All 18 Uses of
contrast
in
War and Peace
- Everything about him, from his weary, bored expression to his quiet, measured step, offered a most striking contrast to his quiet, little wife.†
Chpt 1 (definition 2)
- The countess in turn, without omitting her duties as hostess, threw significant glances from behind the pineapples at her husband whose face and bald head seemed by their redness to contrast more than usual with his gray hair.†
Chpt 1 (definition 2)
- The prince walked in quickly and jauntily as was his wont, as if intentionally contrasting the briskness of his manners with the strict formality of his house.†
Chpt 1 (definition 2)
- What is this?" shouted the regimental commander, thrusting forward his jaw and pointing at a soldier in the ranks of the third company in a greatcoat of bluish cloth, which contrasted with the others.†
Chpt 2 (definition 1)
- "On the contrary," he said, in a querulous and angry tone that contrasted with his flattering words, "on the contrary, your excellency's participation in the common action is highly valued by His Majesty; but we think the present delay is depriving the splendid Russian troops and their commander of the laurels they have been accustomed to win in their battles," he concluded his evidently prearranged sentence.†
Chpt 2 (definition 1)
- With the self-satisfaction of a man on parade, he stepped lightly with his muscular legs as if sailing along, stretching himself to his full height without the smallest effort, his ease contrasting with the heavy tread of the soldiers who were keeping step with him.†
Chpt 2 (definition 2)
- Weyrother, who was in full control of the proposed battle, by his eagerness and briskness presented a marked contrast to the dissatisfied and drowsy Kutuzov, who reluctantly played the part of chairman and president of the council of war.
Chpt 3 (definition 1) *contrast = difference
- …tone of conviction and earnestness, or the tremor of the speaker's voice—which sometimes almost broke—or those brilliant aged eyes grown old in this conviction, or the calm firmness and certainty of his vocation, which radiated from his whole being (and which struck Pierre especially by contrast with his own dejection and hopelessness)—at any rate, Pierre longed with his whole soul to believe and he did believe, and felt a joyful sense of comfort, regeneration, and return to life.†
Chpt 5 (definition 2)
- He was that absent-minded crank, a grand seigneur husband who was in no one's way, and far from spoiling the high tone and general impression of the drawing room, he served, by the contrast he presented to her, as an advantageous background to his elegant and tactful wife.†
Chpt 6 (definition 1)
- … Yes and no. The chief reason was a sudden, vivid sense of the terrible contrast between something infinitely great and illimitable within him and that limited and material something that he, and even she, was.†
Chpt 6 (definition 1)
- This contrast weighed on and yet cheered him while she sang.†
Chpt 6 (definition 2)
- At the same time the feeling he had noticed between his protegee Natasha and Prince Andrew accentuated his gloom by the contrast between his own position and his friend's.†
Chpt 6 (definition 1)
- After four days of solitude, ennui, and consciousness of his impotence and insignificance—particularly acute by contrast with the sphere of power in which he had so lately moved—and after several marches with the marshal's baggage and the French army, which occupied the whole district, Balashev was brought to Vilna—now occupied by the French—through the very gate by which he had left it four days previously.†
Chpt 9 (definition 2)
- In contrast to his former reticent taciturnity Prince Andrew now seemed excited.†
Chpt 10 (definition 2) *
- He felt that what he now said and did would be historical, and it seemed to him that it would now be best for him—whose grandeur enabled his son to play stick and ball with the terrestrial globe—to show, in contrast to that grandeur, the simplest paternal tenderness.†
Chpt 10 (definition 2)
- In contrast with the dread felt by the infantrymen placed in support, here in the battery where a small number of men busy at their work were separated from the rest by a trench, everyone experienced a common and as it were family feeling of animation.†
Chpt 10 (definition 2)
- From the officer down to the lowest soldier they showed what seemed like personal spite against each of the prisoners, in unexpected contrast to their former friendly relations.†
Chpt 13 (definition 2)
- But this rule which leaves out of account the spirit of the army continually proves incorrect and is in particularly striking contrast to the facts when some strong rise or fall in the spirit of the troops occurs, as in all national wars.†
Chpt 14 (definition 2)
Definitions:
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(1) (contrast as in: there is a contrast) a difference -- especially a notable difference; or the side-x-side arrangement of things that draws attention to an unmissable difference
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(2) (contrast as in: contrast their writing styles) point to differences between; or compare to show differences