The recurring theme that I saw in this complex and complicated graphic novel, V for Vendetta, is the constant message, "all must answer for their sins". There are many social injustices in this story, and V is definitely fixed on forcing the wrongdoers to own their problems and pay for their sins. V is deeply traumatized and changed by his experience during the war when he was held prisoner. He along with other prisoners, were experimented on by their captors without any consequences. Throughout the story V is focused on bringing the injustices to the light, and killing off some of his former captors. I chose to focus mainly on two of the individuals who represented opposite ends of the spectrum, but ultimately had to suffer the same fate.
V introduced us to some of his captors, but the most evil one in my eyes is the preacher. V remembers everything that the preacher did when the war was taking place, and he is high on V's hit list. The preacher proves to be one of the bad people from the war who has learned nothing from his past mistakes. He is in a very honorable position in the church, but as you can see he is clearly taking advantage of his authority. The preacher obviously has a strong liking for young girls, and is no stranger to requesting "alone time" with under aged girls. In the panels below we see that the preacher menacingly takes Evey into his bedroom, and he tells her to take off her dress shortly after reading scriptures.
Next, the panels below show the prestigious clergyman attempting to jump Evey's bones. He thinks that she is a young girl, and sadly if he knew she was a woman he probably would not be interested. Evey won't take her dress off at his command, but the preacher comes up with an easy "do it yourself" method. Evey is anticipating V's arrival so she can be rescued, but the preacher gets too handsy and she hits him and runs away. The preacher was, is, and will always be a sick individual, and he has no intentions of changing his ways. He chases after who he believes to be a young girl threatening to murder her because she didn't produce what he wanted. V chooses to kill him, and the world is definitely a better place without him in it.
Next, the nurse that V remembers from the war is identified as a name on his hit list. The nurse followed orders blindly during the war, and she helped with the illegal and immoral experiments that the captors performed on the prisoners. The nurse was not the leader of the injustice, but she participated and did nothing to stop what was going on. She is a prime example of someone who is not evil, but she will follow orders given by authority even if they conflict with moral standards, laws, and proper treatment for a human being.
Lastly, I chose to highlight the panel below because it shows an obvious revelation for the nurse. She is one of the people who V encounters as a prisoner who has changed her ways. She tells V that she always knew that he would come back to kill her. The fact that she acknowledges this expectation shows that she sees a reason for him to kill her. The nurse has made mistakes in the past, and she knows that regardless of what she is doing now that she has to answer for the injustices in her past. She calls his face beautiful just before he kills her because she knows everything that he has had to endure to stay alive. V is totally focused on his mission of killing those who have wronged him, but he chose to kill them in different ways. He made the preacher suffer by forcing him to swallow poison, but he injected the nurse with something that killed her with no pain. The nurse actually shows signs of remorse for what she did, and I believe that is why V kills her mercifully.
In conclusion, I found the recurring theme in V for Vendetta to be "all must answer for their sins". This story shows that no matter how big or how small the sin that one can always be held accountable. V has zero tolerance for the reformed villain, and he displays this with the killing of the nurse. He is not a complete monster because he sees remorse in her, and he kills her painlessly, which is a lot better ending than the preacher had. I agree that everyone must pay for what they have done, but I also think that more mercy should have been shown to those who realized their faults and showed genuine remorse and regret.
