The alienation of the senses.

In both 1984 and V for Vendetta, we find models of governments who control their people, yet the emphasis of both changes considerably. On the one hand, we have 1984 in which we could say it is the begging of the realization of [Winston] being alienated from himself and the rest: his writing, his thoughts, his emotions, even other people.  They  all belong to the Party.

On the other hand, V for Vendetta is at a further stage, it is no longer the realization or the begging of thinking that there must be something done in order to retaliate, but concrete actions. We could say that while Orwell constructs a reality in which the Party is the omniscient, dictator figure, V for Vendetta deconstructs that entire reality, examining a little and then ripping it apart.  Nevertheless, there exist a parallelism with the voice of fate and the telescreens;  and Norsefire and the Party; their  organisms:  the nose, the ears, the mouth and the fingers, and the Ministeries: of Love, Truth, and Plenty.Now, Alienation here is considered to be " 1) powerlessness, the feeling that one’s destiny is not under one’s own control but is determined by external agents, fate, luck, or institutional arrangements" and "meaninglessness, referring either to the lack of comprehensibility or consistent meaning in any domain of action (such as world affairs or interpersonal relations) or to a generalized sense of purposelessness" (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

“Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull.” (Orwell, 22)
The mind is the only thing that is somehow protected from their scrutiny or this pre-stablished and approved information/entertainment given by those in control.

Furthermore, In 1984, there are three main aspects through which the Party manipulates, creating this alienation effect:  war, isolation and language.

1.      1.  "Winston could not definitely remember a time when his country had not been at war, but it was evident that there had been a fairly long interval of peace during his childhood" (Orwell, 27)

As Winston remembers, it has been all that he can remember, or at least, the best-remembered part of his life. This raises the sense of being powerless against a declared enemy, which is the main features of the Party. It is only logical that ordinary beings - (not-)members of the Party subjugate themselves to those who supposedly have a possibility of defeating the enemy. The whole idea supports itself on the feelings of the population; they produce propaganda, the 'two minutes hate', and even a figure, 'Goldstein' and the 'Brotherhood'”, as the object towards which one should pour anger and rage - feelings that they have carefully shaped in order to canalize them in the best possible way so as to use up all the energy and thereby result in controlled or measured reactions. Opposite to this, they produce the figure of Big Brother, the almighty savior of Oceania, guardian of the orthodox and punisher of traitors and foreigners who has nothing but everyone's well being as his goal.

2.     In the book, Isolation comes in two dimensions, locally and in terms of the state. The first refers to the inability to gather with others without being watched or being suspicious of it. From family to what one might consider a relationship, all emotions are depraved. You have sex to procreate not for pleasure or “completion”; children are taught that their families are a potential nest of traitors, so it is their commitment to the Party to turn them, and everybody else for that matter, in. Additionally, there are no longer relationships, people suspect and compete to be recognized as a rightful member of this twisted society; as you are getting deeper, you experience and practice alienation as a lifestyle. Everyone can be a potential unorthodox; nevermind about trust and love, in warfare such things do not exist but towards the almighty, who is the only one worth it since he represents all that is sound and all that one should aspire to be like, or to be more realistic, like comrade 'Ogilvy' (Orwell 38-39).

From the dimension of the state, it is impossible for anyone to know whether there is a different reality than theirs. There is no opportunity to get out of the control, anywhere. Everywhere around you (statewide) are only traitors, enemies, bombs and war. The latter only accentuates the feeling of hopelessness of the people, clearing the path and even welcoming, embracing the figure of the Party as saviors from the horrid past and the sordid enemies.

3.       “It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.”  (Orwell 42) 'Newspeak' is the definite way through which the Party establishes its dominion. The fact that one word involves two contradictory meanings and by the use of prefixes one can create a family of words is certainly the ultimate defeat of thought. What the party does is basically reducing the knowledge of anything that has no relation with describing the reality they need in order to keep the power. This is exemplified in the word 'blackwhite' where, applied to a fellow party member, means something remarkable, yet, when used on an enemy, it implies 'crimethought' (Orwell173). The latter tells us that, no matter what, they are always on the right, orthodox, well-meaning side and whoever contradicts or stands as an opponent shall be wrong.

   All of the previous – war, isolation, and language – are the cornerstones of alienation. Alienation from themselves, their emotions, even the place they occupy in their life since is not in their power but on the Party's. Rather few know the work others do or have done, some care and fewer understand. if anyone, why. Their lives, their emotions, even language cannot be used as one wished, but as they are commanded.

V for vendetta 

As mentioned before, there is a major difference between 1984 and V for Vendetta. V is the one who takes the role of the revealer not of the truth but of the reality on which they are subdued. There is a concern to illustrate and expose the calamities, not the conceptions that support Norsefire. Norsefire here acts as the Party from 1984 but, even though we see and read some explanations, most are left for particular moments when they react to something that has happened. That is why I stated that the aim is not to show or present the ways or techniques, but to reveal and destroy.

Here, instead of aspects we have Evey.  She starts as an isolated child who has lost both parents and was sent to work. she is 16 and knows little but is learning the ways of surviving. Yet, she trips, and because of this, she meets V, who will help her to discover and uncover herself.  At first, we see Evey is shocked by the number of books and music V possesses since all she heard was the military music "they" played, which is the attempt to remove culture so as to be possible to homogenize the population and eradicate multiplicity of opinion, thus thought.

Everywhere is a stage and therefore, we are not revealed what we want or need to know but what they want or need people to see. Every appearance, speech, a public figure is nothing but a carefully arranged plot. From the voice of fate to the chaplain's sermon.  What’s more, we learn that for those who are power there exist no limits, and the truth is distorted, where Liliman says that one should yield to one’s most savage instincts, in reference to Evey portraying a child. That particular moment along with the conversation of V with the figure of justice show us that no matter how tightly sketched the “correct” beliefs are, there is always room for a different interpretation in line with the power that you are endowed.

The issue here as we have seen is not even the alienation of feelings but the lack of them all except fear and insignificance. Evey undergoes  a process, starting with her not wanting to be apart of murdering until Gordon is dead and she decides to take the matter onto her owns hands. This particular moment is quite decisive given that, although she refused to kill for V, who had also saved her, she was willingly planning on taking Gordon's killers down for what they have done, without help or justice coming from someone else but her.

Later, torture and interrogation by V, in order to rid her from every other veil set upon, harden her  and free her, all to be one’s own master. It is no longer the mouth talking, or the fingers controlling what she can or cannot do once she learns that she has found what matters, herself, and how powerful that feeling is.

The idea of idea of alienation is not so much developed, but it is its counterpart, nothing is being built upon, but over the remains.
The ruling system is not as important from the begging given that Evey is to follow the lead of V, who has already realized and knows where to strike because he knows, as well as Evey does what is their own purpose.

As a conclusion, the starting point from both works is different, we have aspects which can be connected between one another, yet there exist several others that have not much to do. Nonetheless, either as a consequence or as a cause, alienation can be observed as a method through which individuals forget themselves into the mass - if possible, unlike 1984- or into a profile, a standard. And every time one gets deeper, the less one remembers and identifies with our past, hence forgetting what is needed for the future.

Works consulted:
Behler, Constantin. CB's Glossary for Students. Retrieved December 2015. http://faculty.washington.edu/cbehler/glossary/glossary.html#alienation

Encyclopaedia Britannica. Alienation. Retrieved: December: 2015 http://global.britannica.com/topic/alienation-society

Orwell, George. 1984. 

Ro, Christopher. Social Interaction and Marx’s Theory of Alienation. Prepared for the Marx and Philosophy Conference.

Saleem, Adbul. THEME OF ALIENATION IN MODERN LITERATURE. European Journal of English                               Language and Literature Studies. Vol.2,No.3, pp.67-76, September 2014

Moore, Allan. V for Vendetta. September 1988 – May 1989