diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 04e5c45..4c2d56c 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 - Added `JSONPointer.exists()`, a method that returns `True` if a the pointer can be resolved against some data, or `False` otherwise.
 - Added the `RelativeJSONPointer` class for building new `JSONPointer` instances from Relative JSON Pointer syntax.
 - Added support for a non-standard index/property pointer using `#<property or index>`. This is to support Relative JSON Pointer's use of hash (`#`) when building `JSONPointer` instances from relative JSON Pointers.
+- Added the `unicode_escape` argument to `JSONPathEnvironment`. When `True` (the default), UTF-16 escaped sequences found in JSONPath string literals will be decoded.
 
 ## Version 0.8.1
 
diff --git a/jsonpath/cli.py b/jsonpath/cli.py
index af3227e..d9af70a 100644
--- a/jsonpath/cli.py
+++ b/jsonpath/cli.py
@@ -239,7 +239,9 @@ def handle_path_command(args: argparse.Namespace) -> None:  # noqa: PLR0912
         path = args.query_file.read().strip()
 
     try:
-        path = jsonpath.compile(path)
+        path = jsonpath.JSONPathEnvironment(
+            unicode_escape=not args.no_unicode_escape
+        ).compile(path)
     except JSONPathSyntaxError as err:
         if args.debug:
             raise
diff --git a/jsonpath/env.py b/jsonpath/env.py
index 3937f74..01afedc 100644
--- a/jsonpath/env.py
+++ b/jsonpath/env.py
@@ -70,8 +70,10 @@ class attributes `root_token`, `self_token` and `filter_context_token`.
     ## Class attributes
 
     Arguments:
-        filter_caching (bool): If `True`, filter expressions will be cached where
-            possible.
+        filter_caching (bool): If `True`, filter expressions will be cached
+            where possible.
+        unicode_escape: If `True`, decode UTF-16 escape sequences found in
+            JSONPath string literals.
 
     Attributes:
         filter_context_token (str): The pattern used to select extra filter context
@@ -113,8 +115,18 @@ class attributes `root_token`, `self_token` and `filter_context_token`.
     parser_class: Type[Parser] = Parser
     match_class: Type[JSONPathMatch] = JSONPathMatch
 
-    def __init__(self, *, filter_caching: bool = True) -> None:
-        self.filter_caching = filter_caching
+    def __init__(
+        self,
+        *,
+        filter_caching: bool = True,
+        unicode_escape: bool = True,
+    ) -> None:
+        self.filter_caching: bool = filter_caching
+        """Enable or disable filter expression caching."""
+
+        self.unicode_escape: bool = unicode_escape
+        """Enable or disable decoding of UTF-16 escape sequences found in
+        JSONPath string literals."""
 
         self.lexer: Lexer = self.lexer_class(env=self)
         """The lexer bound to this environment."""
diff --git a/jsonpath/parse.py b/jsonpath/parse.py
index 95f0131..0506fcb 100644
--- a/jsonpath/parse.py
+++ b/jsonpath/parse.py
@@ -347,7 +347,7 @@ def parse_slice(self, stream: TokenStream) -> SliceSelector:
             step=step,
         )
 
-    def parse_selector_list(self, stream: TokenStream) -> ListSelector:
+    def parse_selector_list(self, stream: TokenStream) -> ListSelector:  # noqa: PLR0912
         """Parse a comma separated list JSONPath selectors from a stream of tokens."""
         tok = stream.next_token()
         list_items: List[
@@ -391,13 +391,16 @@ def parse_selector_list(self, stream: TokenStream) -> ListSelector:
                         token=stream.current,
                     )
 
-                name = (
-                    codecs.decode(
-                        stream.current.value.replace("\\/", "/"), "unicode-escape"
+                if self.env.unicode_escape:
+                    name = (
+                        codecs.decode(
+                            stream.current.value.replace("\\/", "/"), "unicode-escape"
+                        )
+                        .encode("utf-16", "surrogatepass")
+                        .decode("utf-16")
                     )
-                    .encode("utf-16", "surrogatepass")
-                    .decode("utf-16")
-                )
+                else:
+                    name = stream.current.value
 
                 list_items.append(
                     PropertySelector(
diff --git a/tests/test_env.py b/tests/test_env.py
index 2faebea..a69098e 100644
--- a/tests/test_env.py
+++ b/tests/test_env.py
@@ -145,3 +145,16 @@ def test_no_match_compound_path(env: JSONPathEnvironment) -> None:
     """Test that we get `None` if there are no matches in a compound path."""
     match = env.match("$.other | $.foo", {"some": 1, "thing": 2})
     assert match is None
+
+
+def test_no_unicode_escape() -> None:
+    """Test that we can disable decoding of UTF-16 escape sequences."""
+    document = {"𝄞": "A"}
+    selector = '$["\\uD834\\uDD1E"]'
+
+    env = JSONPathEnvironment(unicode_escape=True)
+    assert env.findall(selector, document) == ["A"]
+
+    env = JSONPathEnvironment(unicode_escape=False)
+    assert env.findall(selector, document) == []
+    assert env.findall(selector, {"\\uD834\\uDD1E": "B"}) == ["B"]