Essay Comparing Nineteen Eighty-Four And V For Vendetta
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George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and James McTeigue's V for Vendetta both feature an anti-hero as the protagonist, and both explore hamartia - the fatal flaw of an anti-hero - and peripeteia - a turning point in the plot of the text. However, the texts connect with these ideas in different ways, and consequently, the protagonists are portrayed very differently.
Both protagonists have several flaws, however, they both have one identifiable as hamartia. Winston Smith is extremely apathetic, simply being swept along by life, rather than taking action in any significant way. The one example of him taking action was in pursuing a relationship with Julia - and even then, more often than not, she was pulling him along, rather than he actively pursuing her. When he began to contemplate the idea of the Brotherhood, and the possibility of a revolution, he elected to do nothing. However, given how the Party moulds people into certain beliefs - particularly, that “freedom is slavery” - his ability to even contemplate resistance was remarkable. V, on the other hand, is anything but apathetic, being singularly obsessed with revenge, at the expense of all else - similarly to Edmond Dantès in Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo, an adaptation of…show more content… V trusts nobody, until he meets Evey - and even then, finds it difficult to trust her at first. Winston, however, is more trusting, and remains unaware of people who may wish him harm until it is far too late - for instance, he initially suspects Julia of being a possible member of the Thought Police, and O'Brien as a potential member of the Brotherhood, which, in fact, could not have been further from the truth. He also does not consider Charrington as any kind of threat, when in fact “he was looking […] at a member of the Thought Police”. This relates to the popular idea that one should never 'judge a book by it's cover', and not all is as it