Guide to Literary Terms Antithesis

Antithesis - contrary ideas expressed in a balanced sentence. It is the juxtaposition of two words, phrases, clauses, or sentences contrasted or opposed in meaning in such a way as to give emphasis to their contrasting ideas and give the effect of balance. This is a device often used in rhetoric.

The word comes from the Greek anti, meaning “against,” and tithenai, which means “to place” or “to set against.”

In Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667), Adam and Eve are described using antitheses:

For contemplation he and valour formed,
For softness she and sweet attractive grace;
He for God only, she for God in him.
Book V, lines 297 – 299

see: epigram, figure of speech, oxymoron