Hello, dear readers blog site. Writers have a lot of tools at their disposal that allow them to make their storytelling more expressive and vivid.

One of the most effective ways is antithesis. Today we will talk about what it is, the principles by which they are compiled, and along the way we will give a lot of examples from literature and poetry.

Definition - what is it?

This term came into Russian from Ancient Greece, and the word “antithesis” itself is translated as “ opposition».

Antithesis is stylistic device, which consists of direct opposition opposite images, properties or actions. Serves to enhance the expressiveness of speech and more accurately convey thoughts and feelings.

The most simple examples antitheses can be:

Learning is light and ignorance is darkness
A smart person will teach you, a fool will get bored
The quieter you go, the further you'll get
Easy to make friends, hard to separate
The rich feast on weekdays, but the poor grieve on holidays

V literary works can be presented in several ways:
  1. Contrasting two heroes or images (see);
  2. Contrasting various objects, states or phenomena;
  3. Contrasting different qualities of one character or object;
  4. Contrasting the properties of two different objects.

Examples of antitheses in prose literature

Built on antithesis even the names some famous works:

War and Peace (Tolstoy)
The Prince and the Pauper (Twain)
Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky)
Fathers and Sons (Turgenev)
Wolves and sheep (Ostrovsky)
Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)

But in these works the opposition is not only in titles, but also in content. Thus, Leo Tolstoy throughout the novel constantly compares two poles - peace and enmity, good and evil. This is manifested both in the course of the narrative, when the author alternates scenes of peaceful life and battles, and in the character of some heroes, for example, Napoleon and Kutuzov or Helen and Natasha.

But Dostoevsky uses other methods. He "puts antitheses" inside one character. This is most clearly manifested in Raskolnikov, who before the crime was a good man, and then became a killer, and his ideals and behavior changed accordingly.

And finally, Turgenev uses the conflict of generations and their views on life as an antithesis.

Examples in poetry

The juxtaposition of opposites is often used by advertisers. Using this technique, they create short, but memorable slogans.

We work, you rest (Indesit technology)
In cold - warm, in hot - cool (Samsung air conditioners)
Easy to start, hard to stop (unlimited internet)

And even more often you can find slogans based on the opposition “minimum - maximum”. For example, “minimum calories, maximum pleasure” (Coca-Cola light), “minimum space, maximum possibilities” (mobile phone), “minimum labor, maximum effect” (washing powder).

Instead of a conclusion

By the way, thanks to the antithesis, another technique appeared -. This is the name for stable expressions that use words with completely opposite meanings. For example, “hot ice”, “terribly beautiful”, “living corpse”, “bitter joy”. You can read more about this on another page of our website.

Good luck to you! See you soon on the pages of the blog site

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Writing, as mentioned in this article, is an interesting creative process with its own characteristics, tricks and subtleties. And one of the most effective ways to highlight a text from the general mass, giving it uniqueness, unusualness and the ability to arouse genuine interest and the desire to read it in full are literary writing techniques. They have been used at all times. First, directly by poets, thinkers, writers, authors of novels, stories and other works of art. Nowadays, they are actively used by marketers, journalists, copywriters, and indeed all those people who from time to time need to write vivid and memorable text. But with the help of literary techniques, you can not only decorate the text, but also give the reader the opportunity to more accurately feel what exactly the author wanted to convey, to look at things from a perspective.

It doesn’t matter whether you write texts professionally, are taking your first steps in writing, or creating a good text just appears on your list of responsibilities from time to time, in any case, it is necessary and important to know what literary techniques a writer has. The ability to use them is a very useful skill that can be useful to everyone, not only in writing texts, but also in ordinary speech.

We invite you to familiarize yourself with the most common and effective literary techniques. Each of them will be provided with a vivid example for a more precise understanding.

Literary devices

Aphorism

  • “To flatter is to tell a person exactly what he thinks about himself” (Dale Carnegie)
  • “Immortality costs us our lives” (Ramon de Campoamor)
  • “Optimism is the religion of revolutions” (Jean Banville)

Irony

Irony is a mockery in which the true meaning is contrasted with the real meaning. This creates the impression that the subject of the conversation is not what it seems at first glance.

  • A phrase said to a slacker: “Yes, I see you are working tirelessly today.”
  • A phrase said about rainy weather: “The weather is whispering”
  • A phrase said to a man in a business suit: “Hey, are you going for a run?”

Epithet

An epithet is a word that defines an object or action and at the same time emphasizes its peculiarity. Using an epithet, you can give an expression or phrase a new shade, make it more colorful and vibrant.

  • Proud warrior, be steadfast
  • Suit fantastic colors
  • beauty girl unprecedented

Metaphor

Metaphor is an expression or word based on the comparison of one object with another based on their common feature, but used in a figurative sense.

  • Nerves of steel
  • The rain is drumming
  • Eyes on my forehead

Comparison

A comparison is a figurative expression that connects various objects or phenomena with the help of some common features.

  • Evgeny went blind for a minute from the bright light of the sun as if mole
  • My friend's voice reminded creak rusty door loops
  • The mare was frisky How flaming fire bonfire

Allusion

An allusion is a special figure of speech that contains an indication or hint of another fact: political, mythological, historical, literary, etc.

  • You are truly a great schemer (reference to the novel by I. Ilf and E. Petrov “The Twelve Chairs”)
  • They made the same impression on these people as the Spaniards made on the Indians of South America (reference to historical fact conquest of South America by conquistadors)
  • Our trip could be called “The Incredible Travels of Russians in Europe” (a reference to the film by E. Ryazanov “The Incredible Adventures of Italians in Russia”)

Repeat

Repetition is a word or phrase that is repeated several times in one sentence, giving additional semantic and emotional expressiveness.

  • Poor, poor little boy!
  • Scary, how scared she was!
  • Go, my friend, go ahead boldly! Go boldly, don’t be timid!

Personification

Personification is an expression or word used in a figurative sense, through which the properties of animate ones are attributed to inanimate objects.

  • Snowstorm howls
  • Finance sing romances
  • Freezing painted windows with patterns

Parallel designs

Parallel constructions are voluminous sentences that allow the reader to create an associative connection between two or three objects.

  • “The waves splash in the blue sea, the stars sparkle in the blue sea” (A.S. Pushkin)
  • “A diamond is polished by a diamond, a line is dictated by a line” (S.A. Podelkov)
  • “What is he looking for in a distant country? What did he throw in his native land? (M.Yu. Lermontov)

Pun

A pun is a special literary device in which, in the same context, different meanings of the same word (phrases, phrases) that are similar in sound are used.

  • The parrot says to the parrot: “Parrot, I’ll scare you”
  • It was raining and my father and I
  • “Gold is valued by its weight, but by pranks - by the rake” (D.D. Minaev)

Contamination

Contamination is the creation of one new word by combining two others.

  • Pizzaboy - pizza delivery man (Pizza (pizza) + Boy (boy))
  • Pivoner – beer lover (Beer + Pioneer)
  • Batmobile – Batman's car (Batman + Car)

Streamlines

Streamlined expressions are phrases that do not express anything specific and hide the author’s personal attitude, veil the meaning or make it difficult to understand.

  • We will change the world for the better
  • Acceptable losses
  • It's neither good nor bad

Gradations

Gradations are a way of constructing sentences in such a way that homogeneous words in them increase or decrease their semantic meaning and emotional coloring.

  • “Higher, faster, stronger” (Yu. Caesar)
  • Drop, drop, rain, downpour, it’s pouring like a bucket
  • “He was worried, worried, going crazy” (F.M. Dostoevsky)

Antithesis

Antithesis is a figure of speech that uses rhetorical opposition between images, states, or concepts that are interconnected by a common semantic meaning.

  • “Now an academician, now a hero, now a navigator, now a carpenter” (A.S. Pushkin)
  • “He who was nobody will become everything” (I.A. Akhmetyev)
  • “Where there was a table of food, there is a coffin” (G.R. Derzhavin)

Oxymoron

An oxymoron is a stylistic figure that is considered a stylistic error - it combines incompatible (opposite in meaning) words.

  • Living Dead
  • Hot Ice
  • Beginning of the End

So, what do we see in the end? The number of literary devices is amazing. In addition to those we have listed, we can also name parcellation, inversion, ellipsis, epiphora, hyperbole, litotes, periphrasis, synecdoche, metonymy and others. And it is this diversity that allows anyone to apply these techniques everywhere. As already mentioned, the “sphere” of application of literary techniques is not only writing, but also oral speech. Supplemented with epithets, aphorisms, antitheses, gradations and other techniques, it will become much brighter and more expressive, which is very useful in mastering and development. However, we must not forget that the abuse of literary techniques can make your text or speech pompous and not as beautiful as you would like. Therefore, you should be restrained and careful when using these techniques so that the presentation of information is concise and smooth.

For a more complete assimilation of the material, we recommend that you, firstly, familiarize yourself with our lesson on, and secondly, pay attention to the manner of writing or speech of outstanding personalities. There are a huge number of examples: from ancient Greek philosophers and poets to the great writers and rhetoricians of our time.

We will be very grateful if you take the initiative and write in the comments about what other literary techniques of writers you know, but which we have not mentioned.

We would also like to know if reading this material was useful for you?

Antithesis is a means of expression that is often used in the Russian language and in Russian literature because of its powerful expressive capabilities. So, antithesis definition is a technique in artistic language when one phenomenon is contrasted with another. Those who want to read about the antithesis on Wikipedia will certainly find various examples from poems there.

In contact with

I would like to define the concept of “antithesis” and its meaning. She has great importance in language, because it is a technique that allows compare two opposites, for example, “black” and “white”, “good” and “evil”. The concept of this technique is defined as a means of expressiveness, which allows you to very vividly describe an object or phenomenon in poetry.

What is antithesis in literature

Antithesis is an artistic figurative and expressive means that allows you to compare one object with another based on oppositions. Usually she's like artistic medium, is very popular among many modern writers and poets. But you can also find a huge number of examples in the classics. Within the antithesis can be opposed in meaning or in their properties:

  • Two characters. This most often happens in cases where a positive character is contrasted with a negative one;
  • Two phenomena or objects;
  • Different qualities of the same object (looking at the object from several aspects);
  • The qualities of one object are contrasted with the qualities of another object.

Lexical meaning of trope

The technique is very popular in literature because it allows you to most clearly express the essence of a particular subject through opposition. Typically, such oppositions always look lively and imaginative, so poetry and prose that use antithesis are quite interesting to read. She happens to be one of the most popular and known means artistic expression literary text, be it poetry or prose.

The technique was actively used by the classics of Russian literature, and modern poets and prose writers use it no less actively. Most often, the antithesis underlies contrast between two characters in a work of art, When positive hero is opposed to negative. At the same time, their qualities are deliberately demonstrated in an exaggerated, sometimes grotesque form.

Skillful use of this artistic technique allows you to create a living, imaginative description of characters, objects or phenomena found in a particular work of art(novel, story, story, poem or fairy tale). It is often used in folklore works (fairy tales, epics, songs and other genres of oral folk art). During runtime literary analysis text, you must definitely pay attention to the presence or absence of this technique in the work.

Where can you find examples of antithesis?

Antithesis examples from literature can be found almost everywhere, in a variety of genres fiction starting from folk art (fairy tales, epics, legends, etc. oral folklore) and ending with the works of modern poets and writers of the twenty-first century. Due to its characteristics of artistic expression, the technique is most often found in the following genres of fiction:

  • Poems;
  • Stories:
  • Fairy tales and legends (folk and author's);
  • Novels and stories. In which there are lengthy descriptions of objects, phenomena or characters.

Antithesis as an artistic device

As a means of artistic expression, it is built on the opposition of one phenomenon to another. A writer who uses antithesis in his work chooses the most character traits two characters (objects, phenomena) and tries to reveal them as fully as possible by contrasting each other. The word itself, translated from ancient Greek, also means nothing more than “opposition.”

Active and appropriate use makes the literary text more expressive, lively, interesting, helps to most fully reveal the characters of the characters, the essence of specific phenomena or objects. This is what determines the popularity of the antithesis in the Russian language and in Russian literature. However, in other European languages ​​this means of artistic imagery is also used very actively, especially in classical literature.

In order to find examples of antithesis during the analysis of a literary text, you must first examine those fragments of the text where two characters (phenomena, objects) are not considered in isolation, but are opposed to each other from different points of view. And then finding a reception will be quite easy. Sometimes the whole meaning of a work is built on this artistic device. It should also be borne in mind that the antithesis can be explicit, but maybe hidden, veiled.

Finding a hidden antithesis in an artistic literary text is quite simple if you read and analyze the text thoughtfully and carefully. In order to teach how to correctly use a technique in your own literary text, you need to familiarize yourself with the most striking examples from Russian classical literature. However, it is not recommended to abuse it so that it does not lose its expressiveness.

Antithesis is one of the main means of artistic expression, widely used in the Russian language and in Russian literature. The technique can easily be found in many works of Russian classics. They actively use it and modern writers. Antithesis enjoys well-deserved popularity because it helps to most clearly express the essence of individual heroes, objects or phenomena by contrasting one hero (object, phenomenon) with another. Russian literature without this artistic device is practically unthinkable.