The word "bittersweet" is not an example of antithesis;
however, it is a great example of oxymoron. An oxymoron is a figure of speech that
combines contrasting terms for effect. So, because the separate terms "bitter" and
"sweet" contrast each other, their combination creates an
oxymoron.
An example of antithesis is seen in the
following line from Mark Twain's essay "The Lowest Animal": "The cat is innocent, Man
is not." An antithesis is a rhetorical device in which parallel structure is used to
juxtapose two contrasting ideas. The line from Twain's essay juxtaposes the innocence
of cats with the innocence of humans to suggest that the cat naturally has this
character trait, while man/woman does not. Writers use antithesis to highlight claims
and statements through contrast.
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