The Puzzling Message of Figure in the Carpet :: Figure in the Carpet Essays

The Puzzling Message of Figure in the Carpet   At the beginning of The Figure in the Carpet, the chief(prenominal) pillow slip considers the chiding of literature to be a career, something he does for money. I had done a few things and earned a few pence (p. 357), declares the vote counter in the opening line. He says later in the paragraph that having an ripe(p) copy of a prominent novel to review was desirable because it would access his career Öand whatever much or little it should do for his disposition I was clear on the spot as to what it should do for mine. (p. 357) The character sees Verekers contain up as a vehicle to advance his career. There seems to be little excitement as to the content of Verekers work, the reader is never presumptuousness even so much as the subject matter of a Vereker novel. Instead, all(prenominal) of the focus of the opening scenes is directed towards the narrators struggle to become a renowned critic. Henry James is contras ting the practice of literary criticism with the ideal of what literary criticism should be. Even the characters that seem to be in the purest pursuit of Verekers great secret, Corvick and Gwendolen, will not share it with their friends. When they discover it, they all want to publish it for themselves. Vereker himself seems to hold the literary critics in the book in contempt, citing their lack of vision. Vereker speaks to the narrator at several points in the novel, You miss it, my passion fellow, with inimitable assurance the fact that your world awfully clever and your articles being very awfully nice doesnt make a hairs breadth of difference. (p.365) The work of a literary critic in Verekers eyes is to find the depend in the carpet. Which is to say that what a literary critic and readers of literature should do is to look for a deeper meaning or context in plant of literature. Vereker is upset because the critics fail to grasp the deeper meaning in his works. James himself moldiness have been quite upset at the critics of his day. Influential critics can make or break a writer. More than anyone else, critics can sway how tribe perceive the work of an author. As James illustrates in the story, critics are not to be trusted as authority.