Abstract
”Paradise Lost” serves as a critique of surveillance and provides fruitful ground for the ways in which the gaze and feminist concerns intersect. This thesis will implement a method of analyzing the power dynamics within the text, which is what Jeremy Hawthorne coins to be “gaze discourse”; meaning a way to encourage the reading of a text and then relating it to “broader sociohistorical and ideological matters” (Hawthorne 509). The discourse of gaze will reveal how power dynamics are constructed through the objectification and surveillance of its characters in ”Paradise Lost”, including their relationships with other characters, the narrator, and even the reader. Through this analysis, it will be evident how Milton both enforces and momentarily subverts gender-cultural values by critiquing the use of the gaze and the power dynamics associated with it.
Recommended Citation
Rouleau, Madison
(2023)
"Eyes “Opened and Cleared”: The Discourse of Gaze in Paradise Lost,"
Locus: The Seton Hall Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 6, Article 10.
Available at:
https://scholarship.shu.edu/locus/vol6/iss1/10