Existentialism in Watchmen
Throughout the graphic novel Watchmen, existentialism is the central philosophy as the characters navigate meaning, choice, and deal with impending nuclear annihilation. The two characters that best demonstrate existentialism in the Watchmen universe are Dr. Manhattan and Rorschach. Existentialism is a category of philosophy that encompasses a wide range of thought, theory, and aesthetic. Although there are exceptions, three core ideas of existentialist philosophy are: godlessness, meaning (anti-nihilism), and “perfervid individualism” with an emphasis on free will (Kaufmann 11). In other words, existentialist philosophy states that human beings are responsible for themselves, their actions, and their individual meaning in a godless universe. Existentialism states that “fate” or courses of action controlled by larger metaphysical forces do not exist. Nothing is “meant to be” and nothing is inevitable.
Dr. Manhattan is not an existentialist. Instead, he expresses the theme of existentialism in Watchmen by representing its opposite: nihilism. Not just nihilism, but fatalistic nihilism. In order to better map out this concept, I’ll first explore how Dr. Manhattan’s philosophy overlaps with existentialism before examining where he diverges from it.
Dr. Manhattan’s philosophy overlaps with existentialism with regards to his atheistic perspective. “Perhaps the world is not made. Perhaps nothing is made. […] A clock without a craftsman” (Moore 138). Dr. Manhattan doesn’t believe that the universe was a product of intelligent design, and his point of view matches very closely with the godless philosophy of existentialism. This lack of creation also implies a lack of intrinsic purpose and challenges the idea that reality has any objective reason for existing. As can be seen, Dr. Manhattan holds the same foundational premises as existentialism, but where he differs from existentialism are the conclusions he draws from these foundations.
Free will and individuality are central to existentialism. According to existentialists, if humans live in a universe without inherent meaning, each human must create their own meaning and must choose to act in accordance with that meaning. Dr. Manhattan doesn’t believe in free will. Instead, Dr. Manhattan believes in the opposite of free will: fatalism. Fatalism, loosely defined, is the belief that the way things happened were destined to happen that way. In other words, fatalists believe that there’s only one path through time. According to Dr. Manhattan, “It simply is, has been, will always be there” (Moore 138). When he and Laurie are on Mars, he claims that his superpowers don’t liberate him from the metaphysical forces that supposedly govern the laws of fate, and that, instead, his powers just let him see those forces. “We’re all puppets, Laurie. I’m just a puppet who can see the strings” (Moore 284). Part of the irony in the way that Moore writes Dr. Manhattan’s character is that if anybody can change the world through enacting on their free will, it’s Dr. Manhattan. Part of the mystery regarding Dr. Manhattan’s philosophy is that we, as human readers, can’t understand how such a character would view the temporal dimension. The few moments in which Dr. Manhattan seems to act on his free will, such as when he kills Rorschach, leave readers wondering what role prescience could’ve played in the action.
If, according to Dr. Manhattan’s philosophy of fatalistic nihilism, everything is predetermined and the path through time is singular, what is Dr. Manhattan’s reason for living? The answer to this question is as simple as it is passive, furthering Moore’s critique of this anti-existentialist philosophy. According to Dr. Manhattan, the purpose of living is to bear witness. “Thermodynamic miracles… events with odds so astronomical they’re effectively impossible, like oxygen spontaneously becoming gold. I long to observe such a thing” (Moore 306). In a philosophy without free will, observing and bearing witness to the singular course of space and time may very well be the only viable reason to exist. Throughout Watchmen, readers find themselves frustrated with Dr. Manhattan’s indifference, passivity, and apathy, proving that Moore’s critique of fatalistic nihilism is effective. This also allows for Dr. Manhattan’s opposing character, Rorschach, the truest existentialist of the graphic novel, to be viewed in a more likable light, despite his obvious flaws.
Issue Six of Watchmen offers Rorschach’s backstory, shown through his therapy sessions in prison. The epigraph for Issue Six is a quote from the German Existentialist philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. “Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you” (Nietzsche 206). This quote touches on two important subjects in existentialism: anti-essentialism and the abyss. Unlike Dr. Manhattan’s philosophy of fatalistic nihilism, Nietzschean existentialists claims that human “essence” comes as a byproduct of existing, rather than the other way around. As Sarte says, “existence comes before essence — or, if you will, we must begin from the subjective” (Sarte 348). So, as human beings are shaped from their existence, any action that’s performed also influences the person that performed said action. In other words, “battling” with or “gazing” at something will prompt a change to one’s being. The concept of the abyss or the void is a bit more abstract, but this piece of the epigraph reflects a much more overarching element of Watchmen: nuclear annihilation. Nuclear war is considered an existential threat, meaning that it would destroy the entire planet. As the nuclear clock ticks toward midnight throughout the graphic novel, there’s a pervading sense of existential dread. The abyss is a physical representation of this concept, as it’s a symbol for the total annihilation that would ensue a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. The concept of the abyss is also central to Nietzschean existentialism as a representation of the objective meaninglessness of existence. “The void breathed hard on my heart, turning its illusions to ice, shattering them” (Moore 204). Although it’s referred to as the “void” in this sentence instead of the “abyss,” the concept is the same: that at the center of everything is nothingness. Matching Nietzsche’s philosophy, Rorschach takes this as an opportunity to create his own meaning. “Was reborn then, free to scrawl own design on this morally blank world” (Moore 204). In other words, Rorschach chooses his own meaning and constructs his own morality in the face of objective meaninglessness.
Further evidence of Rorschach as an existentialist can be seen in his other monologues, as well as the monologues of his psychiatrist, who slowly adopts Rorschach’s worldview as he “gazes” into it. One of these existentialist monologues occurs when Rorschach is explaining his origin story and narrates how he burned a criminal alive by handcuffing him inside of his home, dousing the interior with kerosene, and lighting it. As he describes sitting outside of the burning home, he reflects on existence. “Born from oblivion; bear children, hell-bound as ourselves; go into oblivion. There is nothing else. Existence is random. Has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it for too long. No meaning save what we choose to impose” (Moore 204). The first sentence touches on an important concept in German Existentialist philosophy: thrownness. To very casually paraphrase, thrownness is the act of being “thrown” into existence from a state of nonexistence (Heidegger 127). This state of thrownness is reflected by Rorschach when he says that “Existence is random,” as existentialism states that there are no metaphysical forces governing how humans are thrown into being (Moore 204). Rorschach implies the state of nonexistence with the word “oblivion” and says that humans are forced back into this state of nonexistence when they die. Continuing with this thread of German Existentialism, he circles back to Nietzschean concepts, stating that we project subjective meaning onto objective meaninglessness. This “imposing” of meaning onto reality is central to existentialist philosophy.
Another monologue that exemplifies the presence of existentialism in Watchmen is when Rorschach’s psychiatrist adopts Rorschach’s philosophy after listening to his origin story. As seen with the epigraph of Issue Six, a person’s traits are determined by the act of being. So, as Rorschach’s psychiatrist “gazes” into Rorschach’s psyche, it “gazes” back into him, influencing him to acquire Rorschach’s perspective. This leads to the psychiatrist musing in an existentialist fashion at the end of Issue Six. “The horror is this: in the end, it is simply a picture of empty meaningless blackness. We are alone. There is nothing else” (Moore 206). Again, the concept of being “alone” refers to Nietzsche’s philosophy of a godless existence, first described in his work The Gay Science with the infamous statement: “God is dead” (Nietzsche 126). As the psychiatrist had “gazed” into Rorschach’s philosophy of existentialism, the psychiatrist was converted into an existentialist in the process.
As demonstrated here, existentialism in Watchmen is asserted through the three core concepts of godlessness, the construction of subjective meaning, and free-willed individualism. Although Watchmen is not necessarily a work of obvious existentialist fiction on par with Camus’ The Stranger or Sartre’s Nausea, it nonetheless expresses existentialist philosophy, both by demonstrating its opposite with Dr. Manhattan’s fatalistic nihilism and by demonstrating Nietzsche’s philosophy with Rorschach.
Work Cited:
Kaufmann, Walter. Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre. World Publ. Co. 1956.
Moore, Alan. Watchmen. DC Comics, 2019.
Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time: A Translation of Sein Und Zeit. Translated by Joan Stambaugh, State University of New York Press, 2010.
