No worries, I totally understand, they really need to move away from teaching this way. Meaning is created through the act of observation and context, its not inherent in anything despite what people say the artist 'intended', that meaning only applies to them and the perception of their own creation, once it's out into the world they have no control over its meaning.

iirc, the scream isn't supposed to be coming from the figure in the picture, the scream is from nature, the swirling chaotic vibrant surroundings and the figure (Munch) is experiencing the scream and not themselves screaming. At the same time, see it how you want, all art is polysemic.