Eye Representations in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Sarah Hall’s The Electric Michelangelo
Eye Representations in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Sarah Hall’s The Electric Michelangelo

Summary/Abstract: Of the sensory organs, the eyes are the most important and the most symbolic. They are usually interpreted as the gateway to the soul and regarded as the main conveyors of human emotions. The dark rings under the eyes, usually associated with physical tiredness, can also suggest a state of depression. However, in Byzantine and romantic portraits, such dark rings seem to increase the significance of the eyes as indicative of the intensity of spiritual life (Nanu, 2001:94). The eyes may also stand for clairvoyance or omniscience; they may be used as symbols of knowledge and creativity, light, vigilance, moral guidance and truth. Being organs of perception, the eyes represent one of the ways through which people have access to knowledge. In other words, seeing is equivalent to knowing (and knowing to having power). Through prayer, the eye turns into an organ of perception of the transcendental, divine world (de Souzenelle, 1999:372). Prayers or meditation can lead to the opening of a third and inner eye, symbolic of the intensification of spiritual life. In Hindu culture, and also in Buddhism, the third eye (also known as “the eye of Buddha”) is represented by the small dot between the eyes, its purpose being that of indicating spiritual awakening (Emick, 2005). In her book, The Symbolism of the Human Body, de Souzenelle (1999:380) points out that psychologists link the third eye to the feeling of guilt, as the person who feels guilty, also feels as if she is being watched by this divine eye which stands for his/ her own judgment.

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