50
Popular Culture Review
do anything we want and then we’ll kill you. That’s our prerogative” (11). Evey
as an innocent girl, a girl who is very much a child, is threatened by a man who
intends to commit an act that, while legal, is atrocious. And so it is that V
appears, quoting Shakespeare, thwarting the villains and saving the day (11-12).
That he kills the men does little to darken his character because they were bad
men. The murder is, therefore, justified. Evey in gratitude exclaims,
“You . . . you rescued me! Like in a story! I don’t believe it. Wh-who are you?”
(13) and V, surprisingly replies, “Me? I’m the King of the twentieth century. I’m
the Bogeyman. The Villain . . . the black sheep of the family” (13). For V to
describe himself as a “King” a “Bogeyman” and a “Villain” is to argue against
the image of his character as a “hero.” It also calls into question Macbeth as V
thinks of himself as like, or at least having qualities of, Macbeth. Whether
Moore intended the association to be drawn so clearly when he decided to use
the quote in the beginning or not is inconsequential; V is a “king,” a
“bogeyman,” and a “villain” in a Guy Fawkes mask and the association is clear.
This association of V and Macbeth is necessary because it allows the reader
to view Macbeth, with an eye not so prejudiced by the politics of King James.
Shakespeare does not create a monster out of Macbeth but depicts his guilt
following the murder of Duncan. Macbeth’s guilt shows him to be tom over the
decision of murder. He does not do the deed lightly but ultimately because the
kingdom suffers under Duncan.
This is compounded when Malcolm was named Prince of Cumberland,
“That is a step / On which I must fall down, or else o’erleap, / For in my way it
lies” (1.4.48-50). As Duncan was too “gentle” of a king to ensure the safety of
the kingdom, so, one might assume would be Malcolm. This assumption would
be supported by Malcolm’s “revelation” of his character to Macduff in 4.3:
I am yet
Unknown to woman; never was forsworn;
Scarcely have coveted what was mine own;
At no time broke my faith: would not betray
The Devil to his fellow; and delight
No less in truth, than life: (125-130)
He is virginal, honest, and without jealousy, one could argue, to a fault. A
virginal king does no one any good as virginity does not beget heirs; honesty
that would never betray even the Devil denotes a lack of cunning necessary in
politics, and to never covet is to be so wholly without ambition as to run a
kingdom into the ground. Macbeth is thus su