1. Due to Dr. Manhattan’s super abilities namely his ability to see past space and time he is unable to have human emotions or sympathize with any type of hardship or difficult situation. In the early parts of the novel Rorschach comes to tell Laurie Jupiter and Dr. Manhattan of the death of their former partner The Comedian; in an emotionless reaction Dr. Manhattan replies “A live body and a dead body contain the same number of particles. Structurally, there's no discernible difference. Life and death are unquantifiable abstracts. Why should I be concerned?”(Chapter 1; pg. 22). Though right after that Rorschach begins to upset Laurie and it appears that upsets Jon to which he tells Rorschach to leave and teleports Rorschach away, it seems more likely that he did not want him to keep upsetting Laurie as opposed to Dr. Manhattan himself actually getting upset. Another aspect that keeps Dr. Manhattan from truly being human is he can see atoms and neutrinos as Laurie reveled to Dan when she first left Dr. Manhattan. Imagine having someone talking to you and being able not only to realize but see that they are just a walking, talking, mass of atoms and vibrational energy fields. Also take into consideration that atoms are over 99% empty space and in the quantum world the term solidity is invalid; Jon sees what appears to us as solid physical object for what they truly are, which is so far different from what humans are capable of perceiving. When this is all taken into consideration it becomes clear that by definition Dr. Manhattan is not human and therefore is not capable of typical human emotions or relating and having successful human relations.
2. Dr. Malcolm Long in an attempt to further his career bring some amount of good publicity for himself and set himself apart from others in his field, bit off more than he could chew by taking Walter Joseph Kovacs’ (Rorschach’s) case. In good nature Dr. Long thought he could genuinely help Walter and possibly be revered as the man who changed around a deeply troubled man, instead Rorschach did more work to undo the clean cut well-adjusted psychiatrist than vice-versa. Even just the way Walter would stare at him emotionless really seemed to cut to the core of Dr. Long, and each subsequent meeting seemed to take more and more of a toll on the psychiatrist self-described content and sunny disposition. Walter’s affects seem to hit a peak after his third meeting with Malcolm Long when he described seeing the dog’s beaten in skull in the paint blot then continuing to detail his murder of an accused child murderer followed by setting the house on fire and watching it burn to the ground. This had a profound effect on the doctor and when he got home his wife reminded him of the dinner plans that had been set, during the time up to the dinner he was silent and when his friend Randy asked him about work he mention a girl who had been kidnapped. To which Randy replied “Oh, Boy! Was she tied up and gagged and helpless?” Dr. Long then replies “No. She was six. Her abductor killed her, butchered her and fed her to his German Shepherds” (Chapter 6; pg. 27). After that they called the dinner early and Malcolm’s wife left for the night, Dr. Long seemed a mere shadow of his former happy cheerful self and yet Rorschach is still the deeply disturbed murderous vigilante of “justice”.
3. Though Dr. Manhattan is generally incapable of having basic human emotions he wishes he could have lived out his life as just regular Jon Osterman. Before Dr. Manhattan’s self-imposed exile to Mars he teleports to Arizona to recover an old photo of himself Jon Osterman pre-Dr. Manhattan incarnation with his old love Janey Slater; obviously by the act of specifically picking up the photo before leaving shows the photo has some significance to him. Another reason he would want to return things to how they used to be is because of all the accusations he received of giving those close to him incurable types of cancer from the radiation he emits. This claim has an interesting dichotomy to it though that because he’s such a powerful being now it’s conceivable to believe that he could return thing to the way they were. But Jon sees time from a completely different perspective and to him what has, is, or will happen is all indivisibly one. Ultimately though if he did not have the accident he would have married Janey Slater and stayed with her for his natural-born life, but with the new body and new perspective acquired from his experience he is not as attached to emotions like love and instead is more prone to just physical attractiveness hence the reason he left Janey after she began to show signs of aging while he stayed the same. This claim has interesting paradoxes and certainly can be seen from different perspectives but if Dr. Manhattan could have avoided his accident he would have been more content living his natural-born life.
4. Life as Dr. Manhattan has no meaning, because he can see past space and time. The main
point of a physical existence is the ability to improve and gain information and learn from experiences. Dr. Manhattan knows all and can see all the experiences he will or has had. “Everything is preordained even my responses.” Jon says, “And you just go through the motions acting them out? Is that what you are? The most powerful thing in the universe and you’re just a puppet following a script?” Laurie asks to which Jon replies with “We’re all puppets, Laurie. I’m just a puppet who can see the strings” (Chapter 9; Pg. 5). How does one learn and grow from experience when the information has already been gained? That is the conundrum of the life of Jon Osterman, we are all infinitely conscience beings but everyone except Jon is restricted by the space-time continuum. When we get to that point of being, which is beyond the normal physical reality there is no need for the body as a vehicle of experience which is the reason our body fails and dies. The first law of thermodynamics states that energy cannot not be created or destroyed. This means when our body dies the life energy that we call personality must go somewhere, thus the immortality of life. Jon is of that higher consciousness and yet is still tied to the physical reality vibrational fields, which makes his life a hell of sorts. Where he relates with no one and everyone looks to him to solve their problems even though through the paradigm that he sees life he cannot stop the preordained prophecy of what has, is, or will happen; making his existence in this reality pointless.
5. Rorschach is the most optimistic character in the Watchmen graphic novel. Superficially
Rorschach can easily been seen as the darkest most doom and gloom character of the novel, but when you dig past the exterior this claim begins to make more sense. On the outside Rorschach is callous and morbid because he is a reflection of the world around him, his mother was a prostitute who was far from the ideal mother, he was constantly picked on as a child by other kids and not to mention pushed around by his mother’s “clients”. He had no true father figure other than the idealized version he made up in his head. Then looking at his career he’s constantly surrounding himself and investigating murderers, rapists, and similar folk. But the reality is that these things are going on, whether you turn a blind eye to it or not, certainly it takes a unique type of person to be willing to aggressively combat such evils in the manner he chooses. Even though most people wouldn’t take it upon themselves to kill the man who kidnapped the six-year-old girl, it’s hard to completely condemn his actions, karma’s a bitch and Rorschach happens to be the one willing to go up and deliver such karma. Just because he does not have a stupid smile painted on his face everywhere he goes and constantly talking about how great the world is doesn’t show he’s a morbid downer. It shows that he’s awake; he deals with the real world and has a moral standard that the world around does not match. He tells you what he thinks then puts it into action but still believes that it can change; it’s only a choice as is evident by his journal log after The Comedians funeral when he says “Nothing is insoluble. Nothing is hopeless. Not while there’s life” (Chapter 2; pg. 25). Rorschach’s optimism is in knowing things can change, where the morbidity comes in is putting that change into practice and doing away with those of whom continue to violate other’s basic human rights.
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