Is There a Single Right Interpretation for Cryptic Texts?

Abstract My essay argues for the proposition that there are uniquely correct interpre-tations for cryptic texts. By cryptic text I mean a narrative that is designed to pose perplexing problems, the answers to which constitute hidden meanings or secrets. As a test case, I choose Henry James's much interpreted and intensely debated story “The Figure in the Carpet. ” I identify the story as cryptic, single out three problems it raises, and go on to work out solutions. I use my results to develop an interpretation that can lay claim to being a single right interpretation, that is, one that accords with the understanding the author wished his reader to arrive at. The question of how that is determined hinges on the principle that cryptic puzzles have as a rule only one correct solution, which in turn may be assumed to be authorially intended, as is the case with the solution to the riddle of the Sphinx, which is right, single, and intended. I also consider various interpretations produced by other critics and show why they are not acceptable. Intentional Problems The title of my essay is borrowed fromMichael Krausz's Is There a Single Right Interpretation? (2002b) — a collection of philosophical essays that debates the question of whether there can be only one correct interpretation for a given object of interpretation. The volume is virtually unlimited in scope, with discussions ranging over “utterances, sentences, texts, scripts, whole works and worlds of literature; musical scores and performances; works of visua