When a statement is proven to be true without any evidence or theory something comes up to disprove the statement. This is the nature of science, as we progress further into the future. For every shaky or unproven thesis, an antithesis exists to dismantle its foundation.
Antithesis is the direct contrast or contradiction of a person, idea, or object. If an object represents or symbolizes something there will always be an antithesis of the object. For example, if a snowflake represents cold its antithesis is a fire which represents heat.
An antithesis has many real-life applications a person can use. These can range from a scientific counter-argument to a literary device. If a person uses an antithesis as a literary device, they can use this literary device to create new meaning from contrasting ideas. These contrasts could range from statistically placed words to contrasting phrases or statements. The antithesis can also come in the form of a character or an idea that appears to oppose a pre-existing character or idea.
One of the things you will need to do when using antithesis as a literary device is to first do some research. You will need to understand how the antithesis contrasts the definition or idea, this is to ensure that your antithesis can create a correlation between the contrasting words or phrases. You can list down sets of contrasting words you researched on a notepad for future use.
After researching the definitions, you will now create a statement with the contrasting words or phrases. The statement must then be logically created. “My love for you is bittersweet.” this statement is an example of a logically placed antithesis.
When using a character as the anthesis to another character you will need to first establish the fine details of how that character contrasts with their counterpart. By establishing the fine details, you will be able to easily use this character in the story.
After creating your character or statement, you will need to strategically place or add them to your work. A misplaced character or statement will make the point of said character or statement miss its mark.
Antithesis originates from the Greek word antithenai (which means to set against or to place against) which is a fusion of two greek words anti (which means against) and tithenai. (which means to place) The word antithesis is pronounced as an·ti·thuh·suhs.
A thesis is an academic proposition or a hypothesis that undergoes a specific and rigorous process to obtain evidence to support the thesis statement. The antithesis is a proposition or a hypothesis that will try to disprove the statement produced by the thesis. The antithesis will go through the same testing process as a thesis.
There are plenty of popular quotes that use antithesis as a figure of speech.“to err is human; to forgive divine” is a popular quote said by Alexander Pope in his book An Essay on Criticism, this is an example of an antithesis used as a figure of speech. Another example of antithesis being used as a figure of speech is “You’re easy on the eyes, hard on the heart.” from the song Your easy on the eyes by Terri Clark
Antithesis is quite similar in concept to Juxtaposition, as it pits two concepts together and uses them to create, enhance and negate a sentiment or idea. Unlike juxtaposition, antithesis is a concept that doesn’t require opposing statements to be near each other.
