Faked Imprisonment Scene Essay

Later on in the film, in the faked imprisonment scene, McTeigue uses camera work, symbolism and dialogue of the character Evey to help develop the understanding of Masks and Identity. At the start of the faked imprisonment scene, Evey is scared and unsure with her ideas as she is living in fear when she is thrown inside the prison cell. The high angle shot looking down on Evey curled up in a ball, shows us that she is in fear and doesn’t know where she stands within her own identity. Evey’s ideas aren’t powerful and she is unsure what is wrong and what is right. However, as the scene further develops, we are shown that she has discovered her own identity, when she says “thank you, but I’d rather be shot behind the chemical sheds”. This dialogue
shows us that her ideas are too powerful to give up V’s identity and his plan to the government. Both V and Evey ideas are more important than Evey’s life. During this scene, symbolism represents Evey “removing her mask”, which shows us that she stood up and believed in her own identity in her own ideas and what she believed was right. As Evey “removed her mask”, she was removing her old identity of her living in fear and she was creating a new identity of believing in her own ideas and living without fear. We see Evey is no longer scared with a close up shot on her face, where she is confident and she has no fear of dieing. As now she speaks and acts in a way which is true to herself and her own ideas. Ideas can’t die like a person can, ideas are bulletproof and can’t be damaged or destroyed. It is human nature to act the same way as others and not to act the way you want to act. It is all about “removing your mask” and discovering who you truly are and becoming true to yourself. Like Evey, it is important that we speak and act in the way that is true to our own beliefs. Mask help to keep yourself safe, so we don’t have to act differently to match other requirements.