Why is antithesis needed and what is it? What is antithesis in literature? With examples Antithesis as an artistic example

Since the birth of literary art, writers and poets have come up with many options to attract the reader's attention in their works. This is how a universal technique of contrasting phenomena and objects arose. Antithesis in artistic speech is always a game of contrasts.

Definition of antithesis

To find out the exact meaning of the scientific term antithesis, you should consult an encyclopedia or dictionary. Antithesis (derived from the Greek “opposition”) is a stylistic figure based on contrastive opposition in speech practice or fiction.

Contains sharply opposed objects, phenomena and images that have a semantic connection or are united by one design.

How to explain in simple language what an antithesis is and for what purpose it is used in the Russian language? This is a technique in literature based on the juxtaposition of different contrasting characters, concepts or events. This technique is found as a basis for constructing entire large novels or parts of literary texts of any genre.

The following can be contrasted in a work as an antithesis:

• Two images or heroes, called antagonists in literature.
• Two different phenomena, states or objects.
• Variations in the quality of one phenomenon or object (when the author reveals the subject from different sides).
• The author contrasts the properties of one object with the properties of another object.

Usually the main vocabulary from which a contrasting effect is created are antonymic words. Proof of this are the popular proverbs: “It’s easy to make friends, it’s hard to be separated,” “Learning is light, and ignorance is darkness,” “The slower you go, the further you will go.”

Examples of antithesis

Areas of application of antithesis

The author of a work of art of any genre needs expressiveness of speech, for which antithesis is used. In the Russian language, the use of opposing concepts has long become a tradition in the titles of novels, stories, plays and poetic texts: “War and Peace”; “The Prince and the Pauper” by M. Twain, “Wolves and Sheep” by N. S. Ostrovsky.

In addition to stories, novels and sayings, the technique of opposition is successfully used in works intended for agitation in politics and the social sphere and oratory. Everyone is familiar with mottos, chants and slogans: “He who was nobody will become everything!”

Contrast is often present in ordinary colloquial speech, such examples of antithesis: dishonor - dignity, life - death, good - evil. To influence listeners and present an object or phenomenon more fully and in the right way, a person can compare these phenomena with another object or phenomenon, or can use the contrasting characteristics of objects for contrast.

Useful video: what is antithesis, antithesis

Types of antithesis

In the Russian language there can be various options for contrasting phenomena:

• In terms of composition, it can be simple (includes one pair of words) and complex (has two or more pairs of antonyms, several concepts): “A rich man fell in love with a poor woman, a scientist fell in love with a stupid woman, a ruddy woman fell in love with a pale woman, a good man fell in love with a harmful woman, a golden man fell in love with a copper half-shelf.” (M. Tsvetaeva). Such an extended expression unexpectedly reveals the concept.
• An even greater effect from the use of contrasting concepts is achieved when used together with other types of figures of speech, for example with parallelism or anaphora: “I am a king - I am a slave - I am a worm - I am God!” (Derzhavin).
• A variant of opposition is distinguished when the external structure of the antithesis is preserved, but the words are in no way connected in meaning: “There is an elderberry in the garden, and a guy in Kyiv.” Such expressions create the effect of surprise.
• There is a contrast between several forms of a word, often in the same case. This form is used in short, bright statements, aphorisms and mottos: “Man is a wolf to man,” “To Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s,” “Peace to the world.”

Take note! On the basis of the antithesis, a special technique was born - an oxymoron, which some experts consider as a type of this figure of speech, only with an emphasis on humor and irony. Examples of oxymorons in Alexander Blok’s “The Heat of Cold Numbers” or in Nekrasov’s “And the Poor Luxury of the Attire...”

Application in fiction

Research shows that in literary texts the opposition of images is used more often than other figures of contrast. Moreover, it was used in foreign literature as often as in poetry and prose of Russian and Soviet writers. Its presence allows us to enhance the reader’s emotional sensations, more fully reveal the author’s position and emphasize the main idea of ​​the work. Good examples of the use of antithesis and the definition of the term are contained in Wikipedia.

Examples in prose

Russian realist writers Pushkin A.S., Lermontov M.Yu., Tolstoy L.N., Turgenev I.S. actively used a technique based on the contrast of concepts in their works. Chekhov has a good example in the story “Darling”: “Olenka grew plump and was all beaming with pleasure, but Kukin was losing weight and turning yellow and complaining about terrible losses...”

Turgenev’s novel “Fathers and Sons” already in its title contains a hidden confrontation between two eras. The system of characters and the plot of the novel are also based on opposition (conflict between two generations: older and younger).

In foreign literature, O. Wilde’s novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray” is an excellent example of the technique of contrast in a work of the Romantic era. The contrast between the hero’s beautiful face and his low spiritual qualities is an analogy of the opposition of good to evil.

Chekhov A.P. "Darling"

Examples in verses

Any famous poet can find examples of the use of antithesis in his poems. Poets of different movements widely used this technique. Among the writers of the Silver Age (Marina Tsvetaeva, Sergei Yesenin, Konstantin Balmont), antithesis was a favorite method:

“You, sea of ​​strange dreams, and sounds, and lights!

You, friend and eternal enemy! An evil spirit and a good genius!

(Konstantin Balmont)

During the period of classicism, poets also loved this method of creating expressiveness. An example in the poem by G.R. Derzhavina:

“Where was the table of food,

There is a coffin there."

The great Pushkin often included contrasts of images and characters in poetic and prose texts. Fyodor Tyutchev has vivid examples of the unfolding confrontation between heaven and earth:

“The kite rose from the clearing,

he soared high into the sky;

And so he went beyond the horizon.

Mother Nature gave him

Two powerful, two living wings -

And here I am in sweat and dust,

I, the king of the earth, am rooted to the earth!”

The concept of "antithesis" comes from an ancient Greek term consisting of two parts: "thesa", which means "position", and "anti" - "against". Adding them up, we get “opposite”, that is, “opposite”. Antithesis, the definition and examples of which we will present to you in this article, is a opposition of elements of composition, characters, images, words. This is an artistic technique in literature that allows writers and poets who use it to characterize the characters more fully, to reveal the author’s attitude to different aspects of what is depicted, as well as to the characters themselves.

Condition necessary for antithesis

An essential condition necessary in order to be able to talk about such a technique as antithesis (examples of which we will give below) is subordination to the general concept of opposites or some general point of view on them.

Such subordination does not have to be logically exact. For example, such proverbs as “Small is the spool, but dear”, “Rarely, but accurately”, are constructed antithetically, although the concepts that are opposed in them cannot be called logically subordinate, such as, for example, “beginning” and “end”, "light and darkness".

But in this context they are considered as opposite because the words “small” and “rarely” are taken with a specification of meaning in relation to the words “expensive” and “aptly”, taken in their literal meaning, which are compared with them. Entering into antithesis, tropes can hide even more of its logical precision and clarity.

Verbal antithesis

Examples of the use of this technique are numerous. Verbal antithesis occurs when certain phrases or words with opposite emotional connotations or meanings are combined in one sentence or in a poetic phrase.

Let's take, for example, an excerpt from a poem by A.S. Pushkin:

"The city is lush, the city is poor

The spirit of bondage, the slender appearance...".

In the first line here, the antithesis (“poor” - “lush”) of the epithets selected for the word “city” expresses Alexander Sergeevich’s idea of ​​​​Petersburg, which is concretized in the second line by the antithesis of the corresponding epithets. Here the external appearance of the city (in the text - “slender appearance”) and the spiritual content of its life (“spirit of bondage”) are contrasted. In another poem by the same author, verbal antitheses are used to emphasize the discrepancy between the spirit of the “poor knight” and his external appearance. It is said about this hero that he was “pale” and “twilight” in appearance, but in spirit he was “direct” and “brave.” Such a contrast is a verbal antithesis. Examples of it are found quite often in the literature.

Antithesis expressing complex emotional states

Antithesis serves to express not only the aspects of a phenomenon and an object, as well as the author’s emotionally charged attitude towards them, but also various complex emotional states. An example can be found in A.A. Blok's poem "In the Restaurant". The lyrical hero of the work met his beloved “boldly” and “embarrassedly” in the restaurant, bowing with “an arrogant gaze.”

Various verbal antitheses are often oxymorons. In other words, it is a combination of words that have opposite meanings.

Figurative antithesis

A figurative antithesis is a contrast that exists between two different images. These could be characters from the work. Examples of antithesis from fiction are numerous: these are Lensky and Onegin, Molchalin and Chatsky, Stepan Kalashnikov and Kiribeevich, Pavel Petrovich and Bazarov, Napoleon and Kutuzov, etc. Also, figurative antithesis can refer to the image of a village and a city (for example, in a poem by A.S. Pushkin's "Village"), in addition, to the disharmony of the hero's soul and universal harmony (Lermontov, "I go out alone on the road"), the image of free nature and the monastery-"dungeon" (Lermontov, "Mtsyri"), etc. Figurative antithesis. , examples of which we have just given, was a favorite technique of such a master of style as Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky.

Compositional antithesis

There is also such a variety of this technique as compositional antithesis. This is one of the principles by which literary works are constructed. Compositional antithesis is a contrast between various episodes and storylines, scenes in drama and epic, stanzas and fragments in lyrical poems. Let's take as an example the novel by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin "Eugene Onegin".

In it, in the third and fourth chapters, the failed relationship of Onegin and Tatyana is contrasted with the “happy love” of Lensky and Olga. In Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev’s novel “Fathers and Sons,” the antithesis of two conflicts (love and ideological) allows us to understand the true meaning of the views and beliefs of the nihilist Yevgeny Bazarov, as well as the main reason why they collapsed. Other examples can be given.

Antithesis from literature, presented in lyric poems

This technique is also widely used in various lyric poems. For Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, this is, for example, “Elegy”, “Poet and the Crowd”, “Poet”, “Village” (an example of antithesis in Alexander Sergeevich’s poems - the opposition of slavery of the people and a peaceful landscape), “To Chaadaev”. Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov - “Poet”, “Sail”, “Dream”, “Dispute”, “Gratitude”, “Why”, “January 1”, “Leaf”, “To the Portrait”. Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov - “Reflections at the Main Entrance”, “Railway” and others.

Antithesis

Based on the material studied, we found out that to enliven speech, give it emotionality, expressiveness, and imagery, they use techniques of stylistic syntax, the so-called figures: antithesis, inversion, repetition, etc.

The object of study of this work is antithesis, and its characteristic “habitat” is aphorisms and catchphrases.

Often in speech sharply opposite concepts are compared: honor, insolence, work - rest, etc. This has a special effect on the imagination of listeners, causing them to have vivid ideas about the named objects and events. To characterize an object or phenomenon in a special way, one can find not only similarities and associations with another object or phenomenon, but also features of sharp contrast and differences in order to contrast one with the other. This technique, based on the comparison of opposite or sharply contrasting characters, circumstances, images, compositional elements, concepts, phenomena and signs, creating the effect of sharp contrast, is called antithesis. Antithesis can not only contrast concepts, but also emphasize the paradoxical nature of comparison (as in an oxymoron), the greatness of an object, and its universality, when contrasting properties are attributed to an object. Thus, the antithesis can make the meaning heavier and enhance the impression.

This stylistic figure, in a certain sense, is opposed to most other figures precisely in that it strictly observes all the rules of reason, the harmonious construction of pairs of oppositions without any violation of basic logical norms. Antithesis is carried out in order to place concepts in relations of contrast, not only those concepts that are in principle contradictory (antonyms), but also concepts that are usually not related to each other by any relationship, but become conflicting when they are placed side by side.

In antithesis, two phenomena are compared, for which antonyms are most often used - words with opposite meanings: Every sweetness has its bitterness, every evil has its good (Ralph Waldo Emerson). The use of antithesis and comparison of opposing concepts allows you to express the main idea more vividly and emotionally, and more accurately express your attitude to the phenomena being described. In everyday life, many things become clearer only when one is contrasted with the other: having experienced grief, people value moments of joy more. No wonder they say “Everything is learned by comparison.”

Antithesis, as a stylistic figure, gives the sharpest contrast to the things being opposed, evoking clear images in the mind. Contrast sharpens thought, helps organize the text or part of it, due to which parallel figures, especially antitheses, are used as text-forming means. The purpose of using antithesis is almost always achieved in oratory, during public speaking, and in works of art. But an incomparably profound effect from the use of antithesis is obtained in short and succinct statements, for example, a riddle, an aphorism, a proverb, a news article in a newspaper, since the key word in the definition is sharp. Sharpness and contrast certainly attract attention, we see a discrepancy. The result: bright emotional coloring, expressiveness and, often, humor. When a stupid person pretends to be smart, and stupidity just creeps out of him. When an evil person pretends to be good, but we see that he is a wolf in sheep's clothing.

“Antithesis (Greek antithesis - opposition). A stylistic figure that serves to enhance the expressiveness of speech by sharply contrasting concepts, thoughts, and images. Where there was a table of food, there is a coffin (Derzhavin). The antithesis is often built on antonyms: The rich feast on weekdays, but the poor grieve on holidays (proverb).”

“Antithesis, a semantic figure of speech, consisting of a comparison of logically opposite concepts or images, subordinate to one idea or a single point of view. *The spool is small, but expensive (proverb). “Cunning and Love” (F. Schiller).

They got along. Wave and stone

Poetry and prose, ice and fire

Not so different from each other.

(A. Pushkin)"

Earlier in the work it was already indicated that the most common basis of antithesis is antonyms, for example: good - evil, well-fed - hungry. Also, various facts and phenomena can be contrasted on all grounds, both main and secondary. So two words world and chains, in the given A.I. Galperin's example is not antonyms. They are involved in the antithesis of The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. The antonymous pair here is the verbs to lose and to win, but the words world and chains are also opposed, or rather their signs: world -- all, everything and chains -- slavery.

“The main figure of contrast is antithesis. Antithesis is a statement containing a clear opposition. Most often this opposition is expressed in the use of antonyms, i.e. words that have the opposite meaning."

As a rule, to create an antithesis it is necessary that the opposed concepts are in principle correlated, if we consider correlation as an operation in which both similarities and differences can be revealed. However, antithesis, as a stylistic device, is revealed not only in opposition, but also in the addition of additional shades of meaning to words that do not express opposing concepts. The alien ships hung in the sky in the same way that bricks do not hang in the sky (D. Adams. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy 1). Antithesis is characterized by an unexpected comparison of distant objects, a play on the direct and figurative meaning of words, and a paradoxical statement. In this case, the antithesis takes on the features of an oxymoron “Oxymoron, -s.” In lexical stylistics: a semantic figure of speech, a combination of words that contradict each other in meaning, resulting in the birth of a new concept. *The heat of cold numbers (A. Blok). Foreign land, my homeland! (M. Tsvetaeva) The obedient enthusiasm of the crowd (P. Chaadaev). Vertical horizons (V. Soloviev)” [Laguta 1999: 35]. An oxymoron, in turn, is considered by many to be a type of antithesis in which the emphasis is on the humor of the statement.

The advantage of the antithesis as a figure is that both parts mutually illuminate each other. There are several general options for using antithesis: when comparing images or concepts that contrast with each other, when expressing the contrasting essence of a single whole, when shading of the image is necessary, as well as when expressing an alternative.

The opposition of concepts and phenomena can also appear in large sections of text, but it will be more of a contrastive opposition than a stylistic device of antithesis; similarly, phraseological units, the formation of which is based on antonyms, will not be antithesis. For example: top and bottom, up and down, inside and out. A necessary feature of antithesis, which distinguishes it from any logical opposition, is emotional coloring, the desire for the uniqueness of the opposition. But this is possible only in one case - in case of violations of the rules of analogy. The sign by which we correlate objects should not actually be obvious. The reader or listener is invited to, to one degree or another, figure out the meaning themselves (hot, but not scorching; Chinese, but high-quality). Therefore, when counting on a “sharp” semantic effect, it is not recommended to take contrasting (for example, antonymic) concepts. This does not mean that an antithesis built on antonymy will become erroneous, but the emotional coloring will be almost invisible.

The relationships between the words antithetically opposed in the proverb are more complex, and their semantic connection cannot be subsumed under the strict concept of lexical antonymy (cf. mother-stepmother, wolf-brother, milk-water, water-fire, water-wine, night- day, God-damn, etc.).

Antithesis is widely used in prose and drama. She actively participates in the creation of the architectonics of any work. Titles cannot do without antithesis (“Cunning and Love” by Schiller, “Fathers and Sons” by Turgenev, “War and Peace” by Tolstoy, “Wolves and Sheep” by Ostrovsky, “The Prince and the Pauper” by Twain, “Thick and Thin” by Chekhov...) Antithetical division is used in speech to unite opposites, to emphasize some quality in a characteristic: “They are shamefully indifferent to good and evil” (M. Lermontov).

The comparison of antonyms in statements and aphorisms gives special significance to each of the objects named by them, which enhances the expressiveness of speech. Antonyms in such cases take on logical stress, highlighting the semantic centers of the phrase. Antonyms add poignancy and aphorism to popular expressions: “So few roads have been traveled, so many mistakes have been made. (Yesenin)." Many aphorisms are constructed using antithesis: “There is nothing more stupid than the desire to always be smarter than others” (La Rochefoucauld). A phrase built on an antithesis sounds quite strong, is easy to remember, and makes you think.

Classification of antithesis

Often the antithesis is emphasized by the fact that the nature of its location in the corresponding parts of the sentence is the same (parallelism).

In terms of structure, the antithesis can be simple (monomial) or complex (polynomial). A complex antithesis involves several antonymous pairs or three or more opposing concepts. “Antitheses come in different types. Sometimes their poles are opposed to each other, according to the scheme “not A, but B”, sometimes, on the contrary, they are juxtaposed according to the scheme “both A and B” [Khazagerov http].

There is also a complex or expanded antithesis. An expanded statement is created by including chains of definitions. The use of a detailed antithesis allows us to more clearly actualize the unexpected in an already familiar phenomenon.

It is also worth noting a special type of antithesis - within a synonymous pair: to subside, but not to be silent, etc. Such figures make a strong impression and provoke figurative development of the plot. An antithesis can even consist of identical words, i.e. be within the same lexeme. Thus, some actions can be contrasted with other actions, the feelings of one with the feelings of another, etc. The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided (Charles Dillon "Casey" Stengel). - The basis of a good manager's existence is keeping people who hate me away from people who haven't decided yet.

There is also a contrast between two grammatical, voice or case forms of one word. Most often, case forms of words are contrasted. Such an antithesis is typical for short forms of eloquence that are aphoristic in nature: “Man is a brother to man,” “Man is a wolf to man,” “War is war.” The motto “Peace to the World” is constructed by analogy; where the word "peace" is used in different meanings.

Thanks to the parallel construction of the antithesis, we can highlight the rhythm-forming function of the antithesis, as well as comparative, multiplying and unifying. These functions are often implemented together, but, as a rule, the antithesis highlights one function over the others.

Antithesis it means– opposition. Stylistic or verbal antithesis is the placement next to words of opposite meanings, antonyms.

Example of antithesis

“I decay with my body in dust, I command thunder with my mind, I am a king - I am a slave - I am a worm - I am a god!” (G.R. Derzhavin. God, 1784).

Verbal antithesis often forms the title of a literary work, becoming an oxymoron: “The brilliance and poverty of courtesans” (1838-47) by O. Balzac. The figurative antithesis is contrasting elements of the artistic world of the work, primarily characters. In many myths, everything that is bright, good, and useful in the world and everything that is dark, evil, and hostile to living beings is personified in the images of the first creators of the Universe, the twin brothers. Such are Ahuramazda (literally “the wise Lord”) and the evil spirit Ahriman in the ancient Iranian “Avesta”. Hamlet's father and his brother and murderer Claudius appear as absolute antipodes in William Shakespeare's Hamlet (1601). Compositional, in fact, meaningful antithesis: the opposition of the idyllic and socially critical parts in “The Village” (1819) by A.S. Pushkin, the pathetic introduction and the story about the fate of the unfortunate petty official in his “The Bronze Horseman” (1833).



Antithesis

Antithesis

ANTITHESIS (Greek αντιθεσις - opposition) is one of the stylistic techniques (see Figures), which consists in comparing specific ideas and concepts related to each other by a common design or internal meaning. For example: “He who was nothing will become everything.” Sharply highlighting the contrasting features of the compared members, A., precisely because of his sharpness, is distinguished by his too persistent persuasiveness and brightness (which is why the romantics loved this figure so much). Many stylists therefore had a negative attitude towards A., and on the other hand, poets with rhetorical pathos, for example, have a noticeable predilection for it. from Hugo or today from Mayakovsky. The symmetry and analytical nature of A. make it very appropriate in some strict forms, such as. in Alexandrian verse (see), with its clear division into two parts. The sharp clarity of A. also makes it very suitable for the style of works that strive for immediate persuasiveness, such as. in works that are declarative-political, with a social tendency, agitational or have a moralistic premise, etc. An example is the phrase of the “Communist Manifesto”: “In the coming struggle, the proletarians have nothing to lose except their chains; they will gain the whole world.” Antithetical composition is often observed in social novels and plays with a contrasting comparison of the lives of different classes (for example: “The Locksmith and the Chancellor” by A.V. Lunacharsky, “The Iron Heel” by J. London, “The Prince and the Pauper” by Twain, etc.) ; A. can form the basis of works depicting moral tragedy (for example: “The Idiot” by Dostoevsky), etc. Contrasting the tragic with the comic provides especially rewarding material for A.: for example. “Nevsky Prospekt” by Gogol with its contrast between the comedy-farcical story of Pirogov and the dramatic story of Piskarev.

Literary encyclopedia. - At 11 t.; M.: Publishing House of the Communist Academy, Soviet Encyclopedia, Fiction. Edited by V. M. Fritsche, A. V. Lunacharsky. 1929-1939 .

Antithesis

(from the Greek antithesis - opposition), a compositional technique of contrasting: images, plot situations, styles, themes within the whole work; words or verbal constructions with meaning antonyms:

You translator- I reader,

You sleeper- I yawner.

(A. A. Delvig, “To the Translator of Virgil”)
Writers often refer to verbal antithesis in the titles of works. Antithetical titles were regularly used in Russian classics of the 19th century. (“Fathers and Sons” by I.S. Turgenev, “Wolves and Sheep” by A. N. Ostrovsky, “War and Peace” L.N. Tolstoy, “Crime and Punishment” F.M. Dostoevsky, “Thick and Thin” by A.P. Chekhov).

Literature and language. Modern illustrated encyclopedia. - M.: Rosman. Edited by prof. Gorkina A.P. 2006 .

Antithesis

ANTITHESIS(Greek "Αντιθεσις, opposition) - a figure (see) consisting of a comparison of logically opposite concepts or images. An essential condition for antithesis is the subordination of opposites to the common concept that unites them, or a common point of view on them. For example, “I started for health, and brought to rest”, “Learning is light, but ignorance is darkness.” This subordination may not be logically accurate. Thus, the proverbs: “Rare, but accurate,” “Small is the spool, but dear” are constructed antithetically, although taken separately, the concepts. rare And accurate, small And Expensive are not logically subordinate, as light And dark, Start And end; but in this context, these concepts are subordinated due to the fact that the words “rarely” and “small” are taken with a certain specification of their meaning in relation to the words “aptly” and “dear”, compared with them and taken in the literal sense. Paths, entering into antithesis, can further hide its logical clarity and accuracy. For example, “Now a colonel, tomorrow a dead man,” “Don’t buy a threshing floor, buy a mind,” “He thinks well, but he gives birth a little blindly,” etc.

As a means of enhancing expressiveness, antithesis is used in the following main cases. Firstly, when comparing images or concepts that contrast with each other. For example, in “Eugene Onegin”:

They got along. Wave and stone

Poetry and prose, ice and fire

Not so different from each other.

Secondly, antithetical concepts or images can be totality express something single. In this case, the antithesis usually expresses either the contrast already contained in the very content of the object being expressed, or its magnitude. Thus, Derzhavin’s antitheses “I am a king - I am a slave, I am a worm - I am god”, etc. express the concept person, as beings of contrast, antithetical in nature. Pushkin’s antithesis of the same order is “And the rose maidens drink the breath, perhaps, full of plague.” On the other hand, the size of the “Russian land” in Pushkin is expressed by the antitheses of its geographical limits: “From Perm to Taurida, from the cold Finnish rocks to fiery Colchis, from the shocked Kremlin to the walls of motionless China.” Third, an antithetical image (or concept) can be used to shade another image that is in the spotlight. Then only one of the members of the antithesis corresponds to the expressed object, while the other member has the auxiliary value of enhancing the expressiveness of the first. This type of antithesis is akin to the figure comparisons(cm.). So, from Derzhavin:

“Where was the table of food,

There is a coffin there."

From Pushkin:

Not the sound of deep forests,

And the cry of my comrades,

Yes, scold the night guards,

Yes, a squeal, and the clanking of shackles.”

From Bryusov:

“But half measures are hated,

Not the sea, but a deep channel,

Not lightning, but gray midday,

Not an agora, but a common hall.”

It is to this type of antithesis that Spencer’s psychological explanation of this figure can primarily be attributed to the fact that a black spot on a white field seems even blacker and vice versa. White, of course, is not included in black here, but from outside states to him. Wed. from Pushkin: “I look at you with reverence when... you have black curls on pale marble scatter." Fourthly, antithesis can express an alternative: either - or. So, Pushkin has the words of Leporello to Don Giovanni: “You don’t care where you start, whether from the eyebrows or from the feet.”

The antithesis may not be limited to two contrasting images, but can also be polynomial. Thus, in Pushkin’s “Road Complaints” we find a number of polynomial antitheses:

“How long will I walk in the world,

Now in a carriage, now on horseback,

Now in a wagon, now in a carriage,

Either in a cart or on foot?

The antithesis acquires particular effectiveness when it is supported by contrasts of sound writing, as, for example, in Blok:

"Today - I triumph soberly,

Tomorrow - I cry and sing».

The figure of antithesis can serve as a construction principle for entire poetic plays or individual parts of works of art in verse and prose. Descriptions, characteristics, especially the so-called. comparative ones are often constructed antithetically. For example, the characterization of Peter the Great in Pushkin’s “Stanzas”: “Now an academician, now a hero, now a navigator, now a carpenter,” etc., Plyushkina before And Now in “Dead Souls”, etc. Klyuchevsky, like many other historian-artists, willingly uses antithesis in his characteristics, for example, Boris Godunov (this “worker king”), Alexei Mikhailovich (with a metaphorical expression of the main antithesis: “one he still firmly rested his foot on his native Orthodox antiquity, but he had already lifted the other one beyond its borders, and remained in this indecisive transitional position"), etc. An alternative type of antithesis lies at the basis of Hamlet’s famous monologue “To be or not to be.” A striking example of a detailed antithesis is the oath of Lermontov’s Demon: “I swear by the first day of creation, I swear by its last day.” One of the most perfect examples of an antithetically constructed comparison in our poetry is the stanza: “Why does the wind spin in a ravine” from Pushkin’s “Genealogy of My Hero.”

Antithesis, as a compositional principle, can also be discussed in relation to the architectonics of major literary genres. The very titles of many dramas and novels indicate this kind of antithetical structure: “Cunning and Love”, “War and Peace”, “Crime and Punishment”, etc. Figures of Napoleon and Kutuzov in Tolstoy, Prince Myshkin and Rogozhin, Aglaya and Nastasya Filippovna, or Dostoevsky’s three Karamazov brothers in the architectonics of the whole are compared antithetically.

M. Petrovsky. Literary encyclopedia: Dictionary of literary terms: In 2 volumes / Edited by N. Brodsky, A. Lavretsky, E. Lunin, V. Lvov-Rogachevsky, M. Rozanov, V. Cheshikhin-Vetrinsky. - M.; L.: Publishing house L. D. Frenkel, 1925

Synonyms:

Antonyms:

See what “Antithesis” is in other dictionaries:

Antithesis... Spelling dictionary-reference book

Antithesis- ANTITHESIS (Greek Αντιθεσις, opposition) a figure (see) consisting of a comparison of logically opposite concepts or images. An essential condition for antithesis is the subordination of opposites to the common concept that unites them, or... ... Dictionary of literary terms

- (Greek antithesis, from anti against, and thesis position). 1) a rhetorical figure consisting of placing next to two opposite, but connected by a common point of view, thoughts to give them greater strength and liveliness, for example, in peacetime, son... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

antithesis- y, w. antithèse f., lat. antithesis, gr. 1. A rhetorical figure consisting of contrasting contrasting thoughts or expressions. Sl. 18. If Cicero himself lived in our time, he would not amuse the Readers with antitheses on two or on... ... Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language

Opposition, contrast, juxtaposition, contrast, juxtaposition. Ant. thesis Dictionary of Russian synonyms. antithesis see opposite 2 Dictionary of synonyms of the Russian language. Practical information... Synonym dictionary

- (from the Greek antithesis opposition), a stylistic figure, with or opposition of contrasting concepts, states, images (Beautiful, like a heavenly angel, Like a demon, insidious and evil, M.Yu. Lermontov) ... Modern encyclopedia

- (from the Greek antithesis opposition) stylistic figure, comparison or opposition of contrasting concepts, positions, images (I am a king, I am a slave, I am a worm, I am a god!, G. Derzhavin) ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

- [te], antitheses, female. (Greek antithesis) (book). 1. Opposition, opposite. || Comparison of two opposing thoughts or images for greater strength and vividness of expression (lit.). 2. The same as antithesis (philosophy). Dictionary… … Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

- [te], s, female. 1. A stylistic figure based on a sharp contrast, the opposition of images and concepts (special). Poetic a. "ice and fire" in "Eugene Onegin". 2. transfer Opposition, opposite (book). A.… … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

Women or antithesis masculine, Greek, rhetorician. opposite, opposite, for example: there was a colonel and became a dead man. A great man for small things. Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary. IN AND. Dal. 1863 1866 … Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary

Books

• A short course in invertebrate paleontology, B. T. Yanin, V. M. Nazarova, The textbook examines the main directions of paleontological research in the field of ancient invertebrate organisms: systematics, evolution, taxonomy and nomenclature, lifestyle and ... Category: For applicants and students Publisher: