_______ V fo r Vendetta'. A Graphic Retelling of Macbeth
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none / In seeking to augment it, but still keep / My bosom franchis’d, and
allegiance clear, / 1 shall be counsell’d.” (2.1.27-30) Seeing this, Macbeth’s later
words become much clearer. In 3.1 Macbeth laments his inability to act with
foresight for all possible outcomes but of Banquo states, “He hath a wisdom that
doth guide his valour / To act in safety” (52-53). It does appear that Banquo is
skilled in the art of playing both sides.
If Banquo was responsible for the sorrows of Scotland then Macbeth was
not a bad king; if Macbeth was not a bad king then Malcolm and Macduff's
overthrow was unjustified treason. If Malcolm and Macduff committed
unjustified treason then Malcolm never deserved to sit on the throne, a throne he
would lose as his father did due to his lack of ability to govern, and the
ascension of Banquo’s progeny ensued because of Malcolm’s traitorous actions.
James, therefore, ruled in England because of the very usurpation for which he
punished the Plotters, and much of the Catholic community, for engaging in.
Macbeth, like V, fought against a corrupt government.
Macbeth’s guilt reveals his justification through double-effect. This use of
double-effect to justify regicide connects V, Macbeth, and the Plotters. This
connection is further strengthened when V, chanting the phrase, “Remember,
remember the 5lh of N ovember.. . ” (14) destroys Parliament in a tremendous
explosion echoing the attempt of Guy Fawkes. The victory the audience feels at
V’s success remythologizes Macbeth’s regicide and the Plotters’ attempt. This
remythologizing reveals what has been considered an act of terrorism into an act
of freedom-fighting.
Acting as a freedom-fighter Guy Fawkes attempts regicide and fails.
Macbeth succeeds, but is betrayed and killed by his subjects. The deaths of Guy
Fawkes and Macbeth, even though they were fighting for their country, were
celebrated by the people.
And so is presented the tragedy of Macbeth in spectacular blood-red detail:
Macbeth is abandoned by the very subjects he has fought for. Macbeth’s
tragedy, like Guy Fawkes, is that he is remembered as a traitor, a tyrant, and a
murderer. Only in Vfor Vendetta do Macbeth and Guy Fawkes find vindication.
V does not suffer the same fate. V is seen as a hero even though his actions,
when examined closely, are as obviously suspect as Macbeth’s. He destroys
Parliament and the Old Bailey, buildings that serve as keystones of English
history; he does not kill Lewis Prothero, but destroys his mind—V reduces him
to a near catatonic state after destroying Prothero’s prized doll collection.
Prothero sits still repeating “mama, mama” over and over again (42). Finally,
and most damningly, V first abandons Evey to the world before kidnapping her
later in the story and torturing her, the girl-child he saves in the beginning that
befriends him, worships him, and stands by him. When Evey, wearing a burlap
sack, her head shaved, and her body emaciated screams at him, “I hate you. I
hate you because you just talk junk and you think you’re so good that you don’t
have to make any sense! Nothing you say means anything! You say you love
me, and you don’t because you just frighten me and torture me for a