While Watchmen can never be accused of painting an optimistic picture of humanity, one thing that kept coming back to me during this reading was just how flawed virtually every type of human relationship is shown to be throughout the text.
Moore is absolutely unrelenting in his portrayal of marital and parental relations. Rorschach’s childhood is a nightmare of physical and verbal abuse, and Laurie’s strained relationship with her mother leads to resentment and a life of half-truths. Likewise, the vast majority of marital-type relationships in the text are shown to be deeply flawed (Jon and Laurie, Jon and Janey Slater, Sally Jupiter and Larry, Dr. Long and his wife, Joey and her girlfriend). These dysfunctional portrayals of family life fit well with Rosen’s reading of Watchmen as a very blunt critique on nostalgia, and it seems Moore is intent to hit his readers over the head with the message that family lives don’t always live up to the idealized views that society can present.
But Moore also seems to be making an interesting critique on humanity and the general inability in contemporary society for people to form connections with one another. As the true “superhero” of the text, Dr. Manhattan struggles between the roles of protector and threat because of his inability to connect with humanity. Likewise, two superpower nations are on the verge of nuclear annihilation, without seemingly any sense of their shared humanity. Rorschach’s sense of isolation is so extreme that he chooses to lead a life as a deranged recluse. And the physical failure to connect with another person is present on a sexual level in Dreiberg’s impotence.
While much of these failures of connection are righted by the end of the story, it’s also interesting to look at just how these resolutions are brought about. The fate of humanity is saved (at least temporarily) as Americans and Soviets can come together to fight a perceived common threat, but only after millions die. And Dreiberg consummates his relationship with Laurie, but only after putting on his mask and costume.
Moore is certainly making some heavy political statements in Watchmen. But I also think he’s intentionally making some interesting human statements. His goal doesn’t seem limited to simply subverting any idealized views of our relationships with one another. He also seems to be focused in questioning the fabric that serves as the basis for these relationships to begin with.
John
I think it’s interesting to think that the problem isn’t with understanding humanity but rather to understand their search for connections between each other, which through Dr. Manhattan’s analysis, may not exist. I think the critique you point out about these problematic connections is valid because Moore allows there to be “good people”–like Dreiberg and Dr. Long–but still have problems making connections with others within personal relationships, without overcoming obstacles that is. By this, I mean one would assume that it could be a problem with the person that keeps them from forming relationships, but that isn’t the case here as good people have just as much of a problem making these relationships work as any other character.
I agree that Moore is questioning the fundamentals of relationships, particularly within the family. Given the overt psychological questioning of the heroes and humanity I could not help but think that there may also be a commentary on nature versus nurture within the text. Obviously Rorschach’s upbringing provides the most insight into the influence of the family situation. His mother’s lifestyle and then calling him “backward” (6:3), shows a natural predisposition to the backward lifestyle he has led. And this natural inclination paired with the abusive environment of his childhood led Rorschach to become Rorschach. And the breaking points psychologically for Kovacs to become Rorschach arise from situations of abuse, first with the boys abusing him on his way home, the abuse and murder of the kidnapping victim, and the abuse of the woman whose dress he then used to create the mask for Rorschach.
Similarly Hollis, one of the first masked heroes, brought up with a good work ethic and morals from his father and grandfather. Laurie endures a life of isolation created by her mother and watches her mother’s struggle with men, which reflects her confined life with Dr. Manhattan and need for a man. And Veidt’s background of money presents him growing up with everything and then wanting, to the extreme, everything as an adult.
The idea of nature v. nurture on the personal level provided by the pieces of nostalgia for each character then creates a larger picture of how the world on the brink of destruction has been created by the nature and nurture of society. Throughout the novel Moore shows how human actions have led to the problems of the world, and therefore we as humans control the fate of the world – humans have nurtured the world into what it has become. And even hints that with the threat of nuclear war we are compromising the inherent nature of the world. This idea becomes most striking during the psychological testing of Rorschach when he mentions the case of Kitty Genovese, whose murder is the example for the psychological and social phenomenon of the bystander effect. The bystander effect states that the more people around to witness a crime the less likely it is that someone will call for help because we expect another person to do it, people just stand by and let horror occur without taking action. Rorschach use of this case shows the importance of masked heroes because they take action. Nurture is the side of action within the controversy of nature.v.nurture and I think Moore presents a society devoid of nurture from the basic family unit to the greater level of humanity.
I agree that human relationships in general get a bad rap in Watchmen, and I think a large part of that is in line with Moore’s critique of superheroes. Many of the superhero origin stories we’re familiar with involve some sort of parental trauma (or parental-figure trauma). Superman and Batman, of course, but also a host of superheroes in other comics. In the kind of comics Moore is writing against, the trauma almost always leads to a dazzling commitment to doing good (except when it doesn’t, and then it leads to a dazzling commitment to doing evil). In Watchmen the parental trauma just leads to a screwed up view of the world that is only compounded by attempts to be a masked adventurer.