Valerie Page
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Valerie Page is a fictional character from the comic book series (later republished as a graphic novel) V for Vendetta. She also features in the film adaptation.
[edit] In the comic book series
Valerie appears in a series of flashbacks when protagonist Evey Hammond finds a letter the former wrote, detailing her life story.
In the letter, Valerie says she is from Nottingham. While at a single-sex grammar school, she meets her first girlfriend, Sara. The couple is told by their teacher that lesbianism is "an adolescent phase that people outgrow". Valerie does not and comes out to her parents; a week later she moves to London to study drama — her mother tells her that Valerie has broken her mother's heart.
As a young woman, Valerie stars in her first film, The Salt Flats. While filming, she meets a woman named Ruth, and the two become lovers. However, over the three years of their relationship, the situation between the United States and the USSR spirals out of control and - after the resulting war - chaos erupts in Britain, eventually creating a nationwide power vacuum that the fascist Norsefire party exploits to seize power. Once in control, the new government criminalize homosexuality and began sending homosexuals to "resettlement camps".
Ruth is apprehended by Norsefire's secret police, the Finger, while buying food. Shortly afterwards, Valerie is arrested and sent to Larkhill resettlement camp (Valerie writes that she learned that Ruth betrayed her to the authorities under torture and later committed suicide in her cell out of guilt; there is no mention of this in the film, but in the novelization of the film Evey suspects this while reading the letter). At Larkhill, Valerie is one of the number that Dr. Delia Surridge and Commander Lewis Prothero use as test subjects. As the experiments progress, Valerie writes her autobiography using a small pencil she smuggled into the camp and a dried out roll of toilet paper. Just before she dies, she passes it to the occupant in the cell next to hers, Room V. The autobiography is the catalyst that psychologically transforms the occupant of Room V into the masked terrorist "V". He then destroys the camp and escapes.
V engineers an elaborate charade in which Evey is led to believe she is imprisoned in one of Norsefire's resettlement camps. V then anonymously slips Valerie's letter into Evey's cell, hoping to trigger in her the same psychological transformation he had at Larkhill. It is successful, and Evey is thus prepared to become V's successor.
[edit] In other media
In the 2006 film adaptation of the novel, Valerie is played by Natasha Wightman as an adult, and by Imogen Poots as a child.
[edit] External links
Valerie's Letter, from the film adaptation
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