Define the role, function of antithesis in this passage. What did the author want to express by this?

Antithesis

E.L. Voynich “Put off thy shoes”

Ex.1

Give the definition of antithesis in your own words. How do you understand it? What do you know about antithesis?

Ex.2

Define the role, function of antithesis in this passage. What did the author want to express by this?

On an evening of early summer in the year 1763, Henry Telford, the new squire of Barton in Warwickshire, stood before the mirror in his London lodgings, adjusting his finest ruffled shirt. He was dressing with care, but without enthusiasm.

A little weary of polite conversation and unaccustomed late hours, he would have preferred, for once, to stay in and go to bed early, had old Lady Merriam's letter of invitation not mentioned that a young gentlewoman whom she would much like him to meet would be present this evening. He must attend the ball, if only to show proper appreciation of her efforts, though he had small hope that anything would come of them.

Her failure to find him a wife was due to no fault of hers. Prompted both by native goodness of heart and love of matchmaking, and by the warm recommendation from her sister in the country, she had taken much trouble on his behalf; yet none of the young ladies so far suggested had seemed to him the right mistress for Barton. Most of them had manners as pretty as their clothes, and some had pretty faces too; and he liked feminine charms as well as anyone, just as he liked the climbing roses round the Barton windows. But the choice of a mother for a man's sons is a serious matter, more serious even than that of a sire for his dairy herd, and not to be decided on frivolous grounds of mere liking or prettiness. These pampered London misses would lack both the stamina to bear and suckle healthy children and the sense to rear them wisely in the fear of God.

On his side, apart from Barton, he had much to offer. The mirror reflected a very personable young man, a little bucolic and full- blooded but grandly built; sound in wind and limb, deep-chested, athletic and tall enough to look imposing on horseback. His hair, the burnt-gold colour of ripe wheat, curled thickly on the brow like that of a classic wrestler; honest grey eyes, set well apart, compensated for a somewhat pugnacious mouth. At sixty, what with high living and crusted port, he would perhaps be as plethoric of body and explosive of temper as other prosperous midland squires. Even in middle life he might, unless careful, tend to become a trifle beefy. However, these dangers were a long way off; at twenty-six his florid Anglo-Saxon good looks were at their height.

Although his main object in coming to London had eluded him, he could not regret the indulgence. Certainly it had cost a great deal of money; more money than he would feel he could conscientiously afford a second time, since Barton, though all that any reasonable man could desire, was no gold-mine. But even if he should have to go home disappointed and marry the parson's daughter for want of any better choice, he would still have had his fling once and enjoyed it, as a man should before settling down to the solemn duty of founding a family. Never again would he be a handsome young bachelor with a pocketful of loose money.

He had completed the correct period of sincere and affectionate mourning for a good father, made his will, and satisfied himself that all just claims had been duly paid and that the affairs of the estate were in order. Then he had taken advantage of his opportunity, and in nine weeks had seen a little of gay life. Being a well- conducted person, he had seen it chiefly under the auspices of reputable society hostesses; but twice—no, three times—, cautiously and with due regard for health and reputation, elsewhere also. Now he was tiring of diversion and growing rather homesick for Barton and the cows.

It was a pity. . . . He knew well enough what kind of wife he needed; and knew, too, how unlikely he was to find her at all if he should leave London without having done so. In Warwickshire, were he to find her there, he could never win her.

So far as introductions to London society went, the County had done its best for him. Since there was nothing against him personally, the great families of his neighbourhood had been willing to be kind to a young man of sound principles and unencumbered fortune, who subscribed generously to election funds and deserving charities, rode well to hounds, and had been at school with their sons; yet not quite kind enough to give him one of their daughters. It had been tactfully hinted to him that he might be more successful in London, where no one remembered his father.

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Ex.3