Literary device – Antithesis

Antithesis means “opposite”. As a literary device, it is used to put two contrasting ideas together. Antithesis is a figure of speech that refers to the juxtaposition of opposing or contrasting ideas. This figure of speech juxtaposes two contrasting or opposing ideas, usually within parallel grammatical structures. It involves a seeming contradiction of ideas, words, clauses, or sentences within a balanced grammatical structure. This figure of speech must always contain two ideas within one statement.

            Example 1:

• That’s one small step for a man – one giant leap for mankind. (Neil Armstrong, 1969)
• To err is human; to forgive, divine. (Alexander Pope)
• Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. (in Paradise Lost by John Milton)
• “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”– Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Speech is silver, but silence is gold.
• Give me liberty or give me death.
• “Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing.” – Goethe
• “Money is the root of all evil: poverty is the fruit of all goodness.”
• “Patience is bitter, but it has a sweet fruit.” – Aristotle
• “Folks who have no vices have very few virtues.” – Abraham Lincoln
• In brightest day, in blackest night. (in Green Lantern’s Oath)
• “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.” – Abraham Lincoln
• “Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.” – Samuel Johnson
• Speech is silver, but silence is gold.
• Patience is bitter, but it has a sweet fruit.
• Money is the root of all evil: poverty is the fruit of all goodness.
• Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.
• Man proposes, God disposes.
• Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing.
• You are easy on the eyes, but hard on the heart.
• Shall I die for my country, shall I die for my family.
• Money is a good servant but also a bad master.
• “Unlike short-sighted, egocentric humans, God “sees with equal eye” the fall of a hero and a sparrow, the destruction of an atom or a solar system.” – Alexander Pope.

Example 2: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs film by Walt Disney

 Snow White and the Wicked Witch are totally different throughout the entire film. Snow White wanted to be kind and helpful to her fellow man, while the Wicked Witch wanted to poison her with an apple, thus taking away her beauty and charm.

Example 3: I would rather be ashes than dust! quote by Jack London

 “I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”

Example 4: John Donne’s poem “Community”

“Good we must love, and must hate ill,
For ill is ill, and good good still;
But there are things indifferent,
Which we may neither hate, nor love,
But one, and then another prove,
As we shall find our fancy bent.”

Example 5: A Tale of Two Cities novel by Charles Dickens

 “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way”.