Determinism

V’s character is one that is strongly against the unjust totalitarian government that is forcefully dominating England. V is in essence a freedom fighter, which is trying to inform his nation about the cruel and unfair actions of his government. However, V has a very daring and violent way of informing them. Throughout the movie V kills the members of the British Government and destroys many of the important buildings in England. V’s driving force behind his actions is stemmed from when the British Government placed him in the Larkhill Detention Center merely for being different and not conforming to their strict lifestyle. In the detention center, the prisoners were forcefully injected with viruses in hopes that each prisoner will eventually die; yet V was able to withstand all of the viruses given to him. On November 5th the detention center blew up and only one man, V, walked out alive. The horrific events that happened on November 5th are V’s driving force to stop the wrath of Britain’s corrupt government.

The main philosophical position in the movie, V for Vendetta, is determinism. Determinism is defined as an unbroken chain of prior occurrences casually determining every event, including human cognition, decisions and actions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determinism). V for Vendetta is a perfect example of determinism because the actions of V are based on events that occurred throughout his life. Whether one believes that V’s actions are moral or immoral they come to prove that determinism is more than just an idea. Although I believe that V’s actions are not to be looked at as moral, I do believe that certain events in his past led him to do the things he did.

The events in V’s past gave him more than enough reason to commit the crimes that he did, however they did not make his actions moral. V’s actions should not be considered moral because he is committing horrible crimes just as the government that he hates so much has. Although he is trying to bring freedom and justice back to his society, the way that he tried to do it was unacceptable. He used his incredible combat skills to disassemble the British Government, which was disassembling their society in unjust ways. As V’s thought of helping his society gain freedom and justice is wonderful, there are ways to go about it in a just manner.

V for Vendetta shows that determinism is more that just an idea. Many philosophers define the deterministic point of view as one that does not let you choose the outcome of the events because they have stemmed from a series of unbroken events. “The adherence of determinism leads one into a sense of meaninglessness and impotence regarding one’s fate and actions” (www.meta-library.net).