Monday, April 22, 2013

Who Actually Holds "The Gaze"?



I found this unit of “Seeing and The Gaze” to be extremely interesting.  "The gaze" is extremely powerful.  I feel that “the gaze” can be found in many different stories, even when you do not realize it.  “The Gaze” is something that I feel everyone has experienced once in their lives.  Just like in the short story, "Miss Brill", everyone has been looked at before, positively or negatively, and felt a gaze on them.  What I find most interesting is who seems to hold the gaze most of the time. 

When talking about “the gaze”, it is usually inferred that it is a man looking at a woman.  The male is the usual person to hold the gaze on a female.  In the story, "Miss Brill", she is a woman who holds the power to see.  Not only does she hold the power to see men, but also other females.  I thought this literal gaze in the story that she had upon other people was a good way to show a female having the power instead of a male. 

"Miss Brill" is told in a very interesting way.  I felt that it allows the reader to hold “the gaze” on Miss Brill herself.  While reading this story, I felt that I was in a sense watching Miss Brill watch all of these other people in the park.

"She glanced, sideways, at the old couple.  Perhaps they would go soon.  Last Sunday, too, hadn't been as interesting as usual.  An Englishman and his wife, he wearing a dreadful Panama hat and she button boots.  And she'd gone on the whole time about how she ought to wear spectacles; she knew she needed them; but that it was no good getting any; they'd be sure to break and they'd never keep on."

The above passage shows how the reader is about to "see" and "watch" Miss Brill examine the old couple next to her.

Having the gaze of the people in the park be from Miss Brill's eyes and opinions only, makes it hard to realize how much of it is reality and how much is altered/filtered by her own desire of what is happening around her.  If the story was told from a different point of view or from a different person do you think the effect of the story would be different?   



                   

3 comments:

  1. I love how you chose to write about the unit as a whole and elaborate on "the gaze." I found that to be somewhat challenging and its interesting you were able to connect "Ms. Brill" to the gaze as a whole. I like how you pulled a passage to back up the point you are proving throughout your post.

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