent class distinction is in society and the way it stunts individuals and society as a whole.

Cultural Poetics involves history. This form of criticism allows history to

He grew up in a part of Northampton which is also known as The Boroughs. Northampton is a lower class, poverty-stricken area with a high rate of illiteracy. Moore first came into contact the middle class and better educated people when he started to attend Northampton Grammar School. He went from being at the top of his class to being the lowest. Through V for Vendetta we see Moore’s disapproval of hierarchy and class distinction. Alan Moore knew from his own life the challenges associated with the working class people and those who are poor. In this novel the main characters, V and Evey, overcome class distinctions by way of anarchy. V destroys the failed system and Evey works to build up a better life for those in