Watchmen Chapters 5 and 6

The uncanny theme of duality plays a huge role in our reading this week; it is supported by two similar themes: symmetry and causality.
In issues five and six we are fittingly focusing on Rorschach, a character based on symmetry, epitomized by the famous Rorschach ink blot test being his own mask. The issues are littered with symmetrical motifs: Daniel and Laurie viewing each other in mirrors, the silhouette of the embracing Hiroshima couple, the Survivor in The Tales of the Black Freighter, the reflecting panels in chapter five and Walter Kovacs's bleak sociological outlook being rubbed off on to Dr. Malcolm Long.

There are two instances of Daniel and Laurie's mirror situations, the first being when Daniel longingly looks back towards Laurie as she is leaving the dinner, sadly, in search of a new apartment; from our perspective, we are facing Dan and the mirror is behind him, showing the image of Laurie facing away. In the second, we are facing a mirror which Laurie is sitting in front of and facing said mirror, she is preoccupied with her things as she tells Dan "G'Night." Daniel stands in the doorway in the foreground, again, with a longing look on his face. In the first instance Dan longingly wants her to stay him at his place, and in the last instance he wants her to leave her room to come to his. Like a reflection, opposite but paralleled.

The Hiroshima Couple is recurring piece graffiti throughout the city, painted by the local gang, The Knot Tops. Dr. Malcolm Long suggests they remind him of the people disintegrated in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The shadows are reflections of humanity at the moment of great tragedy. It serves as a stark warning to a possible nuclear war; and the humanity we could lose because of it. Fitting Symmetry.
In the Tales of the Black Freighter, we see the Survivor come to a horrid revelation. He kneels on the raft and catches a glimpse of his reflection in the water. After enduring tragic situations and doing the grotesque things he has done, the Survivor looks into his reflection and is shocked to realize that he no longer, truly, recognizes the face he sees. His reflection had given him a true sense of what he has become.

The whole of chapter five is based more closely to symmetry than chapter six; this is made evident not only by the theme of the chapter but also by the structural layout of the book. Starting from pages 14 and 15, going outward from these pages, all of the panels as well as their content are symmetrical. For example, on the first page Rorschach enters Moloch's home, quiet and peacefully; on the final page Rorschach is forced to try, unsuccessfully, to escape as he brawls through the cops and is eventually dragged away from the scene.

Finally, Dr. Long's interviews with Rorschach seem to be rubbing off on him. He is very calm, polite Psychiatrist intent on making Rorschach his reputation maker. Unfortunately for him, Rorschach's stories of his origin, pushed Dr. Long close to depression instead of bringing Rorschach out of insanity, as intended. He focused to closely on Rorschach and he accidentally understood him; and thus shares in his cold views. Concerning the Rorschach ink blot, "The horror is this: in the end, it is simply a picture of empty meaningless blackness. We are alone. There is nothing else." Dr. Long has become a reflection of Rorschach's thoughts, perfectly summarized in the quote at the end of the chapter, "Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."