Ambiguity

Ambiguity

Ambiguity has often been considered an enriching aspect of literature. Discuss what has been gained or lost by the inclusion of what you define as ambiguity in works you have studied.

Definition:
Ambiguity is when a form of communication can be interpreted in more than one way.

Hamlet:
In Hamlet, we have ambiguity in both action and language
Language Example: Hamlet often speaks in a manner of word play, where what he says can be interpreted in two ways, however we have no way of knowing what exactly Shakespeare had in mind.
Action Example: There is ambiguity through Hamlets behavior, more specifically, his madness. At points it seems like apparent madness, however Hamlet proclaims that it is “feigned” or “antic disposition.” There is evidence in the play that support and contradict each other. Depending on the situation, Hamlets madness varies in the degree he allows his emotions to carry him.
Another form of ambiguity: Does the ghost really appear or not? Many critics wonder this, as Hamlet at point doubts its existence and Gertrude does not see it, however at the beginning of the play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern see it.


Madame Bovary:
There is the ambiguity of desire. Yes, Emma is a shallow, amoral woman, a woman who debases herself increasingly as the book goes on. The same, however, could be said about the male characters, who take advantage of her through business or in bed. Flaubert may be trying to show that no one is perfect or innocent, however the focus is put on Emma because of her gender.

There is the thematic and structural ambiguity of gender. Emma is a woman who desires to break the chain of passive feminity but who fails to accede the phallic writing stage. She can be seen as an example of a hysterical woman. Charles, however, shows how woman in that time needed to have a man place her in a proper context in society. On one hand, we see Flaubert portraying woman as objects of enjoyment for men, on the other, he...