At the time this article was published, Gargi Roysircar Sodowsky was a pre-doctoral Intern in Counseling Psychology at Iowa State University, and Roland Sodowsky was Associate Professor of English at Sul Ross State University, Alpine, Texas. In the following excerpt, the critics present two differing psychological interpretations of Betsy.

Several critics have noted the depth and richness of the characters in Peter Taylor's work, a complexity which makes his stories particularly apt for psychological interpretation. An especially good example is "A Spinster's Tale," in which the protagonist, Betsy, may be seen from a Freudian point of view as being trapped by the forces of parent-child relationships and sexual fears or from an Adlerian point of view as choosing and controlling the unsocial direction of her life.

Set in an upper-class home in Nashville around 1900, "Spinster's Tale" is narrated by an unmarried woman named Elizabeth who recalls events...