The Eye of the Beholder: From Shakespeare to Tolstoy

The heart is often thought of as the organ of love; but what about the eyes? There are many cliches of the heart (my heart beats for you, you’ve stolen my heart, etc) but there are just as many cliches of the eye (love is blind, you’re all I see, etc). The main difference between the two (and the reason why I believe the eye is the true organ of love) is that the heart is hidden, while the eyes are all too visible.

A fast heartbeat is a sure sign of love, but it is not nearly as noticeable as it might feel. The eyes, however, the eyes give away. Shakespeare said: ‘the heart’s still rhetoric’ is ‘disclosed’ with the eyes; and in the same play: ‘Behold the window of my heart, mine eye’.

The eye reveals the contents of the heart, even against one’s wishes. Shakespeare says that the ‘eye discourses’, and Lord Byron refers to ‘the speaking eye’; but the eyes are not linguistic. Language is, by its very nature, deceptive. Nietzsche once said that, ‘with words it is never a question of truth’, nor even a ‘of adequate expression’. ‘Language petrifies the world into metaphors and concepts, so that we can cope with the
‘fiery liquid’ of our experience’. According to…