Article Title
Document Type
Article
Abstract
When I completed my first reading of Henry James's short story "The Figure in the Carpet,” I was annoyed because the mysterious "figure" had not been revealed. Like the narrator of the story, I had presumed that there was indeed such a figure, and I was vexed at having allowed myself to be misled when I should have known better. (After all, anyone who has a passing acquaintance with Henry James knows of his fondness for ambiguity.) Nevertheless, I was upset with the story and with James himself. I found myself comparing the story unfavorably to his "The Turn of the Screw," even though that story is wonderfully ambiguous. Finally, I had to admit that, like the narrator, I had presupposed that this story would reveal some secret, that there was in fact a “buried treasure" hidden in the text. When the story revealed no such secret, I became as frustrated as the obsessed narrator.
Publication Date
1987
Journal Title
Draftings In
Volume
2
Issue
1
First Page
v
Last Page
vii
Copyright
©1987 by the Board of Student Publications, University of Northern Iowa
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Albrecht, Joseph
(1987)
"To Begin, a "Postscript","
Draftings In: Vol. 2:
No.
1, Article 3.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/draftings/vol2/iss1/3
Comments
No cover/title page date shown on piece.