Both texts deal with similar subject matter in terms of religion and gender and use the Anti-Catholic trope of the innocent woman and the depraved Catholic authority figure. To understand the full impact of Monk's work on the literary sphere and in female representation, this paper juxtaposes the text to Matthew Gregory Lewis' The Monk, which utilizes the male gaze of the corrupt Catholic priest. Monk's narrative surrounds a victimized Catholic nun and uses a gaze that is similar to the contemporary female gaze in perpetuating agendas rooted in Anti-Catholicism and the Cult of Domesticity. This paper examines the role of gaze in the 19th century Anti-Catholic convent exposé The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk. Readers and viewers, in turn, can gain different and more diverse perspectives through seeing the world through different eyes. Oftentimes, this "gaze" is incorporated into media through narrative voices and characters to induce understandings as well as act as a form of political commentary. Based on our own privileges and placement within the social hierarchy, we each view the world differently depending on how we identify.
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