Authors use ambiguity for a variety of purposes. It can bring depth and realism to a piece of literature by depicting a hazy view of what was meant, or it can show uncertainty about a character's true intentions. The ambiguity displayed allows the reader to interpret words and actions as they see fit, and draw individual conclusions about how to categorize a person. In A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, Dickens tells the story of Charles Darnay, a French aristocrat turned tutor, and Lucie Manette, who, after their marriage, decide to start their new life and family in England with the father of Lucie, former prisoner of the Bastille. With returning ties to France, Lucie and her husband travel to Paris in the midst of the French Revolution, where Darnay then falls into the obscurity of La Guillotine. In a desperate attempt to end his life through a good deed, Lucie's admirer Sydney Carton, a lazy but brilliant assistant attorney, concludes the novel by sacrificing his own life for Darnay in order to allow Lucie to keep a life that she loves. Sydney Carton and Monsieur Defarge demonstrate Dickens's abundant use of ambiguity, showing the reader both benevolent and corrupt qualities throughout Charles Dickens' novel A Tale of Two Cities. Together, they lay out the major themes of the work, namely that redemption is always possible and the moral battle that must be faced between humanity and the violent tendencies necessary for rapid change. Sydney Carton is an alcoholic and self-loathing character who, although brilliant, spends the majority of his days feeling sorry for himself. Carton appears to have almost no interest in his own life, nor those around him, insisting on feeling no compassion for others and remaining both insolent and...... in the middle paper......different nature from other revolutionaries seems hard to believe because he also has a tendency towards the dominant violence of the rebels. Ordinary people face the same obstacles as these men. Kindness and redemption permeate our world every day, as even the worst of people make up for their mistakes. Humans struggle daily to make the right moral choices. Just as the French had to stand up for their rights, so did black people, and today gay people are working to gain their own freedom, oscillating between remaining kind and humane and remaining tough enough to stand their ground while others try to overthrow them. . Dickens preaches some of life's strongest lessons about human nature. We don't believe in just one thing and we don't just make a black and white choice about who we want to be or what we want to do. Instead, we as people are ambiguous.