A Tale of Two Cities, involves many complicated situations in which the characters must choose between chance or death, career or family, honor or revenge. As a result, ambiguity has evolved in multiple characters because of these difficult choices. Two prominently ambiguous characters are John Barsad and Monsieur Defarge. While Barsad recognizes the importance of career and honor, Defarge sees more prominence in family and revenge. John Barsad’s ambiguity is demonstrated by two contrasting qualities: devotion to his job as a spy and neglect for his family. His devotion to his job as an English spy causes him to appear as a heroic figure. In order to protect his identity, for instance, he accepted Sydney Carton’s offer to help …show more content…
Barsad’s heroic quality of devotion for his occupation combined with his cruel quality of neglect for his family causes Barsad to be interpreted as an ambiguous figure. Barsad’s ambiguity contributes to the theme of loyalty to the nation. His commitment to his job as an English spy demonstrates his loyalty to England. Barsad was faced with the situation of risking death or denouncing Carton to gain the upper hand in their “desperate game” (pg 311-312). He chose to risk death over gaining the upper hand because he would prefer to die as an honorable man of England who did his best to perform his duties for England rather than die as a coward who stood for himself. His decision indicates his devotion to England; he would give his life to England rather than save himself. Barsad’s neglect of his sister demonstrates another level of loyalty to the nation. He is more protective of his identity and his job than he is of his sister’s state of welfare. In this situation, he is faced with the situation of choosing two important aspects of life---his family or his pursuance of his career as an English spy. His cruel decision of his career portrays him to be a cold, heartless brother who does not deserve Ms. Pross’s love. However, this decision also illustrates his devotion to his country because he would be willing to put aside thoughts of his family to dedicate himself entirely to serving his nation. Monsieur Defarge is an ambiguous character because although he
Amirs father, Baba, is a strong man very set in his ways. He represents the independent culture of old Afghanistan. He instills his ideals of masculinity on Amir, and believes he should be stronger, more sports oriented, and able to stand up for himself. “Of
The committee detains one of Suleiman’s neighbors, Ustath Rashid, who also happens to be the best friend of his father, and later Suleiman’s father himself. Several incidents, including the public execution of Ustath Rashid on television, are evidence of the mounting repression practiced by the state against its own people. In an attempt to avert further damage to the family, Najwa and Moosa – a family friend and brother-like figure to Suleiman’s father – gather Baba’s books and burn them to the ground. Suleiman, confused and unable to understand why his father’s beloved books should be disposed of in such manner, saves one book from the fire. After a considerable period of disappearance, a battered and broken Faraj is returned home but Suleiman
A parent's love and devotion for their child is an act that often goes unappreciated, but when this love and devotion is missing, its hard to not notice the child's longing for their parent's attention. This longing for attention is very clear with Amir, a young boy who wanted nothing but his father’s uninterrupted attention. To make their relationship worse, Amir has a strong insecurity about constantly disappointing his ¨Baba¨ and no matter what he does, he can never amount to his father’s expectations. The downhearted Amir tried everything he could to win over his father’s love, but it was very clear to Amir that their relationship would remain the same. Baba and Amir's relationship is virulent for most of Amir’s life, and only improves when Amir and Baba move out of Afghanistan.
Throughout the novel A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens constantly uses examples of violence and cruelty to show why the French peasants revolted against the aristocracy and to describe the revolt. During the extant of the peasant’s lives before the rebellion they were treated so brutally by the aristocrats. The wealthy people took great advantage of their power and the poor people. When the peasants rebelled they responded with violence and brutality from the hatred of their hearts.
In A Tale of Two Cities, Madame Defarge is one of those complex characters Dickens creates, who is deeper than she seems. Throughout the story, she is seen as a strong and fearless woman revolutionary. But when Madame Defarge tried to destroy the beloved Manette family, she suddenly became the antagonist. But she is not as evil and immoral as the reader thinks. Madame Defarge is oppressed by the aristocrats and has a traumatic past giving her a good reason for her hostile visage.
Charles Darnay and Lucie Manette, in the wake of the French Revolution, blithely married in England. (Book II, Chapter 18) Their marriage forged the loving ties between the two, and brought children to their household. To them, to be able to live with their loved one and to be able to caress their children was the best. They were oblivious of the rousing wraths of the peasants in France, and the time to them could not have been better.
Suleiman, the protagonist of Hisham Matar’s In the Country of Men is placed in an ethical paradox. With the novel taking place in Tripoli, Libya 1979, Suleiman’s loyalty is contradictory, having to choose between the principles of his family and the Gaddafi regime. The bombardment of propaganda and the arrests of ‘traitors’ along with the love of his family causes Suleiman to be in constant conflict with his moral sense of self. His loyalties are tied with his actions, often following with regret on whether he has betrayed the people he trusts. Between the constant sense of authority and his family, Suleiman finds his loyal actions to become a casualty for the
Every human being, willingly or forcefully, holds in their heart and mind, secrets that can determine the actions, consequences, and relations made in the future. Revealing these secrets influences the fate of all the surrounding characters and the characters’ true natures are unveiled. In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens connects each character’s external personality to a secret that affects the character’s inner nature and the lives of the other characters. Differentiating the emotions depicted to the opposing actions taken paints a feeling of secrecy into the characters’ intentions. Charles Darnay and Madame Defarge each hold a secret that when revealed, the revelation pieces together their personalities and actions to show their true
The following extract from chapter three is an example of how the supernatural and the scientific are continuously contrasting in the novel:
A connection between characters and their struggle to survive is a study on the human condition. In A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens a messenger leaves Mr. Lorry to tell Lucie that her father, presumed dead, is actually alive, and just released from prison. Lucie travels with Mr. Lorry to the Defarge’s wine shop to meet with her father in order to recall him to life from his poor state of mind. Madame Defarge, the owner of the wine shop, secretly knits a list of names of aristocrats who she will later kill. She is obsessed with revenge and vows to eradicate those who are guilty of causing the commoners of France poverty and oppression.
This topic is imprisonment. As the pages of Two Cities are turned, the reader realizes that almost, if not all, of the characters in this book suffer under at least one variety of imprisonment, be it physical, emotional, or mental, and that these bonds serve to alter the lives of these men and women. This point will be demonstrated through the subsequent examination of the three types of captivity mentioned above.
Whereas the Magistrate was introduced only as an intellectual element to a humorous scene, the introduction of Charles shows a much deeper purpose. This description is not just a result of Shaw's conciseness in writing, but serves to give the reader sufficient characterization. From his introduction, Charles is portrayed as a weak leader with little will of his own.
His plight as an untouchable captivated me. Bakha’s abuse, tenuous relationship with his father, and the sexual exploitation attempts on his sister Sohini are key elements that will be explored in this diary entry. In the text, he is depicted as a naïve and unassuming character who tragically
The story deals with the relationship between father and son, in which the father whose name is Parvez is quite suspicious of his son Ali’s sudden unreasonable change in behavior and personality. Ali was once a typical English teenager with an English girlfriend and friends, he was very adapted to the British culture, however suddenly he broke up with his girlfriend, threw out all his belongings that had anything to do with his English lifestyle and became distant. Parvez then began worrying about his son, and assumes that his son has started taking drugs and hanging around bad influenced people. Parvez later on gets to discuss this problem of his, with the prostitute Bettina on her way home, she suggests that he should check Ali’s body for any signs of using drugs. Parvez does just that, yet the problem in Ali’s sudden change in identity isn’t due to drugs, but because he has decided to practise his religion and become an extremist in Islam. His extremism grew from day to day and soon enough he began to criticize his own father for the way he lives his life, due to drinking alcohol and eating pork. At last things get heated and Parvez ends up beating his own son, in which Ali states “Who is the fanatic
In this extract, Hill explores different sides of each of the boys in a real danger situation to let the reader experience yet another role reversal of the boys. She displays this by using the powerful and dramatic impact of the dialogue and inter monologue on the characters and their relationship. Hill continues to consolidate the strong theme of power control and how it changes the boys and our perspectives of them. Hill keeps the reader curious and hooked on to the chapter by making Kingshaw’s thoughts bipolar as if he should to save Hooper. This makes the reader wonder if Hooper can rely on Kingshaw after his lies and terror campaign towards him. Hooper was not confident that Kingshaw would save him because of his violence and bullying