Antithesis in literature
The figure of antithesis can serve as a principle of construction for entire poetic plays or separate parts of works of art in verse and prose. For example, Petrarch F. has a sonnet (translated by Verkhovsky Yu. N.), entirely built on the antithesis:
And there is no peace - and there are no enemies anywhere;
I fear - I hope, I freeze and burn;
I drag myself in the dust - and soar in the sky;
Alien to everyone in the world - and the world is ready to embrace.She is in captivity of captivity, I do not know;
They do not want to own me, but the oppression is severe;
Cupid does not destroy and does not break the shackles;
And there is no end to life and torment - the edge.I am sighted - without eyes; nem - I emit cries;
And the thirst for death - I pray to save;
I hate myself - and I love everyone else;
Suffering - alive; with laughter I sob;Both death and life are sadly cursed;
And this is the fault, oh donna, - you!
Descriptions, characteristics, especially the so-called comparative ones, are often built antithetically.
For example, the characterization of Peter the Great in A.S. Pushkin's Stanzas:
Now an academician, then a hero,
Either a navigator, or a carpenter ...
Sharply shading the contrasting features of the compared members, the antithesis, precisely because of its sharpness, is distinguished by too persistent persuasiveness and brightness (for which the romantics loved this figure so much). Many stylists therefore treated the antithesis negatively, and on the other hand, poets with rhetorical pathos, such as Hugo or Mayakovsky, are noticeably fond of it:
Our strength is truth
yours - laurel ringing.
Yours is censer smoke,
ours is factory smoke.
Your power is a gold piece,
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 the 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 of declarative political, with a social tendency, agitational or moralistic, etc. Examples are:
The proletarians have nothing to lose in it except their chains. They will gain the whole world.
Who was nobody, he will become everything!
The antithetical composition is often observed in social novels and plays when contrasting the life of different classes (for example: The Iron Heel by J. London, The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain, etc.); antithesis can underlie works depicting a moral tragedy (for example.
Antithesis
ANTITHESIS(Greek "Αντιθεσις, opposition) - a figure (see) consisting in a comparison of logically opposite concepts or images. An essential condition for antithesis is the subordination of opposites to the one that unites them general concept, or a common point of view on them. For example, “I started for health, but brought to rest”, “Learning is light, and ignorance is darkness.” This subordination may not be logically precise. So, the proverbs: “Rarely, but aptly”, “Small spool, but expensive” are built antithetically, although the concepts taken separately rare and well-aimed, small and expensive are not logically subordinate, as light and dark, Start and the end; but in this context, these concepts are subordinate due to the fact that the words “rarely” and “small” are taken with a certain specification of their meaning in relation to the words “accurately” and “expensive” compared with them and taken in the literal sense. The paths, entering into the antithesis, can hide its logical clarity and accuracy even more. For example, “Today is a colonel, tomorrow is a dead man”, “Don’t buy a threshing floor, buy a mind”, “Thinks well, but blindly gives birth”, etc.
As a means of enhancing expressiveness, the 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 agreed. Wave and stone
Poetry and prose, ice and fire
Not so different from each other.
Secondly, antithetical concepts or images can totality express something single. In this case, the antithesis usually expresses either the contrast, which already lies in the very content of the expressed object, or its magnitude. So, in Derzhavin, the antitheses “I am a king - I am a slave, I am a worm - I am a god”, etc. express the concept human, as beings of a contrasting, antithetical nature. Pushkin's antithesis is of the same order: "And the rose-maidens drink the breath, perhaps full of the 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 Finnish cold rocks to fiery Colchis, from the shocked Kremlin to the walls of motionless China.” Thirdly, an antithetical image (or concept) can be used to shade another image that is in the center of attention. Then only one of the members of the antithesis corresponds to the object being expressed, while the other member has the auxiliary meaning of enhancing the expressiveness of the first. This type of antithesis is related to the figure comparisons(cm.). So, Derzhavin:
"Where the table was food,
There is a coffin there."
Pushkin:
Not the noise of the dense forests,
And the cry of my comrades,
Yes, the scolding of the night watchmen,
Yes, a screech, yes, the ringing of shackles.
From Bryusov:
“But half-measures are hateful,
Not the sea, but a dead channel,
Not lightning, but gray midday,
Not an agora, but a common hall.
Spencer's psychological explanation of this figure that a black spot on a white field seems to be even blacker and vice versa can primarily be attributed to this type of antithesis. White, of course, is not included here in black, but from outside states to him. Wed Pushkin: “I look at you with reverence when... you are black curls on the pale marble scatter." Fourth, the antithesis can express an alternative: either - or. So, Pushkin has Leporello's words to Don Giovanni: "You don't care where you start, whether it's from the eyebrows or from the legs."
Antithesis may not be limited to two contrasting images, but also be polynomial. So, in Pushkin's "Road Complaints" we find a number of polynomial antitheses:
“Is it a long time to walk in the world,
Now in a wheelchair, then on horseback,
Now in a wagon, now in a carriage,
Either in a cart or on foot?
The antithesis becomes especially effective when it is supported by the contrasts of sound writing, as, for example, in Blok:
"Today - soberly triumph,
tomorrow - crying and singing».
The figure of antithesis can serve as a principle of construction for entire poetic plays or separate parts of works of art in verse and prose. Descriptions, characteristics, especially the so-called. comparative, often built 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 historians-artists, willingly uses the antithesis in his characteristics, for example, Boris Godunov (this "worker"), Alexei Mikhailovich (with a metaphorical expression of the main antithesis: "with one foot he is still firmly rested on his native Orthodox antiquity, and the other was already brought beyond its line, and he remained in this indecisive transitional position"), etc. An alternative type of antithesis underlies Hamlet's famous monologue "To be or not to be." A vivid example of a detailed antithesis is the oath of the Lermontov Demon: "I swear on the first day of creation, I swear on its last day." One of the most perfect samples An antithetically constructed comparison in our poetry is represented by the stanza: “Why does the wind spin in the ravine” from Pushkin’s “Pedigree of My Hero”.
Antithesis, as a compositional principle, can also be spoken of in relation to the architectonics of major literary genres. Already the very titles of many dramas and novels point to this kind of antithetical structure: “Treachery and Love”, “War and Peace”, “Crime and Punishment”, etc. The figures of Napoleon and Kutuzov in Tolstoy, Prince Myshkin and Rogozhin, Aglaya and Nastasya Filippovna, or Dostoevsky's three brothers Karamazov, are contrasted antithetically in the architectonics of the whole.
M. Petrovsky.
Literary Encyclopedia: Dictionary literary terms: In 2 volumes - M.; L.: Publishing house L. D. Frenkel Ed. N. Brodsky, A. Lavretsky, E. Lunin, V. Lvov-Rogachevsky, M. Rozanov, V. Cheshikhin-Vetrinsky 1925See also `Antithesis` in other dictionaries
ANTITHESIS (from the Greek antithesis - opposition) - a stylistic figure, a 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).
antithesis - (from the Greek anti - against and thesis - position) - opposition, creating the effect of a sharp contrast of images (for example, Bazarov and P.P. Kirsanov, Oblomov and Stolz), compositional (for example, A.S. Pushkin's "Village") or plot (for example, the alternation of "military" and "peaceful" episodes in L.N. Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace") elements of the work. Antonyms are often used to express A., for example: "War and Peace", "Crime and Punishment", "Thick and Thin", etc.
(te), antitheses, w. (Greek antithesis) (book). 1. Contrast, opposite. || Comparison of two opposing thoughts or images for greater strength and brightness of expression (lit.). 2. Same as antithesis (philosophical).
1. Comparison of sharply different words.
2. Contrasting contrasting concepts.
Antithesis
antithesis
Merged or separate? Spelling dictionary-reference book. - M.: Russian language. B. Z. Bukchina, L. P. Kakalutskaya. 1998 .
Antithesis ANTITHESIS, antithetical, in a broad sense - the principle of world perception, which consists in discovering the opposite of two phenomena; in art - a technique that captures the contrast of concepts, characters, psychol. states, situations, attributes of life, etc. A. is intensively used by L. throughout the creative. ways; from a local artist. A.'s reception in L. develops into a worldview. epistemological phenomenon and acquires new life, complete artistic surprises. In production L. stand out several. levels A.A. philosophical and poetic. type: "good" - "evil", "action" - "reflection", "beauty" - "ugliness", "ver...
ANTITHESIS (from the Greek antithesis - opposition), a stylistic figure, co- or opposition of contrasting concepts, states, images ("Beautiful, like an angel in heaven, Like a demon, insidious and evil", M.Yu. Lermontov>).
1. g. 1) Opposite, opposition. 2) A stylistic device that consists in juxtaposing opposite or sharply contrasting concepts and images. 2. g. The same as: antithesis.
and. or antithesis m. Greek. rhetorician. opposite, opposite, for example: there was a colonel - there was a dead man. great person for small things.
antithesis
opposition, opposition, opposition, contrast, juxtaposition. Ant. thesis
Antithesis
(1 and); pl. antit e/ PS, R. antite/ h
Spelling Dictionary of the Russian Language. 2006 .
antithesis
ANTITE PER(Greek ἀντίθεσις - opposition) - a stylistic figure of contrast, a sharp opposition of concepts, positions, images, states, etc. in artistic or oratory speech. A. was widespread in Western European literature of the Renaissance and in the poetry of later times. F. Petrarch has a sonnet entirely built on A.:
And there is no peace - and there are no enemies anywhere;
I fear - I hope, I freeze and burn;
I drag myself in the dust - and soar in the sky;
Alien to everyone in the world - and the world is ready to embrace.
She is in captivity of captivity, I do not know;
They do not want to own me, but the oppression is severe;
Cupid does not destroy and does not tear the shackles;
And there is no end to life and torment - the edge.
I'm sighted - be ...
antithesis
(Greek antithesis - opposition). A stylistic figure that serves to enhance the expressiveness of speech by sharply contrasting concepts, thoughts, images. Where the table was food, there is a coffin(Derzhavin). Antithesis is often built on antonyms. The rich feast even on weekdays, but the poor mourn even on holidays(proverb).
Since the beginning of the art of literature, writers and poets have come up with many options for capturing the attention of the reader in their works. Thus, a universal method of opposing phenomena and objects arose. Antithesis in artistic speech is always a play on contrasts.
Definition of antithesis
To find out the exact meaning of the scientific term antithesis, you should refer to an encyclopedia or dictionary. Antithesis (derived from the Greek "opposition") is a stylistic figure based on a contrasting opposition in speech practice or fiction.
It contains sharply opposed objects, phenomena and images that have a semantic connection or are united by one design.
How to explain plain language What is an antithesis and for what purpose is it used in Russian? This is a technique in literature based on the opposition of different contrasting characters, concepts or events. This technique is found as a basis for building entire large novels or parts of literary texts of any genre.
As an antithesis, they can be contrasted in the work:
- Two images or heroes, called antagonists in literature.
- Two different phenomena, states or objects.
- Variants of the quality of one phenomenon or object (when the author reveals the object from different sides).
- The author contrasts the properties of one object with the properties of another object.
Usually, antonymic words serve as the main vocabulary from which a contrasting effect is created. The evidence for this is folk proverbs: “It’s easy to make friends, it’s hard to part”, “Learning is light, and ignorance is darkness”, “You go quieter - you will continue.”
Antithesis Examples
Applications of antithesis
The author of a work of art of any genre needs expressiveness of speech, for which the antithesis is used. In Russian, the use of opposing concepts has long become a tradition in the headings of novels, short 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 opposition technique is successfully used in works intended for propaganda in politics and the social sphere and oratory. Everyone knows the mottos, slogans and slogans: "Who was nobody, he will become everything!".
The opposition is often present in ordinary colloquial speech, such examples of antithesis: dishonor - dignity, life - death, good - evil. In order 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 opposition.
Useful video: what is antithesis, antithesis
Types of antithesis
In Russian, there may be various options contrasting phenomena:
- The composition is simple (includes one pair of words) and complex (has two or more pairs of antonyms, several concepts): “I fell in love with the rich - the poor, I fell in love with the scientist - stupid, I fell in love with the ruddy - pale, I fell in love with the good - harmful: golden - copper half" (M. Tsvetaeva). Such a detailed expression unexpectedly reveals the concept.
- An even greater effect from the use of contrasting concepts is achieved by using it 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).
- There is such a variant of opposition 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 an uncle in Kyiv.” Such expressions create the effect of surprise.
- There is opposition of several forms of the word, often in the same case. This form is used in short bright statements, aphorisms and mottos: “Man is a wolf to man”, “Caesar’s is Caesar’s, and God’s 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 a bias towards humor and irony. Examples of an oxymoron from Alexander Blok “The Heat of Cold Numbers” or from Nekrasov “And the wretched luxury of the outfit ...”
Application in fiction
Studies show that in a literary text opposition of images is used more often than other figures of contrast. And in foreign literature was used as often as in the poetry and prose of Russian and Soviet writers. Its presence makes it possible to enhance the emotional sensations of the reader, more fully reveal the position of the author and emphasize main idea works. 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 stout and beamed with pleasure, and Kukin grew thin and turned yellow and complained of terrible losses ...”
The novel "Fathers and Sons" by Turgenev already in the very 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 method of opposition in the work of the era of romanticism. The contrast between the beautiful face of the hero and his low spiritual qualities is an analogy of opposing good to evil.
Chekhov A.P. "Darling"
Examples in verse
In any famous poet, examples of the use of antithesis can be found in the poem. Poets of different trends widely used this technique. Writers 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! Evil spirit and good genius!
(Konstantin Balmont)
During the period of classicism, poets also loved this way of creating expressiveness. An example in a poem by G.R. Derzhavin:
"Where the table was food,
There is a coffin there."
The great Pushkin often included the opposition of images and characters in poetic and prose texts. Fyodor Tyutchev has vivid examples of a detailed confrontation between heaven and earth:
“The kite rose from the clearing,
high up to the sky he soared;
And so he went into the sky.
Mother nature gave him
Two powerful, two living wings -
And I'm here in sweat and dust,
I, the king of the earth, have grown to the earth!
What is called figurativeness (colorfulness of descriptions, liveliness of the image, its clarity) is by and large an integral feature of any art. And since literature is one of its types, the active use of means of expression manifests itself most fully. This goal is also served by the use of various popular expressions, as well as a whole arsenal of stylistic devices.
Stylistic devices
In the Russian language, there are a number of similar expressive means that help the author to increase the imagery of the narrative. Before telling what an antithesis is, consider the most common of them.
There are also anaphora and epiphora, metonymy and synecdoche, comparison and epithet.
Antithesis as a stylistic device. Her definition
In language fiction or oratorical speech, a sharp opposition is often used, built on contrast. It is also used in relation to concepts and images, positions and states that are connected with each other by a common structure or internal meaning.
Let's define what an antithesis is. This is a stylistic figure that connects contrasting concepts. The word itself goes back to the Greek antithesis - opposition. This concept is so widespread that it is often not even noticed. Antithesis is widely used by poets and prose writers. Lots of literary works contain this technique even in their titles: "War and Peace", "The Prince and the Pauper", "Beauty and the Beast", "Crime and Punishment".
Many proverbs are built on the antithesis. For example, "the spool is small, but expensive."
Antithesis in literature
The stylistic device often serves to build not only phrases, but also individual parts and even a whole work of art - poetry or a play. For example, Petrarch has a sonnet, which is a wonderful example of what an antithesis is, i.e. built purely on this approach. Here is just one stanza from that piece:
“I am sighted - without eyes, dumb - I emit screams;
And the thirst for death - I pray to save;
I hate myself - and I love everyone else;
Suffering - alive; with laughter I sob ... "
Very often this technique was used by A.S. Pushkin. The well-known characteristic of the friendship between Onegin and Lensky: “wave and stone”, “poetry and prose”, “ice and fire”, is nothing but an antithesis. This is one of the brightest examples of the considered stylistic device in the literature.
Antithesis in the media
Turning to the language of newspapers and magazines, one cannot fail to see how popular this stylistic figure is in them. Journalists especially often use it in headlines, perhaps not even suspecting what an antithesis is as a rhetorical device. So, for example, such titles of articles sound very eloquent and bright: “The tail is the head of everything”, “The brilliance and poverty of our football”, “The rich janitor and the poor teacher”.
In the language of the press, the antithesis is also quite often used not only within the boundaries of a phrase, but within the framework of the entire semantic part of the text. Here she appears as compositional technique its construction. Antithesis is such a mastered technique in literature and the media that often one does not even remember its, so to speak, oratorical origin. But in ancient times it was used specifically to enhance the expressiveness of speech.
Conclusion
Due to its sharpness, flashiness, the antithesis in the works has the ability to create a noticeable contrast. Because of this, different writers treat this technique differently. Some show a categorically negative point of view, while others, on the contrary, exploit it mercilessly.
It is precisely because of the utmost clarity that the reception of antithesis is very popular not only in the artistic and artistic-journalistic literary style, but also in the declarative-political one with an agitational tendency. This stylistic form is widely used in genres with a social bias, when it is necessary to clearly distinguish or compare, say, the life of different strata of society, different classes.
Antithesis
Based on the studied material, we found out that in order to enliven speech, give it emotionality, expressiveness, figurativeness, they use stylistic syntax techniques, the so-called figures: antithesis, inversion, repetition, etc.
The object of study of this work is the antithesis, and its characteristic "habitat" - aphorisms and winged expressions.
Often sharply opposed concepts are compared in speech: honor is arrogance, work is rest, etc. This has a special effect on the imagination of listeners, evoking vivid ideas about the named objects and events. To describe 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, differences in order to oppose one another. Such a technique based on a comparison of opposite or sharply contrasting characters, circumstances, images, compositional elements, concepts, phenomena and signs, creating the effect of a sharp contrast, is called antithesis. Antithesis is able not only to oppose concepts, but also to emphasize the paradoxical nature of the comparison (as in an oxymoron), the greatness of the object, the universality when contrasting properties are attributed to the object. Thus, the antithesis can weight the meaning, enhance the impression.
This stylistic figure, in a certain sense, opposes 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 the basic logical norms. Antithesis is carried out in order to put concepts in contrast relations, and not only those concepts that are in principle opposite (antonyms), but also concepts that are usually not connected by any relationship, but become conflicting when they are placed side by side.
In antithesis, a comparison of two phenomena occurs, for which antonyms are most often used - words with the opposite meaning: Every sweetness has its own bitterness, every evil has its own goodness (Ralph Waldo Emerson). The use of antithesis, the comparison of opposing concepts allows you to express the main idea more vividly and emotionally, more accurately express your attitude to the described phenomena. AT Everyday life, many things become clearer only when one contrasts one with the other: having known chagrin, people value moments of joy more. No wonder they say "Everything is known in comparison."
Antithesis, as a stylistic figure, gives the sharpest contrast to opposing things, causing clear images in the mind. Opposition sharpens the thought, helps to 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, with public speaking, and in works of art. But an incomparably deep effect from the use of antithesis is obtained in short and capacious statements, for example, a riddle, an aphorism, a proverb, a chronicle article in a newspaper, since keyword in definition it is harsh. The sharpness and contrast are certainly noteworthy, we see a discrepancy. The result: a bright emotional coloring, expressiveness and, often, humor. When a stupid person pretends to be smart, and stupidity creeps out of him. When the evil one pretends to be kind, and we see that this 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, images. Where the table was food, there is a coffin (Derzhavin). The antithesis is often built on antonyms: The rich man feasts even on weekdays, and the poor grieves even on holidays (proverb).
“Antithesis, a semantic figure of speech, consisting in the comparison of logically opposite concepts or images, subject to one idea or a single point of view. * The spool is small, but expensive (proverb). "Deceit and love" (F. Schiller).
They agreed. 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 according to all signs, both main and secondary. So two words world and chains, in the above A.I. Galperin's example, are not antonyms. They are involved in the antithesis of The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. An antonymous pair here are 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 the antithesis. An antithesis is a statement containing an explicit opposition. Most often, this opposition is expressed in the use of antonyms, i.e. words with opposite meanings.
As a rule, in order to create an antithesis, it is necessary that the opposing concepts be in principle comparable, if we consider correlation as an operation in which both similarity and difference can be revealed. However, the 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. Alien ships hung in the sky just like bricks do not hang in the sky (D. Adams. Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy-1). Antithesis is characterized by an unexpected juxtaposition of distant objects, a game of direct and figurative meaning words, a paradoxical statement. In this case, the antithesis takes on the features of the oxymoron “Oxymoron, s. In lexical style: a semantic figure of speech, a combination of words that contradict each other in meaning, as a result of which a new concept is born. * The heat of cold numbers (A. Blok). Foreign land, my homeland! (M. Tsvetaeva) Submissive enthusiasm of the crowd (P. Chaadaev). Vertical horizons (V. Solovyov)” [Laguta 1999: 35]. Oxymoron, in turn, is considered by many to be a kind of antithesis, in which the emphasis is on the humorousness of the statement.
The advantage of the antithesis, as a figure, is that both parts mutually illuminate one another. 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 a shading of an image is necessary, and also when expressing an alternative.
The opposition of concepts and phenomena can also appear in large sections of the text, but it will be more of a contrasting opposition than a stylistic device of antithesis, just as phraseological units, the formation of which is based on antonyms, will not be an antithesis either. For example: top and bottom, up and down, inside and out. A necessary sign of antithesis, which distinguishes it from any logical opposition, is emotional coloring, the desire for the uniqueness of 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 some extent, to think out the meaning for himself (hot, but not scalding; Chinese, but of high quality). Therefore, when counting on a "sharp" semantic effect, it is not recommended to take opposed (for example, antonymic) concepts anyway. This does not mean that the antithesis based on antonymy will become erroneous, but the emotional coloring will be almost invisible.
The relationship between antithetically opposed words in the proverb is more complex, and their semantic connection cannot be summed up under the strict concept of lexical antonymy (cf. mother-stepmother, wolf-brother, milk-water, water-fire, water-wine, night- day, God-hell, etc.).
Antithesis is widely used in prose and drama. She actively participates in the creation of the architectonics of any work. Titles are not complete without antithesis (“Treachery 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 articulation is used in speech to combine opposites, to emphasize some quality in the characterization: “We are shamefully indifferent to good and evil” (M. Lermontov).
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 the logical stress, highlighting the semantic centers of the phrase. Sharpness and aphorism are given by antonyms popular expressions: “So few roads have been traveled, so many mistakes have been made. (Yesenin)". Many aphorisms are built using antithesis: “There is nothing more stupid than the desire to always be smarter than others” (La Rochefoucauld). A phrase built on the antithesis sounds strong enough, easy to remember, makes you think.
Antithesis classification
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).
According to the structure, the antithesis can be simple (single-term) and complex (polynomial). A complex antithesis involves several antonymic pairs or three or more opposed concepts. "Antitheses are different kind. Sometimes their poles are opposed to each other, according to the scheme “not A, but B”, sometimes, on the contrary, they are compared according to the scheme “both A and B” [Khazagerov http].
There is also a complex or extended antithesis. A detailed statement is created by including chains of definitions. The use of a detailed antithesis allows you to more vividly actualize the unexpected in an already familiar phenomenon.
It is also worth noting a special kind of antithesis - inside a synonymous pair: to calm down, but not to be silent, etc. Such figures make a strong impression and provoke the figurative development of the plot. The antithesis can even consist of the same words, i.e. be within the same token. Thus, one action can be contrasted with another action, the feelings of one against the feelings of another, and so on. 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 being a good manager is keeping the people who hate me away from the people who haven't decided yet.
There is also a contrast between two grammatical, voice or case forms of one word. Most often opposed case forms the words. This antithesis is characteristic of short forms eloquence, which are aphoristic in nature: “Man is a brother to man”, “Man is a wolf to man”, “War is war”. By analogy, the motto "Peace to the world" was built; where the word "world" is used in different meanings.
Due to the parallelism of the construction of the antithesis, we can single out the rhythm-forming function of the antithesis, as well as the comparative, multiplicative and unifying function. These functions are often implemented together, but, as a rule, the antithesis singles out one function over the others.