The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Rose:

K.C. Shaw @ 41: Sorry, I wasn't being clear--I was referring to V, not to Evey, and I don't actually think that anyone in the story can be said to have Stockholm Syn.

I actually wanted to use it analogously: we know that a person who has been kidnapped can come to support and identify with their kidnappers, so it might be possible that a person who has been tortured (V) might develop an ambivalence toward or even an affinity for torture.

Lizzy L 25: I don't think that either the movie or the book meant to suggest that anyone would embrace torture after being traumatized, but only that it was V's individual response. Moore doesn't imply that either Valerie or Evey would choose V's path, I would argue. (And as far as real life goes, we do have Stockholm Syndrome...)

More salient for me is that V for Vendetta is a revenge tragedy in the classic sense, which means that V necessarily must descend to the level of his tormentors in order to overthrow them. He's like Hamlet: you don't have to like him, just understand him.

I do think the movie didn't stress enough how crucial the torture interlude was to V--it wasn't only a practical measure (to see if she could be trusted), but more importantly it was a form of communication. V didn't simply torture Evey, he replicated his own experience of torture. He put her in his place, as close as anyone can get of truly understanding the experience of another.

Even in the novel, it's awful and insane; but it's also powerful, and beautiful-terrible in the way only art can be.

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