How much freedom does/should a reader have in determining the meaning of a text?

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How much freedom does/should a reader have in determining the meaning of a text?

Writers try to communicate their ideas to their readers. The style they choose to do it in and the ambiguity they want to leave for the reader to figure out depends on him/her. It can also be the case that the reader himself is reading too much into a text as the writer might have just thought of a story just by chance or the writer is sometimes obliged to invent stories in order to make books as selling books is their livelihood. What people see in a text might have nothing to do with what was in the mind of the writer.

The way a text is interpreted by readers depends on who is reading it. The writer might e communicating feelings and ideas about a particular subject without intending to so. Also the style the book is written will effect how much freedom the reader has to interpret a text, for example in the Charlotte Bronte’s book Jane Eyre narrates the book herself and hers and Mr Rochester’s relationship and the reasons why she left can be somewhat confusing for the reader as she does not go in great lengths as she probably finds it too painful. Some people may interpret Jane’s character as a dominant an generally a strong character. On the other hand some readers might find her character a weak one as she lets her pride get in the way of her telling the full story. in some ways Jane Eyre challenges and reinforces the stereotypes of women. However this book could have been read differently in Victorian times. Therefore it is important to note that reader himself ultimately decides the interpretation of a text.

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Fiction is a genre where readers are required to interpret. The difficulties that readers find when reading fiction are characteristics that are found in other genres as for example poetry. Reading fiction and understanding it’s meaning requires a great deal of interpretive thinking on the reader’s part. Looking at how much freedom the reader the reader has to interpret the text it has been argued that the purpose of fiction is to create a dream world for the reader where they can escape and be look upon the characters lives within the piece of fiction in a form of ...

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