One starless night thirty-eight individuals watched from their apartments as Winston Moesely repeatedly stabbed a shrieking young woman. Although Moesely was briefly stopped by a distant shout of "leave that girl alone" (Maeder, 12/13/98), causing him to run away, he returned ten minutes later to leisurely kill the twenty-eight-year-old as she lay upon the hearth of her apartment building. Moesely took his time as she begged for help from her neighbors. On March 13, 1964, Kitty Genovese died on the streets of Queens, by herself, as her neighbors watched passively and turned a blind eye to the chaos surrounding them.

We exist in a world of chaos - uncaring, random, and deadly. Every day, members of our species struggle for their very existence against this chaos, trying to contain and control it. Although our mere existence in the universe does not create a sense of obligation for it, we seemed to be damned if we don't struggle against the universe and the chaos it wields. How we forge the struggle against chaos varies: science, morals, physical action, and willful blindness are employed. Although these coping methods are represented by a variety of characters in Alan Moore's Watchmen, intrinsic failures to each method exist. Each character encountered ultimately succumbs to the chaos and the universe with no sense of obligation.

With a quick glance through the graphic novel, we sense that Moore's reality parallels our own. From the cover the audience quickly surmises the setting: New York City, with its trademark Empire States Building. Yet, once within Moore's Manhattan, we see that the world is not ours: dirigibles float along the skyline for mass transit; electric cars fill up at free electrical power hydrants; geodesic domes, superficially similar to the Houston Astrodome, populate the city scape; and flying elephants advertising Indian fast food (Atkinson, 4/6/96). Further evidence of a parallel world includes a myriad of historical figures and events which have been similarly altered. Two of the most prominent examples of divergence from our world occurred during the 1970's: the United States' victory in the Vietnam conflict and the presidency of Richard M. Nixon, currently (1985) serving his fifth term in the office [1]. However, there exists a number of smaller differences littering this world, including Robert Redford's presidential bid in 1988 and the immense popularity of E.C. Comics, especially their "pirates' comics" line, when other types of comic books, such as action comics like Batman, are nonexistent [2]. Of course, the biggest change between these two worlds is the mask avengers and super heroes which dominate Watchmen. Ironically, in Moore's universe Action Comics #1 - the first appearance of Superman in 1938 - began the costume fighter fad which did not develop in our world: "For me" the original Nite Owl writes in his autobiography, Under the Hood, "it all started in 1938, the year they invented the super-hero" (1:31) [3].

What makes this world operate in such a manner? Why dirigibles and costume heroes and not taxies and ordinary citizens? And why do these characters accept such a drastic changes in their reality? The answer lies within the concept of contingency. In traditional thinking, event E happened, following and because of events A through D. This seems to be the only logical chain of events which can transpire because that is how they transpired. However, a different event E could arise if different previous events occurred; those living in the new event E would see this as the only true and logical event E. A more scientific explanation exists for this phenomenon: "any variant of E arise from an altered set of antecedents, would have been equally explicable, though massively different in form and effect" (Gould, p.283). Further, contingency recognizes the innate chaos of history: "A historical explanation does not rest on direct deductions from laws of nature, but on an unpredictable sequence would have altered the final result" (Gould, p. 283). Watchmen's origins lie within this concept of chaos.

Moore clearly understands and uses contingency within his graphic novels. In an interview Moore states " … of course history, as with any fiction, like the story of Superman, can be revised endlessly" (Kendall, p. 11). Moore has done this in Watchmen: revising history, accepting the chaos of contingency, and creating the world which seems natural and logical for those living in it. Through chaotic actions a whole new, logical, world exists. However, Moore's actions are not unique in this respect. Contingency surfaces throughout works of fiction, most notably in our own century. Literary masterpieces like George Orwell's 1984 constantly rewrite history, both ours and their own, for the whims of Big Brother. Science fiction, from Back to the Future to Star Trek: First Contact, illustrate what happens when characters alter their own histories. In the former, the main character goes back to 1955 and almost erases himself after accidentally interfering with his parents' first contact so they never fell in love; in the latter, the bad guys try to erase the good guys by stopping First Contact and the founding of the Federation. In both films, the altered futures seem logical for the inhabitants within that future. The most famous example of contingency in the modern era is Frank Capra's 1946 holiday classic It's a Wonderful Life [4]. In this film, George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart), a suicidal man, is shown by his guardian angel what the world would have been like if he had never existed. The result is a strange new world, but one that is perfectly logical since George Bailey never existed. In Watchmen, Moore slightly reverses the trend and shows us what the world would be like if superheroes did exist.

Moore's world was created by two different and random divergences from our own world. The first major divergence, originally altering Moore's universe from our own, was the costume crime fighter fad of the 1940's through the 1970's [5]. It began with the publication of Action Comics #1, the first appearance of Superman, and proliferated during World War II. The era of the costume crime fighters came to an end on August 3rd, 1977 with the passage of the Keene Act, making vigilantism illegal expect under governmental control [6]. Three vigilantes continued to operate: the Comedian, Dr. Manhattan, and Rorschach. The Comedian and Dr. Manhattan worked for the United States Government under the Keene Act. However, Rorschach acted independently and refused to quit when the Keene act was passed: "he expresses his feelings toward compulsory retirement in a note left outside police headquarters along with a dead multiple rapist" (4:23:6). This note simply reads "Never!" (sic, 4:23:6).

The creation of Dr. Manhattan marks the second watershed event in Moore's new Earth.

Jon Osterman, later known as Dr. Manhattan, worked as a nuclear physicist for a governmental agency when he was accidentally caught inside an experiment to remove the "intrinsic field" from objects. He entered the intrinsic field experiment chamber to retrieve a broken watch he had fixed for his girlfriend when the door closed behind him. He received a massive dose of radiation which disintegrated him; ironically, the watch he went to retrieve had been in his pocket all the time, "good as new" (4:8:2). This random event transformed Osterman into a Nietzschen uberman, with powers beyond that of a normal mortal. The government later transformed Jon's name to Dr. Manhattan. Dr. Manhattan has control over the very subatomic particles of the universe. In short, within Moore's universe, Dr. Manhattan appears to be omnipotent. As one scientist states in regards to Dr. Manhattan "God exists and he's American" (sic, 4:31). The American government goes on to use Dr. Manhattan as a one man deterrent to the armed chaos around the world. The Doctor states "without me, things [in the world] would have been different" (4:27:2). Maybe not better or worse, but just different. At the same time Dr. Manhattan acknowledges the randomness of his very existence:

If that fat man hadn't crushed the watch, if I hadn't left it in the test chamber... [sic] Am I to blame then?

Or the fat man? Or my father, for choosing my career? Which of us is responsible? Who makes the world?

(4:27:2-3)

Had any of these events and characters, both large and small, occurred or acted slightly differently, then the world would have been vastly different. But through a series of random events, things occurred they way they did.

Even though randomness and chaos are the keys to the novel, the characters within this random universe struggle to gain control over it. Many of them realize that the universe does not have a sense of obligation to help them. On the surface, science, morality, action, and willful blindness are all methods employed against chaos. Yet, by the end, nearly all fail to cope with chaos, allowing it reign supreme.

The fundamental method to control chaos emerges through scientific dogma. By its nature, science seeks to control the universe. The ultimate expression of this principle is the elusive Grand Unified Theory of Quantum Physics, which is supposed to predict all actions.

In Moore's universe, scientific achievements dot the landscape: dirigibles, electric cars, and bioengineered creatures (like a four legged chicken [1:25:4]). As one critic put it "Moore immediately and subtly lays out the advance technology used by the characters" in their interactions within their world (Fishbaugh, 12/3/98). The ultimate personification of science within this text is, of course, Dr. Manhattan, "the ultimate scientist" (Fishbaugh, 12/3/98). Even his symbol - a single electron revolving around a single proton, i.e., the hydrogen atom and building block of all other elements - speaks to the power of science within his persona. Through his powers, he appears to be a god. Yet, like most deities, he is confronted with the age old paradox of chaos; he is confronted with random, chaotic events which he cannot or chooses not to effect. One example of this chaotic paradox occurs when the Comedian slaughters his pregnant Vietnamese lover after she stabbed him in the face with a broken bottle. In almost a disgusted tone, Dr. Manhattan says "Blake [the Comedian], she was pregnant. You gunned her down" (2:15:3). The Comedian responds to Dr. Manhattan's criticism with "You watched me. You coulda changed the gun into steam or the bullets into mercury or the bottle into snowflakes! You coulda teleported either of us to goddamn Australia …but you didn't lift a finger!" (2:15:4). Even with his power, Dr. Manhattan fails to control these random events. Or, he chooses not too. Either way, the girl is dead. But if he truly is the living personification of science, should he not have a sense of obligation to try to control the chaos, to prevent her death?

The answer to this inquiry must be no. Fundamentally, science realizes and exists in a state of constant flux and chaos. The modern concepts of surviving mass extinctions through decimation and quantum physic's entropy, the eventual degeneration into chaos, exemplifies this point [7]. Further, the Heisenberg principle disallows the scientist, even if he is Dr. Manhattan, to know everything. The mere act of observing changes the object being observed. Therefore, we cannot know everything and unpredictable events occur. Sometimes these occurrences are small; sometimes they are large, thermodynamic miracles, "events with odds against [them] so astronomical they're effectively impossible, like oxygen spontaneously becoming gold" as Manhattan describes them (9:26:5). Further, in today's world many study chaos as a science. Chaos theory has become the catch phrase of recent years.

Since science at its core encompasses chaos, random and unpredictable events, Jon must also encompass chaos. In Watchmen's special edition, Moore wrote the following concerning Dr. Manhattan:

Try to imagine what it would be like to be [Dr. Manhattan]. The desk you're sitting at and the chair you're sitting on give less of an impression of reality and solidity to you if you know you can walk through them. …Everything around you is somehow more insubstantial and ghostly, including the people you know and love. …While most of us are intellectually aware of that both our bodies and the reality surrounding us are composed of billions of gyrating waves or particles or whatever the current quantum theory states, we can forget this disconcerting fact quite easily. …[Dr. Manhattan] would not be so fortunate. He would know himself and the world about him from a perspective far more alien than that of the most rabid quantum theorist. He would experience the paradoxes of reality at a quantum scale of existence: that all things can exist in two places at the same time, that certain particles [tachyons] can travel backwards through time and exhibit physical properties that are exactly the reverse of normal physical laws… (Fishbaugh, 12/3/98)

Ultimately, Manhattan embraces the chaos and leaves our world, perhaps our reality, "for one less complicated" (12:27:3). By embracing it, he is no longer human and therefore no longer subject to the constraints used to come to terms with chaos.

One of these constraints is morality. As with science, characters within the text try to use morality to grasp the chaotic world around them. Perhaps the fundamental example of this occurs at the end of the graphic novel, with the revelation of Ozymandias's plan. Ozymandias, the appointed "smartest man in the world," predicted that the world was to end with a nuclear holocaust between the Soviet Union and the United States of America. To avoid this fate, Ozymandias creates a hideous and monstrous "space alien". At midnight on November 2, 1985, he launches his plan, teleporting the creature into New York City as if it were an attack upon the Earth. He hopes that the belligerent countries stop quarreling among themselves and unify against a common threat [8]. The attack is successful, killing millions of New Yorkers in a single stroke. With their deaths comes an immediate halt to aggressions between the nations. By Christmas time, detents between the superpowers were fashioned, Nixon and Mikhal Gorbachev were shaking hands, and posters with slogans "One World: One Accord" and crossed United State and Soviet flags protecting the Earth were pinned up (12:31:3-5). Peace had been achieved in our time. Chaos appears to have been thwarted.

But at what cost? One character estimates that the death toll was upwards of three million (Atkinson, 4/6/96). To many the moral consequences and implications of Ozymandias's action were incalculable. Nite Owl, the Silk Specter, Rorschach and Dr. Manhattan face the moral choice of whether or not to expose Ozymandias's plan to the world after the fact. As the smartest man in the world told them: "Will you expose me, undoing the peace millions died for? Kill me, risking subsequent investigation? Morally, you're in checkmate" (12:20:3). Dr. Manhattan quickly tells the other heroes: "Logically, I'm afraid he's right. Exposing this plot, we destroy any chance of peace, dooming Earth to worse destruction", to reenter chaos (12:20:4). He chooses to withhold his own knowledge of the events to the outside world. Nite Owl and Silk Specter also decide that the only recourse is not to reveal Ozymandias actions, undermining their own sense of morals: "How...how can humans make decisions like this? We're damned if we stay quiet, Earth's damned if we don't", Nite Owl reasons (12:20:6). The only justification seems to be that the good of the many out weighs the good of the few who are already dead. However, Rorschach refuses to compromise, "Not even in the face of Armageddon" (12:20:8). Unlike the others, Rorschach faces a chaotic fate. Dr. Manhattan disintegrates Rorschach to protect the secret.

This leads to the final ways that the characters try to cope with their chaotic universe which has no sense of obligation towards humans. These final general constructions against the chaos are physical actions and willful blindness. Ozymandias's plan represents the former [9]. It appeared to work until the final panel of the book.

During the course of the novel, Rorschach records in his personal journal his inner thoughts and reflections on the events unfolding. Among the entries in the journal is Rorschach's realization of Ozymandias's plan and his involvement in a number of crimes, including the murder of the Comedian in the first chapter. Rorschach writes his correct suspicions into the journal as a record of deeds committed by humanity. Before confronting Ozymandias at his Antarctic palace, the mask avenger mailed the journal to a conspiracy orientated publication known as The New Frontiersman. Although the journal was originally put into the "crank file" to be burned at New Years (10:24:7), Moore ends the novel with The New Frontiersman's clerk, Seymour, reaching for the journal. Seymour needs a story for the next issue of The New Frontiersman. What occurs after the book ends is up for endless speculation. Perhaps Seymour will not touch the book and it will vanish into the blaze by the next week. Perhaps Ozymandias's plan will fulfill its namesake, destined to fail with only dust covering it. However, even if it is published, many people may not believe Rorschach's journal. Ozymandias allows Rorschach to leave: "Ah well ... in all likelihood it's of no consequence. As a reliable witness Rorschach is hardly ... how shall we put it ... 'without stain'? [sic]" (12:21:2). We cannot know what will happen in the next few moments. We do know that the next random and chaotic event will change the world forever. And contingency will make everyone after that point think that this was the only logical conclusion. Even against Ozymandias, chaos holds the trump card to play at its convenience.

Like Ozymandias, Rorschach also physically tries to alter the chaos around him. He does it through crime fighting. He is unwilling - even in the face of Armageddon - to compromise with chaos, even if the form is rapist, kidnapper, or the smartest man in the world. However, at the end Rorschach meets chaos. Dr. Manhattan reduces him to ashes. Ozymandias's plan may succumb and be destroyed by chaos; Rorschach is destroyed by chaos. It appears that physical retaliation against chaos is unreliable at best, and totally futile at worst. Chaos will reign supreme.

The last option open to the human race is exercising willful blindness towards chaos. Can we pretend that it does not occur? Unlike the universe, do we have a sense of obligation to control chaos? Some of the characters think we do. Rorschach enters his vigilante profession to fight the chaos because people willfully ignored it. The first incident shaping Rorschach's personality was the murder of Kitty Genovese in New York (6:10:6-8). The second incident was a kidnapping case in which a two year old was hacked into pieces and feed to dogs (6:18-20). The little girl happen to have the same name as rich business man. When the kidnapper discovered his mistake, he butchered the girl since the family could not pay the ransom. Rorschach chose to fight the chaos because others would not. The police did not care about a poor girl who was kidnapped. Rorschach searches for the girl only to discover her violent ends. As punishment, he burns the kidnaper alive. He tries to destroy a personification of chaos. Ultimately, Rorschachs actions lead him to his own chaotic ends.

But others had no sense of obligation to battle chaos. Kitty's case illustrates the randomness and callous reality of chaos. She just happened to leave her work as her killer drove past. One reporter practically cited contingency in regards to the events: "It had been Kitty Genovese's destiny to leave Ev's 11th Hour [the bar she worked at] exactly at the moment [her killer] drove past the place, and he had made a U-turn and followed her home" (Maeder, 12/13/98). As the story filtered out of Queens, the world experienced shock at both the crime and the willful blindness of those around Kitty. Yet, one woman summed up the whole episode: "I did not call the police then, and I would not call the police now" (Maeder, 12/13/98). Those thirty-eight individuals who watched Kitty Genovese get killed all survived that night. They ignored the chaos, choosing blindness over acknowledgment. Had they become a costume crime fighter, they may have died.

A further example in the Watchmen occurs at the end when the heroes allow Ozymandias to go free. Dr. Manhattan left the universe to create a new one; Nite Owl and Silk Specter got each other. They chose to ignore the chaos, they chose to ignore Ozymandias's mass destruction. Had they not, they would have ended up as Rorschach: disintegrated and alone.

Dealing with chaos cannot easily be rectified. Chaos by its nature is not only random but also uncaring. It exists as the key component within both our own universe and that of Moore's universe. Although we exist along side it, chaos and the universe have no sense of obligation towards us. Further, any actions we take against chaos appear to be in vain. Science dogma intrinsically encompasses chaos. Morality many times must be compromised to deal with chaos, and we will not know if the sacrifice stopped chaos. Physical action appears to be no deterrent to chaos. It will continue, no matter what we do. Perhaps the best answer is to try to ignore it, to enter a state of willful blindness. This is a great idea, as long as chaos chooses to ignore you. If it doesn't, then we could share the same fate as Kitty.

A man said to the universe:

"Sir, I exist!"

"However," replied the universe,

"the fact has not created in me

a sense of obligation".

[Stephen Crane]

Bibliography:

Associated Press, "Today in History: August 3, 1998."

http://www.kwtv.com/today/archive-2/tod0803.htm, 3 August 1998.

Atkinson, Doug. "The Annotated Watchmen."

http://student-www.uchicago.edu/users/jbfliege/watchmen.html, 6 April 1996.

Coville, Jamie. "The History of Super hero Comic Books."

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8580/noframes.html, 16 August 1996.

Crane, Stephen. "A man said to the universe:". As in John Hollander, ed. American Poetry:

The Nineteenth Century. New York: Library of America (College Editions), 1996, p. 755.

Fishbaugh, Brent. "Moore and Gibbon's 'Watchmen': Exact Personifications of Science,"

Extrapolation, Fall 1998 v. 39, n. 3, pp. 189-199. [Online] SearchBank: Whittier College, 3 December 1998.

Javna, John. The Best of Science Fiction TV, New York: Harmony Books, 1987.

Gould, Stephen J. Wonderful Life: the Burgess Shale and the Nature of History. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1989.

Kendall, David. "Alan Moore Interview," The Edge, n. 5. As in Tony Barnstone, Twentieth

Century American Literature, Reading Packet #2 -- Fall 1998, Whittier College, Whittier, CA, Fall 1998.

Moore, Alan [Writer], Dave Gibbons [Illustrator/Letter], and John Higgins [colorist]. Watchmen. New York: DC Comics, 1987.

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. "Ozymandias of Egypt"

http:// tqd.advanced.org/3187/ozymandias.html, 12 December 1998.

Maeder, Jay. "Chapter 141: For Whom the Bell Tolls - Kitty Genovese, 1964," New York

Daily News. http://152.52.15.131/manual/news/bigtown/ chap141.htm, 13 December 1998.

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[1] Nixon's presidency in Watchmen alters from our own in two ways. First, the Watergate scandal never occurred. Woodward and Bernstein were both found dead in a garage. Secondly, it appears that either the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, limiting the president to serving two terms, was never passed or was repealed. Nixon won the presidential elections in 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, and 1984 (Atkinson, 4/6/96).

[2] In our world, E. C. Comics was widely and predominately known for its horror comics during the 1950's. E. C. faded into obscurity during the 1960's. In Moore's universe, E. C. Comics continued to thrive through the 1980's, and publishing Tales of the Black Freighter -- a highly successful series based on a phantom pirate ship. It was part of E. C.'s "Pirates and Buccaneers" series. Further, pirate stories, along with horror, seem to dominate the comic book industry. Pirate tales were never very popular in our world's comic industry, and horror comics have not been popular since the 1960's. Since the 1960's, and especially in the 1980's, action comics like Batman or The Uncanny X-men have dominated comic books. (Coville, 8/15/96).
Further, in our world E. C. Comics were so graphic as to be a primary factor in the Congressional inquiry into the comic book industry and eventual adoption of the Comic Code Authority, a self imposed regulatory system of conduct by the comic book industry. Soon after the CCA was instituted, E. C. Comics went bankrupt. From the illustrations of "Marooned" in Tales of the Black Freighter, it appears the CCA never was adopted in the Watchmen's universe. The CCA dictate the use of certain words (like "crime" and "horror"), ideas, incidents (no violence or sex), and drawings ("All lurid, unsavory, gruesome illustrations shall be eliminated" and "Females shall be drawn realistically without exaggeration of any physical qualities" [Coville, 8/15/96]). Although the CCA is still used today by mainstream publishers, such as DC and Marvel, some of these restrictions have been loosened. Additionally it appears that Watchmen did not receive CCA approval: in many scenes, Jon's genitalia are shown (such as 4:10:l4), a graphic attempted rape occurs on panel, and the audience sees Laurie Juspeczyk's uncovered breasts (7:15:1). For a complete listing of CCA guidelines, please see Comix, a History of Comic Books in America, by Les Daniels or "Standards of the Comics Code Authority for editorial matter as originally adopted" online at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8580/cca.html.

[3] For citation of comic books, the issue number goes first (for Watchmen, a twelve issue limited series, it is 1 through 12), then the page number, and finally, when applicable, the panel number. Therefore, for this citation, it would be Chapter One, "At Midnight, All the Agents . . .," p. 31, with no panel number. Finally, one should note that Dave Gibbon, illustrator and letterer, uses bold print to emphasis character speech. This practice is done in most action comic books. I have included this bold print when applicable in direct quotes form characters.

[4] Stephen Jay Gould, in his history and reinterpretation of the Burgess Shale in Canada, containing a variety of odd and extinct organisms from the Cambrian explosion, named his book Wonderful Life after Capra's movie. Gould's main argument of Wonderful Life, and one of the Library of Congress's categories for the book, is the concept of contingency. He states the following about the title of his book: "Science has dealt poorly with the concept of contingency, but film and literature have always found it fascinating. It's a Wonderful Life is both a symbol and the finest illustration I know for the cardinal theme of this book -- and I honor Clarence Odbody, George Bailey, and Frank Capra in my title" (Gould, p. 14).

[5] Although it should be noted that in 1:10:8, there is a Heinz corporation slogan that states "58 varieties." In our world, the Heinz corporation adopted the official slogan "57 varieties"in 1892. This slogan is still used today (Atkinson, 4/6/96). Arguably, under chaos theory, this could be the butterfly flapping its wings which causes the hurricane a half a world away. But, there does appear to be more significant causes than the Heinz corporation's slogan for the two world's divergences.

[6] According to the Associated Press, on August 3, 1987, the Iran-Contra congressional hearings ended, with none of the 29 witnesses tying President Reagan directly to the diversion of arms-sales profits to Nicaraguan rebels. Moore's title, Watchmen, published in 1987, comes from the Latin phrase Quis costodiet ipsos custodes ("Who watches the watchmen?"), from Juvenal's Satires. Moore notes in his own epigraph to the book that the Tower Commission Report (the Congressional commission which investigated Iran-Contra) included this quote in its own epigraph.

[7] Decimate comes from the Latin word decimare, meaning "to take one in ten." Legions of Roman soldiers convicted of mutiny and other high crimes were decimated -- meaning that one out of ten were randomly chosen to be executed as an example to the others. It can also mean the reverse -- one out ten survives through a random set of circumstances (Gould, p. 47).

[8] The final chapter of the graphic novel contains a direct reference to The Outer Limits episode "The Architects of Fear" (12:28:2-3). In this episode a scientist named Allen Lighten (Robert Cull) is randomly chosen and transformed by his colleagues into what appears to be a hideous space alien from the planet Theta. The scientists had hoped to bind the world together against a common threat -- an invasion from space monsters. However, the plan fails as Allen is shot dead by a random police man as he staggers over to the United Nations (Javna, p. 41).

[9] Although Ozymandias takes Pharaoh Rameses II's Greek name (Ozymandias), Moore clearly means it to reflect Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ozymandias of Egypt" (11:28:epigraph). The poem tells of a traveler coming across ruins among the sand dunes of Egypt. The ruins included a "pedestal [with] these words appear:/ 'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!' Nothing beside remains. Round the decay/ Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,/ The lone and level sand stretch far away" (Shelley, ll. 9-14). Why Ozymandias chose this name is surprising considering its relationship to such a dark and famous poem. Perhaps in the Watchmen's reality, Shelley never wrote the poem.

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