PARADOX
PARADOX. A term in RHETORIC for a situation or statement that is or seems self-contradictory and even absurd, but may contain an insight into life, such as The child is father of the man. Rationally, a child cannot be a father, but one can propose in this figurative way that the nature of one's early life affects later ideas and attitudes. A series of paradoxical statements that involve ANTITHESIS, climax, metaphor, and repetition, opens Charles DICKENS'S A Tale of Two Cities (1859):
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.
Some writers, such as Oscar Wilde, have made an art of the paradoxical and epigrammatic: ‘Nowadays people know the price of everything, and the value of nothing’ (The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891). Compare IRONY.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.
Some writers, such as Oscar Wilde, have made an art of the paradoxical and epigrammatic: ‘Nowadays people know the price of everything, and the value of nothing’ (The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891). Compare IRONY.
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PARADOX