0910 ETA Hoffmann

0910 ETA Hoffmann

by Jessica Shen -
Number of replies: 0

On page 384, the narrator's cousin says "I would never, just to save a few pence, expose my daughter to the danger of mingling with the dregs of the people and hearing a smutty joke or having to put up with some vulgar talk from an abandoned woman or a brutal fellow". I found this as an interesting contrast with the other observations they have made; even just after this, they observe a "lovely girl; she is the daughter of a Privy Financial Counselor" out in the market- a young woman who they are familiar with, and who is exhibiting the exact behavior they swear they would not allow their daughters to permit. This is similar to how a lot of parents (particularly moms) on the Internet watch over other parents. Viewers make comments on how a video creator should take care of their children, how the way they parent is 'incorrect', or without interacting with the video, create a private idea of how they should act as parents. Surveillance culture on social media is particularly prominent in parenting circles, where viewers prey on content creators' visibility to exert their opinion, or content creators on viewers' influence-ability.

The cousin's comment is also interesting in that although he is watching market-goers so intently, he does so with a feeling of superiority. I associated this with the divine eye, though not in a way that the divine watch humans in a condescending way; rather, we perceive "God" (or any other deity) as being more powerful than ourselves, and for many people, divine figures are to be feared. In this way, I view the cousin as wanting the people on the street to feel this inferiority to him, especially in light of the distress he expresses about his disability.