Watchmen Through Saussure

Inkblots, Signs, and Anti-Heroes through Saussure.

Understanding the drives and motivations of characters known as the anti-heroes are not as visible as their superficial portrayals.   Usually born of tragic events, the anti-hero tends to be violent, devoid of mercy and prone to enforcing their uncompromising belief structures.   The template for the anti-hero tends to be people who are like the reader and transformed by horrific events.  However, it is more likely that the anti-hero is someone who is not like the reade which is transformed by horrific events.  Rorschach from Alan Moore’s graphic novel Watchmen exemplifies this notion.  Interpretation will be viewed through Ferdinand De Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics.  More specifically, Saussure’s work will demonstrate how Rorschach relates to the world, how different he is from the reader, and how the opposition forms the sign for the anti-hero.

Rorschach’s morality is simple but leads to the underworld hating him, law enforcement despising him, no friendships, and enmity among his associates.  He wears a sealed mask of white with black liquid that shifts and moves inside.  His mask physically resembles the inkblots from a Rorschach test.  His motto is presented with a straight on view of his mask: “There is good and there is evil, and evil must be punished.  Even in the face of Armageddon I shall not compromise in this” (Moore 1: 24).  Saussure identified “syntagm applies not only to words but to groups of words, to complex units of all lengths and types” (864).  The syntagm in proximity with the mask forms a complex sign.  The mask becomes a sign that personifies and illustrates the linguistic equivalent of Rorschach’s morality. 

Significant differences between the reader and Rorschach become apparent after his arrest.  Rorschach’s real name is established as Walter Kovacs (Moore 6: 1).  A psychologist learns about Kovacs through a series of Rorschach tests.  A Rorschach test being a series of abstract inkblots in which psychologists make determinations of a subject’s personality or mental health.  Kovacs is shown an inkblot and immediately thinks of a dog with its head split open.  He lies convincingly: “A pretty butterfly” (1).  Saussure would consider the inkblot the referent, the concept of the butterfly as the signified, and the sound image of the butterfly as the signifier (852-855).   Further, the sign of butterfly exists only because the community universally recognizes it, or in this case, the reader recognizes it (851).  Saussure would identify that Kovacs’s lie of “butterfly” did not negate or change his notion of the dead dog, only that he is able to vocalize a response considered socially acceptable.   Kovacs does not interpret social conventions and signs they same way the reader does.  The reader begins to realize the gap between them and Kovacs and that his responses are thin veils that barely enable him to interact with society.  Further, the inkblot tests are directly associated with the signs, or concepts, generated from Kovacs’s mask.  The anti-hero Rorschach literally sees the world through the inkblots that are reflective of his black and white morality and subject to his distorted interpretations.

Rorschach was not always brutal.  However, while investigating a kidnapping he discovers a young child had been butchered and fed to a pair of dogs.  He kills the dogs and the full horror of the events and his transformation occurs:  “It was Kovacs … who closed his eyes.  It was Rorschach who opened them again” (Moore 6: 21).  Rorschach is born, and Saussure would recognize the sign of Rorschach was redefined and changed by external events in a similar fashion to his notion of changes that occur with signs (862).

Rorschach becomes a sign for the anti-hero because of his opposition to the reader.   Language “ … is based on oppositions of this kind and on the phonic and conceptual differences that they imply” (Saussure 861).   The reader interprets most things in line with social conventions.  The sign of Rorschach does not.  The reader is open to compromise.  The sign of Rorschach does not.  The reader has elements of compassion and empathy.  The sign of Rorschach does not.  The reader wants to establish healthy relationships.  The sign of Rorschach does not.  Rorschach gains life and dimension by what the reader is not.

Anti-heroes are popular as they represent aspects of self-reliance and protection, but those are only a few aspects to which a reader can relate.  Rorschach, as interpreted through Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics, demonstrates the anti-hero is established through opposition and differentiation from the reader.  Although the acts of the anti-heroes are glorified, the reader should look deeper into determining exactly how much alike they want to be with the anti-hero.

  

            Works Cited 

Moore, Alan and Dave Gibbons. Watchmen. New York: DC Comics Inc. 1986. Print.

Saussure, Ferdinand De. Course in General Linguistics. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.  Ed. Vincent B. Leitch et al.  2^nd ed. New York: W.W.Norton & Co., 2010.  845-866. Print.