Gaze Types in D. H. Lawrence's The Rainbow and Women in Love

Abstract

This thesis project, centered on D. H. Lawrence’s The Rainbow and Women in Love, examines how the major characters in these narratives represent the “gaze” among themselves, and how Lawrence influences the reader's sight by his construction of the “narrative gaze.” The concept of the “narrative gaze” is defined and discussed and the project examines the idea of the “gaze,” as a trigger for sexuality, which plays a major role among Lawrence's characters because it can either hinder or assist in each character's and reader's stability as a spiritual and physical being. It further argues that, in order for the reader to understand how characters “gaze” upon one another, they must be assisted by the narrator in obtaining a visual picture of the characters and their actions.