Remember, Remember, the 5th of November, the gun powder treason and plot…

Guy Fawkes was an actual person, you know.  His story wasn’t just made up for the plot of V for Vendetta.  And his role is essential to understanding the story.  You see, Guy Fawkes had an idea.  And his idea extended to V’s idea.  And so on.

The main premise of V for Vendetta is Orwellian in a 1984/Animal Farm way.  The Big Brother Theme is poignant and terrifying.  But V and Evey, the hero and heroine of the Graphic-Novel-Turned-Movie, rebel against their oppressors, showing the power of an idea.

You see, human beings fail.  It is our natural tendency to give in to temptation and lose sight of what is important.  We are easily distracted and can be easily taken over when these weaknesses in connection with someone’s manipulation create a perfect storm.

But the important thing to remember here is not that human beings are easily overpowered.  No, the point is that they come up with ideas beyond the scope of humanity.  Allow me to explain.

We are told to remember the idea, not the man, because a man can fail. He can be caught, he can be killed and forgotten, but 400 years later, an idea can still change the world. I’ve witnessed first hand the power of ideas, I’ve seen people kill in the name of them, and die defending them… but you cannot kiss an idea, cannot touch it, or hold it… ideas do not bleed, they do not feel pain, they do not love…

Evey discusses her infatuation with V in the previous monologue.  But beyond that, she shows just how important ideas are.  As an English major, I spend the majority of my time trying to figure out the ideas behind a critically important piece of literature.  And often times, the question of “why study books” is presented.  And this is the answer- because books hold ideas.  And though we may not remember the authors or the people they wrote about, we remember the ideas.  We pour over the texts to find meaning.  We read over and over again in analysis to try and find what the point of it all is.

So no, it’s not easy trying to figure out what was going on in the human mind as it wrote the words to some of these literary masterpieces.  But once the idea is uncovered, it transcends the work of literature itself.

Even though hundreds of years pass, people die, legacies end- the ideas present in those books remain.  They transcend time and context and still mean everything they did when they were written.  So yes, it is tedious to try and unlock the human mind and figure out what all of these ideas stand for.  What they mean.  But it is so rewarding to realize that my problems are not new- they have been faced by human beings since the beginning of time, and they will continue to be faced long after I am gone.  Ideas are immortal.  They do not bleed.  They do not die.  And they can mean as much to a teenage girl living in the 21st century as they did to the 40 year old man who wrote them in the 14th century.

So often I’m asked why I’m an English Major.  What I’m going to do with a degree in English.  How much money I’m going to make.  Where I’m going to get a job.  While of course these things are important, they are not the reasons I am studying English.

I study English because the ideas that were present in the middle ages affect my life today. In understanding why people think the way they do, I will become better at interacting and conversing.  The thing is, ideas are what unite us all.  They are what give us reasons for getting out of bed.  They are the core of our future plans, hopes, and dreams.  A man can die, he can give up and stop trying.  But that idea will always be there, waiting for the next person to come along and think that it’s worth something.  And someone always does.