Previous
Daniel Dreiberg (the second Nite Owl)
Laurie Juspeczyk is Sally Jupiter and Edward Blake’s daughter, though she does not know that Blake is her father until Jon Osterman reveals it to her on Mars. From a young age, Sally grooms Laurie to be a costumed hero and succeed her as the second Silk Spectre, but Laurie resents her mother for this and the two have a strained relationship. At the start of the novel, Laurie is in a relationship with Jon Osterman. Though she is unhappy, the government insists that she stays to keep Jon happy, since, as Dr. Manhattan, he is their ultimate weapon. Laurie eventually leaves Jon and starts dating Daniel Dreiberg instead. Although she does not like running around as a vigilante, she dons her costume with Daniel and acts as a vigilante again to help him regain his confidence, thus setting him on the path to pursue Adrian Veidt alongside Rorschach. During Jon’s exile on Mars, Laurie goes with him to convince him that human life has enough significance to be worth saving. Although she briefly doubts it herself—when she discovers that Blake, who once tried to rape her mother, is actually her father—she helps Jon to understand that human life is a miracle, valuable simply because it exists. After Adrian’s plan succeeds and millions of people die, Laurie realizes that having the chance to live at all is a beautiful gift, and she elects to love Daniel simply because he is there with her and they are alive. She continues living with Daniel after the story, though under an alias.
Laurie Juspeczyk (the second Silk Spectre) Quotes in Watchmen
The Watchmen quotes below are all either spoken by Laurie Juspeczyk (the second Silk Spectre) or refer to Laurie Juspeczyk (the second Silk Spectre). For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 7: A Brother to Dragons
Quotes
Looking back, it all seems so… well, childish, I guess. Just a schoolkid’s fantasy that got out of hand. That’s, y’know, with hindsight… on reflection.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
It’s this war, the feeling that it’s unavoidable. It makes me feel so powerless. So impotent.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9: The Darkness of Mere Being
Quotes
Juspeczyk: Humanity is about to become extinct. Doesn’t that bother you? All those dead people…
Osterman: All that pain and conflict done with? All that needless suffering over at last? No… No, that doesn’t bother me. All those generations of struggle, what purpose did they ever achieve? All that effort, and what did it lead to?
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Osterman: Look at it—a volcano as large as Missouri, its summit fifteen miles high, piercing even the atmospheric blanket. Breathtaking.
Juspeczyk: Breathtaking? Jon, what about the war? You’ve got to prevent it! Everyone will die…
Osterman: And the universe will not even notice.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Thermodynamic miracles…Events with odds against so astronomical they’re effectively impossible, like oxygen spontaneously becoming gold. I long to observe such things. And yet in each human coupling, a thousand million sperm vie for a single egg. Multiply those odds by countless generations, against the odds of your ancestors being alive; meeting; siring this precise son; that precise daughter…
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12: A Stronger Loving World
Quotes
Juspeczyk: Dan, all those people, they’re dead. They can’t disagree or eat Indian food, or love each other… Oh, it’s sweet. Being alive is so damn sweet.
Dreiberg: Laurie? Wh-what do you want me to do?
Juspeczyk: I want you to love me. I want you to love me because we’re not dead […] I want to see you and taste you and smell you, just because I can.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Watchmen LitChart as a printable PDF.
Laurie Juspeczyk (the second Silk Spectre) Quotes in Watchmen
The Watchmen quotes below are all either spoken by Laurie Juspeczyk (the second Silk Spectre) or refer to Laurie Juspeczyk (the second Silk Spectre). For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 7: A Brother to Dragons
Quotes
Looking back, it all seems so… well, childish, I guess. Just a schoolkid’s fantasy that got out of hand. That’s, y’know, with hindsight… on reflection.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
It’s this war, the feeling that it’s unavoidable. It makes me feel so powerless. So impotent.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9: The Darkness of Mere Being
Quotes
Juspeczyk: Humanity is about to become extinct. Doesn’t that bother you? All those dead people…
Osterman: All that pain and conflict done with? All that needless suffering over at last? No… No, that doesn’t bother me. All those generations of struggle, what purpose did they ever achieve? All that effort, and what did it lead to?
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Osterman: Look at it—a volcano as large as Missouri, its summit fifteen miles high, piercing even the atmospheric blanket. Breathtaking.
Juspeczyk: Breathtaking? Jon, what about the war? You’ve got to prevent it! Everyone will die…
Osterman: And the universe will not even notice.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Thermodynamic miracles…Events with odds against so astronomical they’re effectively impossible, like oxygen spontaneously becoming gold. I long to observe such things. And yet in each human coupling, a thousand million sperm vie for a single egg. Multiply those odds by countless generations, against the odds of your ancestors being alive; meeting; siring this precise son; that precise daughter…
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12: A Stronger Loving World
Quotes
Juspeczyk: Dan, all those people, they’re dead. They can’t disagree or eat Indian food, or love each other… Oh, it’s sweet. Being alive is so damn sweet.
Dreiberg: Laurie? Wh-what do you want me to do?
Juspeczyk: I want you to love me. I want you to love me because we’re not dead […] I want to see you and taste you and smell you, just because I can.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
