×<p class="MsoBodyText" xss=removed>The concept of male gaze has been present
for a very long time, evident even before Laura Mulvey coined the term in her
famous essay <i>Visual Pleasure and
Narrative Cinema </i>in 1975. It is present in literature, albeit literature
being an entirely different media. In <i>The
Virgin Suicides </i>by Jeffrey Eugenides, this theme seems to be very apparent.
Arguably, along with themes such as voyeurism and objectifications, <i>The Virgin Suicides</i> relies entirely on
the male gaze. <o></o></p><p class="MsoBodyText" xss=removed>In this research, I study the effect of the
male gaze and how this specific way of viewing affects the girls in a way that
it shifts their function as a character. In order to achieve this, I attempt to
fuse my understanding of Vladimir Propp’s theory of <i>dramatis personae</i> and tries to read <i>The Virgin Suicides </i>as a fairytale—a form of literary work of which
the elements are easy to understand. <o></o></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoBodyText" xss=removed>The findings attained from literature
reading and library research concludes that the way the neighborhood boys' view
of the Lisbon girls does affect their roles in the story. I argue that the
Lisbon girls were put on a very high pedestal since the very beginning;
therefore positions them as the fairytale princess. However, due to the nature
of the gaze applied in the work, there are possibilities that it may shift to
other characters.<o></o></p>
