Antithesis

As a rhetorical device, antithesis is a figure of speech in which seemingly contradictory ideas, phrases, or clauses are introduced using a balanced grammatical structure. An antithesis must always contain two ideas within one statement. The ideas may not be structurally opposite, but they serve to be functionally opposite when comparing two ideas for emphasis.

According to Aristotle, the use of an antithesis makes the audience better understand the point the speaker is trying to make. Further explained, the comparison of two situations or ideas makes choosing the correct one simpler. Aristotle states that antithesis in rhetoric is similar to syllogism due to the presentation of two conclusions within a statement.

Antitheses are used to strengthen an argument by using either exact opposites or simply contrasting ideas, but can also include both. They typically make a sentence more memorable for the reader or listener through balance and emphasis of the words.

Rhetorical antithesis

Antithesis has two rhetorical definitions (detailed by Rhetorica ad Herennium and Alexandrum):

• Antithesis of wording as a figure of diction involves the juxtaposing of ideas by an obvious contrast in the words, clauses, or sentences, within a parallel grammatical structure in one sentence. The following is an example solely of wording: "Let the rich and prosperous give to the poor and needy"
• Antithesis of sense as a figure of thought involves the meeting and comparison of opposing thoughts. The following is an example solely of sense: "I tended him when he was sick, but he has been the cause of very great misfortune to me." This definition is not always included in the definition of antithesis and is distinguished by some, such as Richard Sherry, with the term "antitheton."

The following is now an example of both antithesis of wording and sense: "It is not fair that my opponent should become rich by possessing what belongs to me, while I sacrifice my property and become a mere beggar;" note how the rhetorical style accompanies the comparison of thoughts. This article will mostly cover the former definition of wording; however, many examples of the figure of diction are examples of the figure of thought.

In Aristotle's Rhetoric, he defines antithesis as a construct with two unique ideas that emphasize a different element from a pair of opposites. Aristotle provides the following example:

They aided both parties—
not only those who stayed behind
but those who accompanied them:
for the latter they acquired new territory larger than that at home,
and to the former they left territory at home that was large enough

In the first example, the contrasted opposites— "stayed behind" and "accompanied them—" are bound by parallel structure and the subject of both qualifiers is written identically ("those who"). In the second example, the opposites "larger" and "large enough" are similarly contained with parallel structure but apply to different nouns: the former's subject being "the latter" and the latter's subject being "the former" (that clause being an example of antithesis in itself)

The basic formula of antithesis is X is Y; not X is not Y; for example, the phrase "Fashion is what oneself wears" can be paired with "What is unfashionable is what other people wear" to form Oscar Wilde's antithetical epigram from An Ideal Husband.

This formula can be modified in a variety of ways. A common example of this is the form not X, but Y (negative-positive) where the point made is emphasized by first being contrasted with its negative, Matthew 10:34: "I came not to bring peace but a sword." Moreover, antitheses can follow an antimetabolic scheme (typically X to Y; Y to X): "I do not live to eat, but eat to live," an example of this reversing. The inauguration speech of John F. Kennedy provides an antimetabolic and negative-positive example: "Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country."

Antithesis may also be combined with synonymous parallelism. In Revelation 22:11, for example, the first and second couplets are individually synonymously parallel while the couplets as a whole are antithetically parallel:

Let the evildoer still do evil,
and the filthy still be filthy,
and the righteous still do right,
and the holy still be holy.

Twentieth-century rhetorician Kenneth Burke discusses the rhetorical aesthetic and stylistic effects of antithesis in one of the most referenced passages of A Rhetoric of Motives, one of his most famous works. In that book, Burke describes how antithesis can invite people to hold an "attitude of collaborative expectancy" through the rhetorical aesthetic principle of form.

Progressio

Progressio or progression is a rhetorical device involving repeated antithesis. Thomas Wilson gives the following example:

What a boy art thou in comparison of this fellow here.
Thou sleepes: he wakes:
thou plaies: he studies:
thou art euer abroade: he is euer at home:
thou neuer waites: he still doth his attendance:
thou carest for no bodie: he doeth his duetie to all men:
thou doest what thou canst to hurt all, and please none: he doeth what he can to hurte none, and please all.

More broadly, progressio may also refer to constructing an argument around a series of comparison.