Among the artistic means that make our speech bright, imaginative, expressive, one of the main places is the antithesis.
Definition
The term came to us from the Greek language, and its translation very well explains what the antithesis is. This is a contrast, the contrast between objects, phenomena, meanings of words and concepts. The antithesis is widely used in artistic speech at the level of vocabulary, syntax, stylistics. By the principle of opposition, images of a work can be created, its internal meanings can be expressed, and one or another ideological theory is built. Many methods of public speaking are also an excellent example of what the antithesis is. But it should be understood: such a contrast is possible only between something that has some internal, deep connections between itself. As an example, we can recall the main characters of Pushkin's novel "Eugene Onegin." Onegin and Author are opposite in it, Onegin and Lensky, Onegin and Tatyana, Tatyana and Olga. Thus, the characteristics of the relationship between Onegin and Lensky, their fundamental differences were expressed by Pushkin unusually accurately, capaciously and deeply by comparing “verses and prose”, “ice and flame”, etc. This is a clear demonstration of what the lexical antithesis is. In fact, it can be considered the use in one lexico-grammatical series of antonyms: war and peace, red and black, white snow and gray ice, etc.
Varieties of Antithesis
Figuratively expressive figures of language and speech can be either explicit, or latent, or contextual in nature. For example, in the proverb about the spool, which is small and expensive, the adjectives “small” and “expensive” are not antonyms in ordinary language practice. In the proverb, they acquire an additional, figurative meaning and express opposite concepts: the value of an object is determined not by its size or other physical parameters, but by other qualities. Therefore, it is at least small, but expensive, i.e. important. Thus, the proverb demonstrates what the antithesis is occasional, contextual. In general, the paths that make up the figure of speech often add an additional, hidden meaning to it. What other types of antithesis stand out in literary criticism?
- Conceptual or figurative. Objects (in the broad sense) contrast with each other.
- The antithesis in works as an expression of contrast in itself or the degree of contrast.
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Contrast as an additional means to highlight a single hero of a literary text (Pechorin in “The Hero of Our Time”, Bazarov in “Fathers and Sons”, Mtsyri in the poem of the same name).
- The antithesis in the poem can become the main ideological and semantic center on which the lyrical miniature is built. For example, Lermontov’s poems “When a Yellowing Cornfield Excites”, “Homeland”, as well as “Autumn” by Pushkin and others.
Antithesis in speaking
Conversation is very emotional and expressive. And the antithesis plays not the last role in it. Indeed, most of our comparisons, descriptions, characteristics in conversations and everyday communication are built on the principle of contrast, juxtaposition, opposition.
