The technique of opposition in literature. What is antithesis in literature? With examples

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 antonymous 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 expanded 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!”

Material from Uncyclopedia

Antithesis (from the Greek ἀντίθεσις - opposition) - a comparison of contrasting or opposing images.

"Peace to the huts, war to the palaces." Artist M. Chagall.

In a broader sense, antithesis refers to any juxtaposition of opposing concepts, situations, or any other elements in a literary work. These are the contrasts between Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in the novel “Don Quixote” by M. Cervantes, the jester and the main characters of W. Shakespeare, Olga and Tatiana in “Eugene Onegin” by A. S. Pushkin, the Snake and the Falcon in “The Song of the Falcon” by M. Gorky, Makar Nagulnov and grandfather Shchukar in “Virgin Soil Upturned” by M. A. Sholokhov.

The emergence of antithesis goes back to those initial stages of cultural development, when the primary perception of the world as a chaotic kingdom of chance was replaced by a certain ordering of ideas based on the principle of duality: sea - land, sky - earth, light - darkness, right - left, north - south, even - odd . The myths of many peoples of the world tell about the first creators of the Universe - twin rivals, with one of the brothers creating everything light, good, useful, the other - everything dark, evil, hostile to man.

Various concepts or characters turn out to depend on the characteristic by which they are compared. The hero of a fairy tale is opposed, on the one hand, by enemies like the Serpent Gorynych or Koshchei the Immortal (the antithesis of a hero - an enemy), on the other, by his siblings (the antithesis of a hero - an imaginary hero). The same opposition has different meanings in different contexts. The opposition “white - black” has one meaning in the Serbian song: “The plowman’s hands are black, but the loaf is white,” where it is close to the Russian proverb: “The work is bitter, but the bread is sweet,” and the other is at the beginning of the poem by A.A. Bloc “Twelve”, affirming the purity and holiness of the revolution: “Black evening. / White snow".

Finally, the third meaning is expressed in the poem by V.V. Mayakovsky “Black and White” (recording in Russian letters the English expression “Black and White” or “Black and White”): “White work / is done by white, / black work is done by / black” . Behind the opposition of two colors in V.V. Mayakovsky there is a racial and at the same time class antagonism, characterizing the internal troubles of outwardly prosperous America.

Typically, antithetical concepts are expressed by words that are opposite in meaning - antonyms. These are the antithetical titles “Mozart and Salieri” (A. S. Pushkin), “Wolves and Sheep” (A. N. Ostrovsky), “Fathers and Sons” (I. S. Turgenev), “War and Peace” (L N. Tolstoy), “Crime and Punishment” (F. M. Dostoevsky), “Fat and Thin” (A. P. Chekhov), “The Living and the Dead” (K. M. Simonov), “Cunning and Love” (I. Fr. Schiller), “Red and Black” (Stendhal), “The Prince and the Pauper” (M. Twain), directly or indirectly pointing to the conflicts underlying these works.

Naturally, in fairy tales and fables - genres where the characteristics of the characters are clear and definite, often antithetical titles are antonyms: “Truth and Falsehood”, “The Man and the Master” (fairy tales), “The Wolf and the Lamb”, “Leaves and Roots” ( fables by I. A. Krylov). Proverbs are often based on antithesis (see Proverbs and sayings), for example: “Work feeds, but laziness spoils.” As a strong means of emotional influence, the antithesis is used in oratory, in slogans and calls: “Peace to the huts, war to the palaces!” (slogan of the Great French Revolution of 1789–1799).

It happens that the terms of the opposition in the second part follow in the reverse order (compared to the first), as if crosswise, in the form of the letter χ (in the Greek alphabet - the letter hee, hence the name of this figure - chiasmus(See Repeat). Socrates is credited with an aphorism that combines chiasmus with repetition: “Eat to live, not live to eat.”

The antithesis can extend to an entire dialogue, which, in turn, can develop into an independent work. This is the genre of debate (dispute). These are the Sumerian disputes created thousands of years ago: “summer and winter” or “silver and copper” (remember Pushkin’s “Gold and Damask Steel”), and the “Debate of the Belly (Life) and Death”, known to many people, which has repeatedly attracted the attention of painters, playwrights and poets, up to M. Gorky (“The Girl and Death”) and A. T. Tvardovsky (chapter “Death and the Warrior” in the poem “Vasily Terkin”).

A.P. Chekhov said about one of his heroes (Laevsky in the story “Duel”) that he is “a bad good man.” The hero of Yu. V. Trifonov’s novel “Time and Place,” Antipov considers himself a “lucky loser.” In this case, we have before us a special type of antithesis - an oxymoron, or oxymoron (translated from Greek - “witty-stupid”), a combination of contrasting values ​​that create a new concept. “I love nature’s lush withering” (A.S. Pushkin); “But I soon comprehended the mystery of their ugly beauty” (M. Yu. Lermontov). And if the title of I. A. Krylov’s fable is based on the opposition of two characters - “The Lion and the Mouse”, then F. M. Dostoevsky, giving the name to his hero, resorts to the oxymoronic combination Lev Myshkin (the novel “The Idiot”). An oxymoron is sometimes included in the titles of works: “The Living Corpse” (L. N. Tolstoy), “Gypsy Nun” (F. G. Lorca), “The Peasant Young Lady” (A. S. Pushkin), “Dead Souls” ( N.V. Gogol).

Of particular note is the so-called imaginary antithesis. Thus, in N.V. Gogol’s “The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich,” the opposition of Ivan Ivanovich to his neighbor Ivan Nikiforovich, so categorical in appearance, turns out to be untenable and imaginary upon closer examination. This technique, which represents one of the varieties of parody, goes back to folklore: “Erema’s purse is empty, but Thomas has nothing,” “Erema is in someone else’s, but Thomas is not in his own,” “Here they buried Erema, but Thomas was buried.”

Thus, the antithesis, serious and parodic, is found in prose and poetry, in myth and fairy tale, in genres large and small.

Antithesis (Greek antithesis - opposition) - a comparison of opposing objects, concepts, phenomena, as well as compositional components (characters, images, landscapes, artistic details, etc.).

In their work, to enhance the imagery and expressiveness of speech, writers use special means called stylistic figures. Figure represents an unusual construction of a sentence or figure of speech, a special syntactic design of a phrase. One of the figurative and expressive means of speech is antithesis.

Refers to syntactic figures of intensification. An example of an antithesis: “I swear by the first day of creation, I swear by its last day”(M.Yu. Lermontov); “They came together: wave and stone, poetry and prose, ice and fire, not so different from each other.”(A.S. Pushkin).

An entire work can be built on the use of antithesis. N. Zabolotsky has a philosophical poem "Swan at the Zoo", in which the poet contrasts the small oasis of a zoo, where a beautiful white swan lives, and a noisy metropolis with the grinding of a tram, the squeal of car tires and the roar of a bridge.

A type of antithesis is an oxymoron (Greek oxymoron - acute stupidity) - a deliberate combination of words with opposite meanings in order to introduce a new concept (“dead souls” - N.V. Gogol, “sad joy” - S.A. Yesenin, “poor luxury” - N.A. Nekrasov).

Examples of antithesis in fiction

Let the month shine - the night is dark.
May life bring happiness to people, -
There is spring in my love soul
Will not replace stormy bad weather.
(A. Blok)

They came together: a wave and a stone,
Poetry and prose, ice and fire
Not so different from each other.
(A.S. Pushkin)

You are a prose writer - I am a poet,
You are rich - I am very poor,
You are blushing like poppies,
I’m like death, skinny and pale.
(A.S. Pushkin)

Our strength is truth
yours - laurels ringing.
Yours is incense smoke,
Ours is factory smoke.
Your power is a chervonets,
Ours is a red banner,
We will take,
let's borrow
and we will win.
(V. Mayakovsky)

All this would be funny
If only it weren't so sad.
(M. Lermontov)

Antithesis as a means of expression in literary works

In general, antithesis means an acute opposition of images or judgments, opposite in essence, but interconnected by a common internal mechanism or meaning. In literary works, antithesis is a coordination of contrasting or completely opposite characteristics of images or concepts, which enhances the impression of what is read, makes the text brighter, more memorable, and more alive.

Antithesis in the works of Pushkin, Yesenin, Nekrasov

For example, in the works of A. S. Pushkin one can notice oppositions like “prose - poetry”, “stone - wave”, “flame - ice”. The antithesis in the works of S. A. Yesenin and N. A. Nekrasov already appears in the form of oxymorons “sad joy”, “poor luxury” and similar constructions.

The antithesis in the text is expressed most clearly when there is a precise logical subordination of the components of the structure. For example: “there were snowstorms while I was writing about the summer,” “there was an honest conversation, but everything was muddied.”

However, literature is also replete with examples of a different kind, where the antithesis is vivid even in the absence of logic: “the praise sounds beautiful, but it’s bitter,” “they sang well, but they didn’t get it.” In these cases, the opposed concepts do not form logical pairs of opposites such as “fire - water” or “light - darkness”, therefore there is no logical clarity characteristic of most proverbs and sayings. How does antithesis work? It's all about the context: it is this that makes the opposition not only appropriate, but also vivid.

How to make the antithesis bright and understandable, accurate and interesting?

1. With the help of semantic contrast: “having twisted everything, we got to the point.”
2. Express something common using a set of antithetical concepts. For example, Derzhavin’s hero, a man of contrasting nature, calls himself either a king or a slave.
3. An antithetical subject can play the role of a secondary one, contrasted with the main subject or image. The first component of the antithesis in this case names the main subject, and the second performs a service function: “Ideal forms do not require content.”
4. Present the comparison as several possible ways out of the situation: “to be or not to be - that is the question.”
5. Sound writing works great, for example, “it teaches you - it gets boring.”

Antithesis- this is not necessarily a opposition of two images; it can contain three or more components. Such an antithesis is called polynomial.

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Antithesis

Antithesis, antithesis(ancient Greek ἀντίθεσις - the opposite of ἀντί - against + θέσις - thesis) - rhetorical contrast of text, a stylistic figure of contrast in artistic or oratory speech, consisting in a sharp opposition of concepts, positions, images, states, interconnected by a common design or internal meaning.

Antithesis in literature

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. For example, F. Petrarch has a sonnet (translation by Yu. N. Verkhovsky), entirely built on an antithesis:

And there is no peace - and there are no enemies anywhere;
I'm afraid - I hope, I'm cold and burning;
I drag myself in the dust and soar in the skies;
Strange to everyone in the world - and ready to embrace the world.

In her captivity I don’t know;
They don’t want to own me, but the oppression is harsh;
Cupid does not destroy and does not break bonds;
And there is no end to life and no end to torment.

I am sighted - without eyes; silently - I emit screams;
And I thirst for destruction - I pray to save;
I hate myself - and I love everyone else;
Through suffering - alive; with laughter I cry;

Both death and life are cursed with sadness;
And this is to blame, oh donna, you!

Descriptions and characteristics, especially the so-called comparative ones, are often constructed antithetically.

For example, the characterization of Peter the Great in “Stanzas” by A. S. Pushkin:

Sharply highlighting the contrasting features of the compared members, the antithesis, precisely because of its sharpness, is distinguished by its too persistent persuasiveness and brightness (for which this figure was so loved by the romantics). Many stylists therefore had a negative attitude towards the antithesis, but on the other hand, poets with rhetorical pathos, such as Hugo or Mayakovsky, have a noticeable predilection for it:

Our strength is truth
yours - laurels ringing.
Yours is incense smoke,
ours is factory smoke.
Your power is a chervonets,
ours is a red banner.
We will take,
let's borrow
and we will win.

The symmetry and analytical nature of the antithesis make it very appropriate in some strict forms, as, for example, in Alexandrian verse, with its clear division into two parts.

The sharp clarity of the antithesis also makes it very suitable for the style of works that strive for immediate persuasiveness, as, for example, in works that are declarative-political, with a social tendency, agitational or have a moralistic premise, etc. Examples include:

Antithetical composition is often observed in social novels and plays with a contrasting comparison of the lives of different classes (for example: “The Iron Heel” by John London, “The Prince and the Pauper” by Mark Twain, etc.); antithesis can underlie works that depict a moral tragedy (for example: “The Idiot” by Dostoevsky), etc.

In this social key, the device of antithesis was used in a very original way by N. A. Nekrasov in the first poem from the “Songs” cycle:

People have a vat of cabbage soup with corned beef,
And in our cabbage soup there is a cockroach, a cockroach!
People have godfathers - they give children,
And our godfathers will eat our bread!
What people have on their minds is to chat with their godfather,
What's on our minds is, shouldn't we go with the bag?

As an example of the use of antithesis in modern poetry, here is an eight-line poem by Aidyn Khanmagomedov:

Once again the feathered leader will miss summer
and, calling out, will raise her friends.
Like children of two separated parents,
sometimes they go north, sometimes they go south.
They probably like the nomadic life,
since he doesn’t sit there or here.
As if there is a native foreign land on earth,
and there is a foreign homeland.

Konstantin Kinchev (We are heading towards the forest):

Your symbol is the wind rose,
Mine is a rusty nail.
But for God's sake, let's not find out
Which one of us is the guest?

Notes

Links

• // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional ones). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.

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Antonyms:

See what “Antithesis” is in other dictionaries:

Antithesis... Spelling dictionary-reference book

- (Greek αντιθεσις opposition) 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”... Literary encyclopedia

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 general 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 a juxtaposition of 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. Dahl. 1863 1866 … Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary

Books

• The Living and the Dead in Indian Philosophy, D. Chattopadhyay, 1981 Edition. The condition is good. This book is intended as a study of our philosophical tradition from the point of view of the urgent needs of the current development of philosophy. According to the author, such... Category: