OXYMORON

OXYMORON Definition- Oxymoron, plural oxymora,

is a figure of speech in which two opposite ideas are joined to create an effect. The common oxymoron phrase is a combination of an adjective proceeded by a noun with contrasting meanings e.g. “cruel kindness” or “living death”. However, the contrasting are not always glued together. The contrasting ideas may be spaced out in a sentence e.g. “In order to lead, you must walk behind.”

OXYMORON VS. PARADOX A paradox

a sentence or even a group of sentencesseems contradictory to the general truth but it does contain an implied truth.

An oxymoroncombination of two contradictory or

opposite words. may produce a dramatic effect but does not make sense.

EXAMPLES OF OXYMORON Open secret Tragic comedy Seriously funny Awfully pretty Foolish wisdom Original copies Liquid gas

EXAMPLES OF OXYMORON IN LITERATURE “Romeo and Juliet”, Act I, Scene I,

written by William Shakespeare.“Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!O anything, of nothing first create!O heavy lightness! Serious vanity!Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick

health!Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!This love feel I, that feel no love in this.Dost thou not laugh?”

EXAMPLES OF OXYMORON IN LITERATURE Alexander Pope uses oxymoron to

develop wit in his poems. “The bookful blockhead ignorantly read,

With loads of learned lumber in his head,With his own tongue still edifies his ears,And always list’ning to himself appears.”

FUNCTION OF OXYMORON Oxymoron produces a dramatic effect in both;

the prose as well as the poetry. It provokes our thoughts and makes us ponder on the meaning of contradicting ideas. This apparently confusing phrase expresses a complex nature of love that can never be expressed through any other simple expression.

In everyday conversation, however, people do not use oxymoron to make some deep statement like the one mentioned above. Instead, they do it to show wit and simply to make others to enjoy their talks. The use of oxymoron adds flavor to their speech.

HOMEWORK Write five examples of an oxymoron

from literature or ones you have made up.

Pass in during the next class.