'Eyes you could feel not see': The female gaze in the works of William Faulkner

Using the gaze theory of Jacques Lacan, Michel Foucault, and Laura Mulvey, I prove that Faulkner's female characters employ the gaze in order to gain power over their lives. I examine the use of the gaze in eight female characters from five novels by William Faulkner. I apply psychoanalytical, social, and feminist approaches found in the study of the gaze to these eight women in order to discover the motivations that drive each of these women to gaze so often. Specifically, I explore the relation between the women's having "fallen" from their status as pure women and their reasons for gazing. Faulkner insinuates that the end result of their gazing rarely satisfies these women in their attempts to gain power. Often, the power to decide who these women are and the way they are viewed remains in the hands of their fathers, husbands, and brothers, or a judgmental community.