Clocks represent the ordered universe, meticulously governed by laws of physics. When Jon Osterman goes to Mars, he looks at the marvelously ordered universe and wonders if that means that someone designed it. He reinforces this question by creating his own clockwork castle out of Mars’s sand. However, after reflecting on the horrors of human life, Jon decides that there can be no God, no designer. The universe is simply a “clock without a craftsman,” suggesting that though it is meticulously ordered and governed by natural laws, there is no designer behind it. In a similar though slightly different fashion, when Jon helps Laurie realize that Edward Blake, the man she hates most in the world, is her father, Jon’s clockwork castle shatters, symbolizing the way that Laurie’s universe suddenly feels devoid of any order or meaning.
Clocks Quotes in Watchmen
Perhaps the world is not made. Perhaps nothing is made. Perhaps it simply is, has been, will always be there… A clock without a craftsman.
Clocks Symbol Timeline in Watchmen
