The Aspern Papers Essay Questions

Although Juliana is often identified as the antagonist of The Aspern Papers, could the narrator also be interpreted as the antagonist?

While Juliana frequently stands in the way of the narrator and his goal—the letters—the narrator acts in a way that can also be interpreted as morally corrupt or ethically wrong. Because he is so obsessed with getting access to Aspern's letters, he is willing to lie and manipulate anyone who stands in his way. He readily admits that he acts in a morally wrong manner after Juliana's death, and her accusation that he is a "publishing scoundrel" haunts him because he knows it is true. Despite the fact that her accusation stays with him, he doesn't change his behavior, and continues to pester Miss Tita and use her as a means to an end in his quest to get the letters. He becomes the antagonist of the story by letting his obsession with the letters dominate his conscience. As the novella progresses, the reader loses empathy for the narrator, and in many ways, he becomes the dominant antagonist of the story.

How does The Aspern Papers' point of view influence the reader's ability to empathize with the narrator? Does it make him more or less likable?

The Aspern Papers is written from the first-person perspective of an unnamed narrator. This style of narration has two main effects on the reader: it can build empathy, as the reader is able to directly read the narrator's thoughts and come to understand his actions, or it can discourage it, as the reader witnesses the narrator's most intimate and uncensored thoughts. In The Aspern Papers, the narrative voice does both; it builds empathy, since the reader is able to witness just how much the narrator wants the letters and how frustrated he is about being extorted by Juliana, but it also means that the reader witnesses his judgment of Miss Tita and the extent to which he is willing to lie and cheat in order to get the letters. Especially towards the end of the novella, the narrator describes how pathetic and ugly Miss Tita is, which may cause the reader not to view Miss Tita as such but instead to feel revolted by the narrator's willingness to judge her so harshly.

How does Miss Tita's desire to marry the narrator in exchange for the letters reflect a deeper commentary on the status of single women in society? How does it relate to social mobility for women?

Miss Tita's request for the narrator to marry her reflects her desperation to exit her role as a single, isolated woman in society. Although she never hints at truly feeling romantic love or affection for the narrator, she is willing to enter into a transactional relationship with him in order to marry. For women at the end of the 19th century, social mobility was extremely limited if they remained single; single women were looked down upon and lived on the fringes of society, as Miss Tita does. Miss Tita's age—the narrator describes her as middle-aged—means that she would have had almost no chance at gaining a husband, as she had passed the point where women entered the marital market. The narrator, on the other hand, represents the extreme social privilege that single men were still afforded in society, despite their lack of a wife. He can go wherever he pleases without judgment and conduct a successful career without the need to be married. The narrator readily judges Miss Tita for being single, using gendered language to criticize her as a lonely and ugly middle-aged woman.

Some critics argue that Aspern's letters in The Aspern Papers do not even exist and are only a figment of the narrator's imagination; how would this interpretation change the story's meaning? What clues can you find about the existence or non-existence of the letters themselves?

The physical letters that the narrator is obsessed with never appear in The Aspern Papers, which could lead to a reading of the novella that treats them as non-existent. For example, the narrator never physically touches the letters; he only sees others handling a stack of papers, or reads about them in the work of other critics. Miss Tita tells the narrator that she has seen Juliana reading some letters, but she herself has never read them, and cannot vouch for their validity as the letters that Jeffrey Aspern and Juliana wrote to each other. This interpretation highlights the irony of the narrator's monomaniacal quest for objects that he doesn't even know are real. He lies and manipulates his way into the Bordereau house, and even pays them almost all of his savings, in order to try and get letters that may not even exist. His obsession clouds his ability to see that there is no substantial evidence that the letters exist. Such a reading also changes the meaning of the last line, adding irony to the tragedy the narrator feels over the loss of the letters. Although he says their loss has become "almost intolerable," it is possible that the narrator is grieving the loss of objects that never existed.

How does The Aspern Papers explore the ethics surrounding literary scholarship? What could it be warning against?

The Aspern Papers explores the extent to which a literary scholar can become wrapped up in his obsession with a singular figure—in this case, the unnamed narrator and the deceased American poet Jeffrey Aspern. In the novella, the narrator becomes so obsessed with Aspern that he begins to treat him like a god, referring to himself as a worshipper of the "temple" of Aspern and praising how handsome, perfect, and intelligent the poet was. The narrator is so invested in discovering Aspern's biography that he is willing to violate all social codes and lie in order to meet Aspern's former lover, Juliana Bordereau. The narrator becomes the embodiment of a literary scholar who becomes so invested in his subject matter that he loses all perspective, and it begins to dictate his life. After the letters are burned, the narrator confesses that he regrets their loss every day and continues to be haunted by the tragedy of their destruction.