Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro Centro de Educação e Humanidades Instituto de Letras Luana Rocha Fear and manipulation in George Orwell’s Nineteen eighty-four and Alan Moore’s V for vendetta Rio de Janeiro 2015 Luana Rocha Fear and manipulation in George Orwell’s Nineteen eighty-four and Alan Moore’s V for vendetta Dissertação apresentada, como requisito parcial para a obtenção do título de Mestre, ao Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras, da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Área de concentração: Literaturas de Língua Inglesa. Orientadora: Profª Dra. Lucia de La Rocque Rodriguez Rio de Janeiro 2015 CATALOGAÇÃO NA FONTE UERJ/REDE SIRIUS/BIBLIOTECA CEH/B R672 Rocha, Luana. Fear and manipulation in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta / Luana Rocha. – 2015. 129 f. Orientadora: Lucia de La Rocque Rodriguez. Dissertação (Mestrado) – Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Letras. 1. Distopias na literatura – Teses. 2. Medo na literatura – Teses. 3. Orwell, George, 1903-1950 – Crítica e interpretação – Teses. 4. Orwell, George, 1903-1950. 1984 – Teses. 5. Moore, Alan, 1953- - Crítica e interpretação – Teses. 6. Moore, Alan, 1953-. V de vingança – Teses. I. Rodriguez, Lucia de La Rocque. II. Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Instituto de Letras. III. Título. CDU 82-311.9 Autorizo, apenas para fins acadêmicos e científicos, a reprodução total ou parcial desta dissertação desde que citada a fonte. ______________________________________ __________________ Assinatura Data Luana Rocha Fear and manipulation in George Orwell’s Nineteen eighty-four and Alan Moore’s V for vendetta Dissertação apresentada, como requisito parcial para a obtenção do título de Mestre, ao Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras, da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Área de concentração: Literaturas de Língua Inglesa. Aprovada em 31 de março de 2015. Banca Examinadora: _____________________________________________ Profª Dra. Lucia de La Rocque Rodriguez (Orientadora) Instituto de Letras – UERJ _____________________________________________ Profª Dra. Maria da Conceição Monteiro Instituto de Letras – UERJ _____________________________________________ Profª Dra. Bárbara Maia das Neves Fundação de Apoio à Escola Técnica do Estado do Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro 2015 DEDICATION I dedicate this work to the people who still believe in a better future for our society and that will not give up on the idea of a free world for all. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many thanks to my family: my mom, Silvia, for the constant support throughout this journey. To my brother, João, for all the political and philosophical conversations which helped me see things clearly. To him and Camille, for all the movie nights. To my cousin, Vinicius, for the patience and for making me laugh. To my dad, Arnaldo, and my stepmother, Maria Luiza, for helping me keep calm in a time of madness. To my sisters, Julia and Luiza, for the support and great conversations. To Felipe, for all the laughs and political debates. To Zuleica e Isabela for the fun and friendship at the end of this journey, which made everything easier to bear. Also, many thanks to my friends for not abandoning me during this crazy time: Juliana, Luise, Fernanda, Fernando, Renato, Dani, Fê Alf, Abel, Victor, Erica e Marcos: you’re the greatest! I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart each and every one of my History teachers for helping me think for myself and always search for the meaning of truth. My thanks also goes to all teachers who have helped me grow into who I am today. Without you, I wouldn’t be here. My special thanks goes to Ivair Coelho Lisboa for making me fall in love with Philosophy. Also, for helping me uncover the philosophical beauty in cinematic art, and especially for introducing me to Jorge Luis Borges and H. P. Lovecraft. For all that, I will be eternally grateful. My other special thanks goes to Maria da Conceição Monteiro for bringing Philosophy back into my life – for all the philosophical debates in class, which made me arrive at the conclusion that there is no conclusions in life. And for all the fun I’ve had in those classes, debating whether there is quality in Hollywood films. Also, thanks to Fernanda Lima, for making me fall in love again with the Greeks; and to Eliane Berutti, for all the fun debates and advices. Thanks to my colleagues and friends, Bruno César F. Vieira and Davi Pinho for all the advices, help and support throughout this crazy journey of academic life. And last, but not least, thanks to my advisor, Lucia de La Rocque Rodriguez, for all the patience in the world. Also, for the laughs, the talks, the joyful debates in class, and for always believing in me. Thank you! I knew all the rules, but the rules did not know me. Eddie Vedder RESUMO ROCHA, Luana. Fear and manipulation in George Orwell’s Nineteen eighty-four and Alan Moore’s V for vendetta. 2015. 129 f. Dissertação (Mestrado em Literaturas de Língua Inglesa) – Instituto de Letras, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 2015. O objetivo desta dissertação é analisar a questão da política do medo e das várias formas de manipulação da realidade encontradas nas narrativa de 1984 (1949), de George Orwell, assim como na narrativa gráfica de V de Vingança – tanto na sua versão em quadrinhos, de Alan Moore (1982-88), quanto na sua adaptação cinematográfica, escrita pelos Wachowskis (2005). Em particular, tenta demonstrar similaridades nas técnicas usadas, assim como na análise dos personagens, procurando embasar certos questionamentos com a ajuda de filósofos políticos, estudos de psicologia, culturais, e distópicos. Ao final, este trabalho tenta identificar a importância da influência dos autores estudados, assim como outros autores distópicos, na criação e desenvolvimento de uma nova geração social de mentalidade inconformista. Palavras-chave: Literatura distópica. Política. Distopia. Manipulação. Ilusão. Inconformismo. ABSTRACT ROCHA, Luana. Fear and manipulation in George Orwell’s Nineteen eighty-four and Alan Moore’s V for vendetta. 2015. 129 f. Dissertação (Mestrado em Literaturas de Língua Inglesa) – Instituto de Letras, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 2015. This dissertation aims to analize the question of the politics of fear and the many forms of manipulation of reality found in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), as well as in Alan Moore’s graphic novel V for Vendetta (1982-88) and its film adaptation written by the Wachowskis (2005). In particular, it tries to show similarities among the used techniques, as well as in the character analysis, trying to support these findings with the help of political philosophers, as well as psychological, cultural and dystopian studies. In the end, this work tries to identify the importance of these authors, as well as other dystopian authors, and their influence on the creation and development of a new generation of nonconformists. Keywords: Dystopian literature. Politics. Dystopia. Manipulation. Deception. Nonconformity. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION................................................................................................. 9 1 ‘FOR THE GOOD OF THE MAJORITY’: FEAR AND DECEPTION IN NINETEEN-EIGHTY FOUR ............................................................................. 11 1.1 Two Minutes Hate: War is Peace ........................................................................ 11 1.2 Big Brother is Watching You: Freedom is Slavery ........................................... 21 1.3 Reality Control: Ignorance is Strength .............................................................. 36 2 V FOR VOLITION: FEAR AND DECEPTION IN V FOR VENDETTA ...... 49 2.1 The Silent Majorities: Europe After the Reign .................................................. 49 2.2 The Grand Illusion: Vicious Cabaret .................................................................. 67 2.3 The Shadow Gallery: Land of Do-As-You-Please ............................................. 87 2.4 The Torturer and the Tortured: Behind the Painted Smile ............................. 104 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................... 118 REFERENCES .................................................................................................... 125 9 INTRODUCTION I have come across the idea for this research after watching the Wachowskis’ filmic adaptation to Alan Moore’s graphic novel V for Vendetta (2006) and pondering about its themes and the relation between them and the political situation of the world at the time, living under George W Bush’s administration of the United States and the threat of a new world war after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. After watching the film, I read the graphic novel and realized they were both completely different narratives, each focusing on different flaws in the government, and yet with much in common – with Moore focusing on criticizing Margaret Thatcher’s conservative administration of the United Kingdom. Still in 2006, at the end of the year, I had decided to focus on this narrative as the main idea for a future dissertation. However, I was still unsure mostly because of the fact that the main work was a comic book and its filmic adaptation, even though I believed them to be worthy of analyzing. In any case, I do not intend to discourse on this issue of filmic adaptation or the importance of other types of narratives to Literature. Nonetheless, I would like to mention