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Glossary

Ambiguity

Ambiguity refers to being doubtfully or uncertain of a meaning or intention. It can also mean something that can be interpreted in more than one possible way. Ambiguity can be seen in many different forms. It can be seen in movies, books, poems, and also real life situations. It can be used in forms of writing and in speech. We see ambiguity used in Mary Shelley’s On Ghost in many parts of the book for example:

“This visitation continued for several weeks, when by some accident he altered his residence, and then he saw it no more. Such a tale may easily be explained away; but several years had passed, and he, a man of strong and virile intellect, said that “he had seen a ghost.”

In this narrative of the text the narrator describes how the incident that they are describing can be explained away but it can also be interpreted as a form of a supernatural encounter. This shows ambiguity because it is explained that the event could have been interpreted in two different ways.

 

 

Work Cited:

“’On Ghosts’ by Mary Shelley (1824).” Pornokitsch, www.pornokitsch.com/2014/07/non-fiction-on-ghosts-by-mary-shelley.html.

“Ambiguity.” Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/ambiguity?s=t.

“Ambiguity.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ambiguity.

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