Ambiguity

Citizen Kane, the 1941 film directed by Orson Welles, is the fictional semi-biographical examination of newspaper mogul Charles Foster Kane’s life. After a screening of a “News on the March” newsreel encapsulating Kane’s life, the producer, Mr. Rawlston, proclaims that “It isn’t enough to tell [the viewer] what a man did, you’ve got to tell [them] who he was” (qtd. in Bordwell, Thompson, 102). Mr. Rawlston sends news reporter Jerry Thompson in search of the meaning of Kane’s last word before his…

There is considerable uncertainty and difficulty related to the interpretation and ambiguity of emotion: an animal may make certain movements and sounds, and show certain brain and chemical signals when its body is damaged in a particular way. But does this mean an animal feels—isawareof—pain as we are, or does it merely mean it is programmed…

Moral ambiguity, a phrase often used to describe the character of Caliban from William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, meaning that he is neither good nor bad when it comes to ethical decision making. This essay aims to show that Calibans’ moral ambiguity may be a result of Shakespeare using him as a representative of the injured party of colonialism, indicating that he is a victim of the era and does not fully comprehend the western clarification of moral decision making. The Renaissance began with…

Both Shelley and Stoker took great care in developing the characters of their respective novels; however, metaphors were also created to establish the concept of ambiguity in appearances. In Dracula, Stoker commonly uses the theme of vampirism, as Dracula and the other vampires must suck the blood of various humans for their own survival. The methods which Stoker uses to describe the act of vampirism, as well as other aspects involving blood, implies a certain sexual theme. For instance, during…

The Elizabethan era was a time of great change. This resulted in an environment of speculation and uncertainty. It is during this time that Hamlet, Shakespeare‘s most famous play was being performed. This essay will argue that the ambiguity of the Shakespeare’s Hamlet was designed, at least in part as a reflection of the uncertainty of the Elizabethan world, for as Bloom stated “the text was not created in a vacuum”(7). This essay will begin with a brief explanation of how plays can be used as…

In total, between the five movies evaluated contained 55 characters of which 40 were males, 14 were females, and one was omitted because of its gender ambiguity. Gender was noted in order to evaluate whether or not there appeared to be differences in behavior between males and females more specifically whether there was gender stereotypical behavior in Disney films. Males are represented in these films far more often according to our results appearing almost 3 times as often as females. This is…

scientific study of human interaction, social groups, whole societies and the world as such. Sociology entails devloping a ‘social imagination’ meaning linking personal troubles and public issues. (Sutton, 2013, S. 7) This social science aims to make the ambiguity of human interaction more accessible and concrete. It was Comte, who attributed the name sociology to the science of society, that observed that society shares many similarities with living organisms such as the fact that it has…

The term Bollywood, were ambiguous, seems to serve different purposes for different people across the world. In academia, the meaning of Bollywood is that, one tends to use the term as loosely as to refer to the Indian film industry as a whole, but much like other Hollywood and Bollywood has also come to stand for auxiliary aspects of film production which includes such as choreography, music, songs, costumes, makeup and even hairstyles. In the past it was known as Hindi cinema, Bombay cinema,…

Raskolnikov can be viewed as morally ambiguous because he is portrayed as if he has two different personalities. One side of Raskolnikov is warm and compassionate while another side of him is cold, unfeeling, and self-willed. Raskolnikov’s moral ambiguity is a vital role in the novel because Dostoevsky uses Raskolnikov to make the readers question the validity of a black and white world. Raskolnikov is caught between two contradicting situations. On one hand he is warm and compassionate, like…

Jane struggles throughout this passage, and indeed the novel, to overcome the unhappy oppression caused by her gender and social ambiguity. The passage, from chapter twenty-three, takes place under a chestnut tree in the garden of Thornfield, moments before Rochester’s passionate proposal to Jane. The passage is a significant demonstration of the spiritual nature of their relationship and the frustration Jane feels with regards to her social position of being ‘poor’ and a woman, a feeling she…