Subscribe via email

Grab our RSS Feed

Antithesis

Antithesis is the bringing together of contrasting words, clauses or sentences to show the contradictoriness of an idea. Heaven is the antithesis of hell, but if you say (or John Dryden) “too black for heaven, and yet too white for hell,” then you’re using an antithesis.

A fictional character can also be an antithesis to another if it has directly opposite qualities to another. Remember Dorothy Gale and the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz? That’s Good vs Evil, a faded antithesis.

The word Antithesis originated from Greek antitithenai where antithé means to oppose or to set against.

Antithesis in Julius Caeser by William Shakespeare

Act III Scene II

“Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved
Rome more. Had you rather Caesar were living and
die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead, to live
all free men?”

Antithesis in Othello by William Shakespeare

“I follow him to serve my turn upon him:
We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
Cannot be truly follow’d.”

Antithesis in Richard III by William Shakespeare

“And if King Edward be as true and just
As I am subtle, false and treacherous…”

Antithesis in The Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Chapter I

“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…”

Antithesis in Rasselas by Samual Johnson

Chapter name: The astronomer discovers the cause of his uneasiness

“Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.”
Antithesis in Howards End by E.M. Forster

“Death destroys a man: the idea of Death saves him … Death is his foe, but his peer, and in their age-long struggle the thews of Love have been strengthened, and his vision cleared, until there is no one who can stand against him.”

Antithesis in Life by Kahlil Gibran

“Life without rebellion is like the seasons without spring,
and rebellion without rights is like spring in a barren desert.”

Also see:

Pun
Preposterous