Figures of Inequality

A very effective stylistic device is created by special arrangement in the text of words or phrases, or sentences which differ from one another by the degree of property expressed or by the degree of emotional intensity. In accordance with the order of strong and weak elements in the text two figures of inequality are distinguished: climax, or gradation, and anti-climax, or bathos.

Climax (gradation) means such an arrangement of ideas (notions) in which what precedes is inferior to what follows. The first element is the weakest; the subsequent elements gradually rise in strength. E.g.:

«I am sorry. I am so very sorry. I am so extremely sorry» (Chesterton).

Anti-climax (bathos). By anti-climax any deviation of the order of ideas found in climax is usually meant. But it should be underlined that anti-climax consists in weakening the emotional effect by adding unexpectedly weaker elements to the strong ones which were mentioned above. Usually anti-climax is employed for humouristic purposes. E.g.:

«The woman who could face the very devil himself - or a mouse - loses her grip and goes all to pieces in front of a flash of lightning» (Twain).

Figures of Contrast

These figures are formed by intentional combination in speech of ideas, incompatible with one another. The figures in question are antithesis and oxymoron.

Antithesis is a confrontation of two notions which underlines the radical difference between them.

Two words or expressions of the opposite meanings may be used to characterize the same object. E.g.:

« It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness...» (Dickens).

Antithesis may be used to depict two objects with opposite characteristics. E.g.:

«His fees were high; his lessons were light...» (O'Henry). Two objects may be opposed as incompatible by themselves and each of them obtain a characteristic opposite to that of the

«For the old struggle - mere stagnation, and in place of danger and death, the dull monotony of security and the horror of an unending decay! » (Leacock).

Oxymoron. Oxymoron consists in ascribing a property to an object incompatible, inconsistent with that property. It is a logical collision of words syntactically connected but incongruent in their meaning. E.g.:

«O brawling love! О loving hate!» (Shakespeare)

LECTURE 4