We explain what antithesis is as a rhetorical figure and various examples. Also, what are paradox and oxymoron.
What is the antithesis?
The antithesis is a Figure of speech which consists of opposing two complementary and opposite terms, that is, two phrases or concepts that are openly opposed, but that at the same time cannot exist without each other.
This figure is typical of the poetry and poetic language, since it tends to produce results of great aesthetic or expressive impact. In some cases because they involve an intense contrast between the words used, and in others because they somehow pose their own logic of relationships, thus inaugurating a "new world" in which such a relationship of opposition-complementarity is possible.
The antithesis word comes from the Greek roots anti- ("against") and thesis ("Positioning"), and has been used abundantly by poets throughout the history of poetry. He is also employed in the philosophy as the denial or counter-affirmation of a certain thesis, which opens the way to a refutation. "But", "however" or "on the contrary" are usually the opening words of a philosophical antithesis.
Examples of antithesis
Next, we will explain a couple of examples of the use of antithesis in literary texts:
- "The heart is fed up, the world is empty" by Novalis.
(What can the heart be full of if the world is empty?)
- "You are like the rose / tile / red by night / white by day" by Lope de Vega.
(How can a flower be one color by day and another by night?)
Other possible examples are the following:
- “When I want to cry I don't cry / and sometimes I cry without meaning to” by Rubén Darío.
- "Love is so short and oblivion is so long" by Pablo Neruda.
Paradox
We must not confuse the antithesis with a similar poetic figure, called a paradox or antilogy. This consists of a saying or a fact that is, in appearance, contrary to logic or that they involve in themselves a contradiction.
In fact, this term is often used to describe the narrations in which what happened makes his own past impossible. An example is the typical time travel stories, in which the traveler alters the course of history making his future travel impossible, and therefore also making his arrival in the past impossible to alter the future.
Examples of paradox can be:
- "To live is to be dying from the beginning."
- "If I'm not mistaken, the world is about to end."
- "I never tell the truth."
Oxymoron
The oxymoron is another similar poetic figure, which consists of the harmonic coexistence of two semantically opposed or antagonistic terms, within the same formulation. He is a typical figure of poetry and Figurative language, such as the following examples:
- "The black sun of melancholy. "
- "The sad joy to live."
- "A fleeting eternity stars in the cemetery. "
- "The woman was beautifull in its ugliness.»