April 7 Blog Post

In Chapter 12 of Watchmen, the most dramatic scene comes when Dr. Manhattan kills Rorschach to prevent any chance of him revealing the secret of Viedt’s new utopia. I feel like Rorschach essentially commits suicide. He has the choice to simply walk away from Manhattan and return to New York, or he could have lied and then went back to America and told the truth. Rorschach sees things in such black and white terms that it leads to his downfall. Even though Veidt’s plan has, at least temporarily, he sees no redeeming quality of it. He sees it as evil, and as something that must be punished. It is this quality that allows Rorschach to function, but it is his fatal flaw.

Instead, Rorschach makes a scene of refusing to go along with Viedt’s plan. Then, when Dr. Manhattan hesitates on whether to kill him, Rorschach demands it, and screams “DO IT!” to Dr. Manhattan. He knows that in Viedt’s new utopia, there is no room at all for a vigilante like himself. In addition, I think Rorschach sees what may happen when the utopia falls apart. He sees that when that happens, as Dr. Manhattan subtly predicts later in the chapter, the world will fall into a disrepair that even he and his version of vigilante justice can mend.

Rorschach’s removal of his mask also signifies that as he was born as Kovacs, he will die as Kovacs. For the final moments of his life, Rorschach removes his persona and dies as man, not hero.