The gaze plays a pivotal role in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, steadily generating tension, affecting the characters' physical and psychical values, and even governing the very way the narrative unfolds itself. This essay's intervention lies in framing its examination of vision, visuality, and the gaze in Tolkien's novel through contemporaneous theoretical and philosophical approaches, specifically gaze theory. In addition to highlighting the ontological, phenomenological, and structural dimensions of Tolkien's gaze, this essay also interprets the novel as a robust and complex theoretical work that enhances our understanding of the meaning and substance of the gaze as a totalizing component of ontological experience.
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Steven Kielich (2024) studied this question.
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