Antithesis
Antithesis is a literary device that involves the juxtaposition of contrasting ideas, words, or phrases within a parallel grammatical structure. It is used to create a sense of balance and emphasis, often highlighting the differences between two concepts. In literature, antithesis can add depth and complexity to the meaning of a text by drawing attention to the contrast between opposing elements.
4 Key excerpts on "Antithesis"
eBook - ePubDramatic Adventures in Rhetoric
A Guide for Actors, Directors and Playwrights
- Giles Taylor, Philip Wilson(Authors)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Oberon Books(Publisher)
...You can have Antithesis of Characters: endless stories have goodies and baddies of some sort, and think of the good and evil angels in Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. You can also have the Antithesis of Time: think of plays that are set in both the past and the present, like J.B. Priestley’s Time Plays. You can have an Antithesis of Setting: Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale is a case in point, with the Antithesis between the brooding, emotionally stultified kingdom of Sicilia, in opposition to the light, playful world of Bohemia. In Renaissance drama, it is common to have a rich Antithesis of Thematic Imagery. In no play is it more apparent than in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (1595), in which the over-riding themes of black and white, day and night, and dark and light are verbal echoes of the opposition between the Capulets and Montagues. Here is Romeo when he first sets eyes on Juliet: ROMEO : O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night As a rich jewel in a Ethiop’s ear – Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear! So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows As yonder lady o’er her fellows shows. Antithesis is very often pointed up by combining with rhetorical devices from the acoustic family (see Chapter 2). ALLITERATIVE Antithesis This is when ALLITERATION is used to point up the words in opposition to each other. Many classic examples have become well established: ‘heaven or hell’, ‘virtue or vice’, ‘friend or foe’, ‘love or loathe’, ‘pleasure or pain’, ‘make or mar’, ‘hurt or heal’, ‘boom or bust’, ‘help or hinder’, and ‘like it or lump it’ to name a few. There is often a self-satisfied quality to characters who use this device. Consider Mrs Levi in Thornton Wilder’s The Matchmaker (1954), who says that money is ‘like the sun we walk under; it can kill or cure’. The Judge in Reginald Rose’s Twelve Angry Men (1956) informs the jury that it is their ‘duty to try and separate the facts from the fancy’...
eBook - ePubWriting with Clarity and Style
A Guide to Rhetorical Devices for Contemporary Writers
- Robert A. Harris(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Compare that with the same idea in a sentence without Antithesis: We might succeed if we try; but if we do not try, then I do not think we can succeed. Antithesis is also useful for making distinctions or for clarifying differences between ideas. Notice the contrast between legality and morality in the next example. I agree that is it legal; but my question was, is it moral? Here the difference between legality and morality is called to the reader’s attention by the parallel positioning of the contrasting words. Usually, Antithesis is recommended because of its power of emphasis, but it also makes understanding easier for the reader. As mentioned under the discussion of parallelism above, the parallel structure makes the sentence easier to decode. Adding an antithetical structure to the parallel structure makes the contrast easier to see and remember. And yet this man, when we brought him to our home for the dying, he said just one sentence: I have lived like an animal in the street, but I am going to die like an angel…. —Mother Teresa In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. —Martin Luther King, Jr. Exercise 6 Rewrite each of the following sentences into a sentence using Antithesis to contrast the ideas. Feel free to omit any wordiness that interferes with the emphasis. Example sentence : We made this area into a little park, and the fact that we removed a parking lot to do it seems not to be the thing to focus on. Example revision : In this area, we created a park even though we destroyed a parking lot. (a) When we jumped out of the airplane, Amy said the feeling of free falling was thrilling; I was terrified, though. (b) This proposal calls for a thick retaining wall, but a wall that is strong should be a part of the proposal also. (c) I am not concerned about how badly damaged the car was; what concerns me is the extent of the passengers’ injuries. (d) When he is unsure of an answer, he just makes one up...
eBook - ePub- Robert Barton, Rocco dal Vera(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Because it is so challenging, it pushes you beyond your perceived limitations. If only you don’t give up too early. One must practice the classics long and hard. Americans seem to understand this about football, so why don’t they see that it’s true for classical acting? When I hear that Americans can’t do the classics, I say that is absurd. They don’t even try. Tina Packer, artistic director, Shakespeare and Company The following hints and exercises will help you to get comfortable with both the act of elevating your speech beyond the ordinary and then placing that speech into verse format. Antithesis : Probably the most important rhetorical device used by classical writers, Antithesis is putting one idea in opposition to another. Sometimes three or four words are placed in contrast to three or four others. The second or antithetical word (such as “angels” below contrasting “devils”) tops or overcomes the first in emphasis. Try to overdo these in order to point to them sufficiently. For example, Richard III, Act I, Scene II: Anne: O wonderful, when devils tell the truth! Richard: More wonderful, when Angels are so angry: Vouchsafe (divine perfection of a Woman) Of these supposed Crimes, to give me leave By circumstance, but to acquit my self. Anne: Vouchsafe (defus’d infection of man) Of these known evils, but to give me leave By circumstance, to curse thy cursed Self. Richard: Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me have Some patient leisure to excuse my self. Anne: Fouler than heart can think thee, thou can’st make No excuse current, but to hang thy self. Richard: By such despair, I should accuse my self. The golden rule of Elizabethan writing; find the Antithesis. Many of the lines include a “not this, but that” pattern. Once you hear that the rest is easy. Russell Jackson, screenwriter Bottoming out : Throw out momentarily all grandiose period-style thinking and get simple...
eBook - ePub- James Hernando(Author)
- 2005(Publication Date)
- Gospel Publishing House(Publisher)
...6 Literary Devices Parallelism A structure of two or more poetic lines or verses that are conceptually related to each other. The poetic lines cohere and work together to develop a shared thought, sometimes by repetition, contrast, or addition (Klein, Blomberg, and Hubbard, 225–36). Because of the structure of thought, it is helpful to read line by line rather than sentence by sentence (Duvall and Hays, 337–38). The most characteristic feature of Hebrew poetry, parallelism falls into three basic types: antithetic, synonymous, and synthetic (Fee and Stuart 1982, 162). However, scholars sometimes break down one or more of these types into additional types in order to more precisely describe the development of thought. Antithetic parallelism A type of parallelism wherein the thought of the second or subsequent line contrasts with that of the previous line (Fee and Stuart 1982, 180; Kaiser and Silva, 89). A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son brings grief to his mother. —Prov. 10:1 Chiasm A literary technique that uses a form of parallelism wherein the words, phrases, or concepts given in successive lines are inverted in the following lines (Kaiser 1981, 225f). This technique was considered a most dignified and stately form of presentation and therefore was reserved for solemn and important portions of Scripture (Bullinger, 374). 1 But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, A born of a woman, born under the law, B to redeem those under the law, B’ that we might receive adoption to sonship. A’ —Gal. 4:4,5 Climactic parallelism A repetition of two or more words over two to four lines. The lines develop a thought or action in ascending fashion (lending this literary feature the alternate name of “staircase parallelism”), sometimes ending with a culminating thought (Kaiser and Silva, 92). Sing to the L ORD a new song; Sing to the L ORD, all the earth. Sing to the L ORD, praise his name. —Ps...
