From Book to Movie: V for Vendetta, Essay Example

This character comparison presentation is focused on the character of Conrad Heyer. In relation to Conrad, his wife Helen shall also be given light because it is believed that his character’s role in both the film and the movie provides a deeper edge to the story which definitely shows the distinct difference of societies portrayed in the book and the other type of society portrayed in the movie. Conrad Heyer is the notable head of The Eye, serving as the visual-surveillance of the Norsefire. This particular position puts him in full power of seeing what goes around the political limits of the fascist government making it easier for him to detect particular anomalies in the system and its people. Relatively, being in such a position gives him a relative source of power and authority, something that his wife Helen sees as something important.

Helen, Conrad’s wife, is more of a liberalist than a regular woman who just sits at home and exists to serve the pleasures of her husband. Notably, this is the reason why her character is considered to be the key reason behind Conrad’s deeper sense of being; in a way, her character’s portrayal of the motives and the assumptions of a woman’s being provided a deeper value to that of Conrad’s. Instead of Conrad just being The Eye, his attention for Helen provided him to see some of the anomalies existing however he was not able to act on the matter until it was too late.

In the graphic novel, Conrad and Helen seemingly had minor roles. Nevertheless, these roles provided a deeper sense on what fascism was about and how it affected the way administrators see their position in relation to how they are able to apply authority on others. In the novel, Helen’s plot was clear to distract the fascist system and embark on its destruction for the sake of her own personal concerns. She then used the position of Conrad to be able to complete her plot. Being married to Conrad was then part of the plot. With his position, she was able to get to know and mingle with other higher officers. One of which is the Scottish gangster Alistair Harper. She used her charms to get them to tell her about information she deems important to her plot. While on the other end, Conrad is kept in the dark about all these specific plans of his wife.

The novel presents Helen’s plot to have been broken when she got together with Harper and such an affair was caught on camera. Conrad watched the whole scene and plotted his own plan on killing him. The end of the relationship between Helen and Conrad seemingly ended the plot but Helen had something more in mind. Although she was already mixed with the hobos of the community, she tried to constantly seek for someone who could get her back to the top and was hoping to expose some of the administration’s flaws which will be best for her plot of ruing the government’s operative administration. However, in the end, everything else fails.

If observed closely, Helen and Conrad Heyer had to exist together if they were going to make an impact on the story of V for Vendetta. Nevertheless, the movie’s director seemingly valued the portrayal of the Heyer’s to have a weak distinction on the overall value of the story. This is perhaps the reason why there was no specific attention given to Helen’s plot in the movie’s story presentation. Conrad himself, being the official was given less appearances. To note, there were only two times when his character was used in the film. The first appearance was when he reported about V to Chancellor Adam Sutler. He mentions how ‘the masked terrorist’ is targeting the Norsefire officials and how he plans to destroy or disarm the parliament thus bringing their control into the ground. The next appearance was when he went to report about the use of the underground train for such plot according to Finch’s directive report. Although such information was disregarded by the higher office, such data was proven true which gave V the advantage he needed to complete his plan.

The constructive creation of Conrad and Helen’s characters as portrayed in the graphic novel is more of a depiction of the society that the people were living in. Being the ones at the ground where the ‘real things’ occur, the novel recognizes that their role in the story becomes neglected as the focus is on the higher office, the people who has control over the government and the way the administrative governance is being ran. Likely, there were more time to discuss such elements in the novel than in the movie which was limited by both time and resources. Helen, a seemingly ordinary woman who wants to impose change into the system tried to work her way up and captured what she believed was a necessary character to complete her plot. This could be accounted to be the meaning of the line in the novel that reads: “Everybody is special. Everybody. Everybody is a hero, a lover, a fool, a villain. Everybody. Everybody has their story to tell.” Although she may not be the V, she has the same mission as he does. With limited resources though, she intended to use what she has which was her womanhood. Conrad’s position was the best role that she could take into account if she wants her plans to work. Having ‘The Eye’ of the fascist movement will allow her to see the insides of the system, the people and the operations that go beyond it. Having Conrad under her control was seemingly the cream on top of her plan. Nevertheless, carelessness destroys her own plot, which at the same time brought herself into the midst of the hopeless society she simply wanted to change. Regarding this plot, Helen’s character also gives an impact on giving meaning to the lines : “Artists use lies to tell the truth. Yes, I created a lie. But because you believed it, you found something true about yourself”, which specifically notes the deception she used on Conrad to simply get to her goal of being able to see what was happening inside the government.

Treating the characters of Conrad and Helen differently between the novel and the film specifically points out a distinct importance on their role in relation to the message that both works want to portray and represent to the audience. In the novel, it was clear that the creator wanted to provide the readers a peek on what was happening in the society; even the existence of the hobos at the edge of Helen’s dismaying situation played a great role in providing the readers an idea on how the society became after the implementation of the fascist movement in the government. Although it was a distinct focus of the novel to provide an idea on how the wrong works of the government affect the people within the internal organization, the plot of the novel’s story did not forget to help the readers see the position of those people within the external reach of the government.

The movie however wanted to focus on the government, its people and its systems and what V stands for in relation to how he wants to change such operation. Although he was a terrorist, his heroism was recognized to have a distinct importance on how he represents the desire to save a society from such a scrupulous form of governance. Helen was also supposed to present the same position, however, having an unsung heroine in the plot of the movie would be dangerous enough as it might negate the attention being focused on the character of V. Conrad’s role on the movie was also diminished to smaller plots as his character’s contribution to the message being formulated for the film simply do not fit the goal of the director. The difference of limitations between the presentation of a story on a novel and on a movie does create a great difference on how the characters are treated separately especially in relation to the role that they play in each situation.

Conrad’s role as The Eye was not given so much importance in the film. He was not even shown to have any power besides being the messenger to the higher office as he brings about the news regarding V and his plots to embark on the destruction of the government. Such position is much more of a demeanor compared to how he was represented in the novel; nevertheless, again, such choice of presentation largely depends on how the creator [novelist or the director] would want the audience to see the value of the work they are aiming to complete.

Works Cited

Moore, Alan (1983). “Behind the Painted Smile“.Warrior (17).

Brown, Adrian (2004). “Headspace: Inside The Mindscape Of Alan Moore”. Ninth Art.

Boudreaux, Madelyn (1994). “Introduction”. An Annotation of Literary, Historic and Artistic References in Alan Moore’s Graphic Novel, “V for Vendetta”. Retrieved 2006-04-06.

Gopalan, Nisha (21 July 2008). “Alan Moore Still Knows the Score!”. Entertainment Weekly.