The article investigates the central socio-political function played by the gaze in Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon. The relevant role of the sense of sight in the Inspection House already emerges clearly in the light of the cultural temperament and historical context in which it was designed, as both are imbued with a renewed taste for theatricality, not only in aesthetic terms but also with distinctly political reflections. However, the contextualisation of the panoptic project within Jeremy Bentham's Political Theory and Theory of Punishment - both indebted to his ethical-anthropological perspective - will allow for a clearer understanding of the social and political significance of the gaze as its essential profile: as operating in the Panopticon, in fact, the sense of sight would have guaranteed not only a (reflexive) monitoring of society but also a control over the rulers (represented by the inspector) by society. Through his articulate reflection, Bentham corroborates a link between visibility and surveillance that is destined to persist in the present time.
