Deux Ex Machina

"I need to see you, you appear... I mean, it's all so Deux ex Machina..." (Chapt. 8, Page 23, Panel 3)

In this panel Laurie compares Dr. Manhattan's behavior to the plot device "Duex ex Machina", meaning "The god out of the machine" which Dr. Manhattan announces in the next panel. This Latin phrase derives from a few ancient Greek dramas whose conflicts were surprisingly solved by the intervention of God. In these plays God was usually brought on stage by a machine that would elevate the actor, hence the phrase "God out of the machine". The use of this term draws similarities from God to Dr. Manhattan, but also deifies Veidt as the liberator of the conflict. Moore also adds this term to inform the reader that all the evidence he is showing will be put together during an unexpected change in plot. Every detail that Moore adds to the Watchmen is significant, from logos on candy wrappers to obvious symbolic threads such as the clock. The mention of this term makes the reader more aware that this evidence is present and leading up to a tern of events.

~"Lynch, Literary Terms — Deus ex Machina." Rutgers-Newark: The State University of New Jersey. 01 Apr. 2009 .

~"Geithner Ex Machina." Australian Financial News | The Daily Reckoning Australia. 01 Apr. 2009 .

Midnight November 2

"Midnight, November second" (Chapt. 12, Page 7, Panel 2)

Dr. Manhattan and Laurie arrive in New York following this moment. Moore's choice of date is significant because it is all Souls Day according to the Gregorian Calendar. This holiday is considered by Roman Catholics to be a day when all souls who have not been cleansed from sin can be prayed for and therefore forgiven and brought to heaven. In the Watchmen people worldwide are feeling remorse for each other and have let old conflicts, such as the Cold War become subjects of the past.

~"All Souls Day." Women for Faith and Family Home Page. 31 Mar. 2009 .

~"11/01/2006 - 12/01/2006." The Inn at the End of the World. 31 Mar. 2009 .

Heart of Darkness

"If Veidt truly engineering third World War, we are approaching heart of darkness." (Chapt. 11, Page 3, Panel 2)

Rorschach alludes to the Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, when approaching Veidt in Karnak. People idolize Veidt, considering him the perfect being, while he plots their murder. People in Heart of Darkness build Kurtz's character up to a God like stature, but he is in fact insane and without European morals. When Marlow finally reaches Kurtz, he is insane and going against what many believe is morally correct. Veidt is like Kurtz because he is going against common morals. He also reads the future via television screens, like "the shamanistic tradition of dividing randomly scattered goat innards" (Chapt. 11, Page 2, Panel 1), which is a tribal action.

~Conrad." 01 Apr. 2009 .

The Day the Earth Stood Still

"UTOPIA- THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL" (Chapt. 10, Page 13, Panel 9)

This advertisement is referring to the classic science fiction movie made in 1951. The Day the Earth Stood Still, written by Bruce Janson, is about an alien named Klaatu visiting earth to warn the humans that their destructive manner must cease or outer spacial robots will destruct earth. Klaatu proves that this power exist to the people by shutting down electrical power for a day. It takes place after WWII and has a message against atomic threat. The movies coinciding plot and morals to Watchmen are the reason that Moore uses it as a thread throughout the Watchmen.

~"The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)." The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). 31 Mar. 2009 .

~"YouTube - THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL - 1951:KLAATU'S FINAL SPEECH." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. 31 Mar. 2009 .

Nietzsche

"THE ABYSS GAZES ALSO" (Chapt. 6, Page 2, Panel 1)

This bold statement alludes to the quote "He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you." from Friedrich Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil. Nietzsche was a famous philosopher who believed that knowledge is valuable above all else because ignorance is harmful to the self and others. Kovacs admits to becoming Rorschach after he murders Grice, which makes him realize that God does not exist and the wretchedness in the world are at the fault of mankind. Moore considered Rorschach to have Nihilistic views from that moment on, which is proven when he refuses to allow the word to be ignorant of the fact that Veidt is at fault for the lives lost at the end of Watchmen.

~"Beyond Good and Evil — Ch 2." Marxists Internet Archive. 01 Apr. 2009 .

Enlightenment

"Waiting for a flash of enlightenment in all this blood and thunder" (Chapt. 5, Page 6, Panel 7)

This quote is taken from Rorschach's journal shown at the end of a scene replete with a flashing light. This light has a symmetrical design resembling a skull and cross bone symbol. The next scene presents a poster of Buddha in a triangle, which is a reoccurring shape throughout the book. Buddha portrays the journey to personal awareness and the triangle symbolises the rising journey needed to reach this pinnacle of enlightenment. The owner of the Buddha poster has just killed himself and his children. This foreshadows that he was completely aware of the truth, being that a third world war is very likely. The suicide's denotation foreshadowed Veidt's extermination and humanities faults.

Cycles

"Nothing ends Adrain, nothing ever ends" (Chapter 12, Page 27, Panel 5)

This is Dr. Manhattan's reply when Adrain questions whether or not his actions of murdering many innocent people to save humanity is right in the end. Veidt is deeply concerns with this comment, proven by his worried face in the last panel of page 27. Truman's decition to drop atomic bombs on Hioshima and Nagasaki in order to save American lives resembles Veidt's decition, but is less extreme. Humanity repeats their own mitakes throughout history on large and small scales. Adrian realizes that he had been nearsighted while formulating his plans and that he did not entirely save humanity from disaster. Truman's decition did not prevent Veidt decition which contained a larger consequence. This means that the occurance of a similiar disaster has the potential to be highly likely and even greater than the present conflict. He is aware that, even though he can catch a bullet, he is human and cannot prevent future generations from making the same or similiar to the mistake he was trying to prevent.