I never understand what it means when a text says, “[Whodyamacallit] had a greedy/happy/sad look in their eyes.”
What does it mean?
They mean facial expressions but can’t be bothered to write that?
Aha!
I thought it meant literally in their eyes - as in the irises and pupils - rather than the configuration of parts around the eyes and elsewhere on the face.
It’s just easier to write or something. And sometimes facial expressions are so subtle it feels like it’s all in the way they’re looking at us. It’s hard to describe the slight movement of facial muscles that convey emotion.
That’s true. Thank you (and Katerz) for clarifying. Just thinking about this makes me think even more sharply about how I don’t much know how to deal with people.
I agree with the above, but also I think there genuinely is some kind of literary convention that you’re supposed to be able to tell someone’s expression from looking at their actual eyeballs. See also ‘twinkle in their eye’ and suchlike. I think there may be some very slight scientific basis for twinkliness of eyes being related to eyes getting a bit more watery and therefore reflective when the person has certain emotions or something, but essentially the use of phrases like that in descriptive prose has almost nothing to do with observed reality, it’s just the repetition of phrases that writers learn from reading other writers’ descriptive prose.
