Antithesis
Figures of speechPlacing two opposing ideas side by side in the same sentence or passage so each reinforces the other.
Example
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"
Antithesis opposes two ideas, images or words in a symmetrical structure: shadow and light, grandeur and misery, "I live, I die." Unlike the oxymoron, which welds opposites into a single expression, antithesis keeps them face to face — it is a figure of construction as much as of meaning.
It structures sentences, but also scenes, chapters, entire characters: the antithetical pair (Don Quixote and Sancho, Valjean and Javert) is one of fiction's oldest engines. Contrast makes each pole more visible — light is never seen better than at the edge of shadow.
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