"The Eyes" by Edith Wharton

In reading this piece, I repeatedly found myself trying to find a reason for the surfacing of The Eyes. I was trying to discern some sort of pattern that would allow me to predict when they would appear next due to Culwin's experiences or actions. I really couldn't find a concrete formula for their appearance, but it seems as if, more often than not, The Eyes appear at moments in which Culwin believes he is doing something good or morally acceptable. He first experiences the eyes the night after declaring that he "went up to bed with a rather heavy heart, for [he] was bound under the weight of the first good action [he] had ever consciously committed" (815).

One distinction that I think is important to make here is that his "good actions" are only good in the sense that he believes them to be for some reason or another. He admits that he has to consciously "decide to do what was right" (key word here being decide--it wasn't a natural inclination but a conscious decision), when he tells Alice that when he goes abroad, she should go with him (815). Thus, the very night after this first "good" action, The Eyes show themselves. Many people would posit that leading a girl on and telling her he wants to marry her, despite his making it very clear earlier that he is not attracted to her and thinks her very "uninteresting," is actually a very morally corrupt thing to do (814). But Culwin here believes that he is doing some service to the poor girl by lying to her and in this way showing some sort of pity for her. He didn't want her to come with him on his trip but he didn't want to hurt her by leaving her, so he invited her along. This act is controversial when it comes to how "right" or "wrong" it is, but the point is that at this particular moment, the foreboding Eyes decide to pass their judgment.

His view of doing the right thing seems to be making another person happy, whether based on a lie or not. This happens again with Gilbert Noyes, Alice's cousin. In this instance, he tells Gilbert that his writing is "all right" even though he believes it to be absolutely deplorable, in the hopes of sparing the boy's feelings and keeping him ignorantly happy. The Eyes rear their ugly head in this moment to pass their judgment once again. "Since [he]'d made Gilbert happy they simply wouldn't loosen their fangs" (824). It is nearly the same situation as before with Alice.

The only conclusion I can make of this is that, after dark, Culwin's decisions confront him in his most vulnerable psychological state--sleep. The night time brings truth and The Eyes may represent a sort of truth in that they show him that although his decisions to spare peoples feelings may bring immediate gratification to them, overall they are not morally sound actions because they are based on lies.