The Swedish National Agency for Education, Skolverket, states that English students in upper secondary school need to learn about “[…] living conditions, social issues and cultural phenomena in different contexts […]”. Further, teaching human rights, values and democracy is critical, as it is a basic principle in Swedish education. To do so, the primary text investigated in this thesis is the graphic novel V for Vendetta, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd, first published in its entirety 1988.

V for Vendetta is a dystopian story, depicting a totalitarian government, and the main protagonist, V, trying to upset the regime with extreme actions. The main purpose of this thesis is to highlight how V for Vendetta can be used to explore democracy in a school context. As it is an open text, the students will read and analyse many situations of social issues and ambiguous morality, helping them understand democracy on a deeper plane. The students are to address the question: “Is V a terrorist or not?” throughout their readings. To achieve this, they must understand relevant notions and situations. Thus, a close reading of several excerpts from the story will be presented, to highlight relevant things to consider.

The close reading shows that there are many themes, ideologies and questions of morality presented throughout the text. With the combination of V’s actions, a solid ground for the students to answer whether they perceive V as a terrorist or not is set. Although it is hard to categorise V, the ideas presented in the text helps students understand democracy, by first understanding the threats to democracy.