Caught Forever in a Picture Frame: The Impact of the Gaze in Kilmeny of the Orchard

Using the lens of scholarship on the gaze and Jacques Lacan’s theories on the mirror stage, this essay examines how in L.M. Montgomery’s novel Kilmeny of the Orchard, Kilmeny Gordon’s position as titular character and protagonist and her potential—even capacity—to grow and change is undermined by Eric Marshall’s male gaze, which fixes her forever as a framed picture.