Motivation and Its Outcome in V for Vendetta and 1984

Larisa Isabel Enríquez Betancourt
Professor: Larry Goldsmith
English IV
1 April 2011

Motivation and its outcome in V for Vendetta and 1984
Both 1984 and V for Vendetta have dystopian, totalitarian, and utilitarian governments. 1984 seems to be against utilitarianism and makes us realize that survival is not the only thing that motivates people, and therefore utilitarian organizations are flawed because they lack an ultimate purpose. V for Vendetta on the other hand, explores the same topic in a different way by personifying that ‘other motivation,’ such as our need for art, general things that have a different purpose than simply our quest for survival. It was more of a portrait of the internal forces that drive us to rebel, while 1984 was more of just a statement that they exist.
  The societies in 1984 and in V for Vendetta have corrupt governments and dictators that use torture to extract information from citizens about themselves or others. There is also government control over daily life and an in depth knowledge of citizens' personal details. The idea that the government uses totalitarian control saying that it is for protection of its citizens gives place to the utilitarian theory that seeks what is inherently valuable for an individual. “Utility, or the Greatest Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure.” This is what both governments want for their people in a disguised way because they control their minds by imposing ideas such as:
  WAR IS PEACE
  FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
  IGNORANCE IS STRENGHTH
    Enríquez 2

  STRENGHT THROUGH UNITY
  UNITY THROUGH STRENGHTH
  The main character in 1984, Winston Smith, is a government employee who works for the Ministry of Truth, which is in charge of distorting reality and...