An interpretation of the imagery symbol of the Panopticon in The Eye in the Door

Abstract

Abstract The Eye in the Door is one of the masterpieces of Pat Barker, a famous contemporary British female writer. In this novel the image of the Panopticon stands out because of its high frequency and detailed descriptions, and it also becomes the key to the interpretation of the novel because of its relation to the fates of many characters and its metaphorical meanings. From the perspective of semiotics, this paper makes a progressive interpretation of this imagery symbol from three aspects: the features of the Panopticon in the surface sense, the surveillance function and power mechanism of the Panopticon in the deeper sense, and the Panopticon as the metaphor of the British society during the First World War in the social and cultural sense, then points out that the imagery symbol of the Panopticon is the encoding and embodiment of the writer’s ideas. Through this imagery symbol, the writer criticizes the disciplinary characteristics and totalitarian tendency of the British society during the First World War and expresses her reflection on the First World War and its causes.