In a conversation between Mary and her aunt Mrs. Grant, Mary uses hyperbolic language to communicate her cynicism about marriage:
“There is not one in a hundred of either sex, who is not taken in when they marry. Look where I will, I see that it is so; and I feel that it must be so, when I consider that it is, of all transactions, the one in which people expect most from others, and are least honest themselves.”
By stating that there isn’t even one person out of 100 “who is not taken in” (or manipulated) into marriage, Mary reveals that marriage, in her mind, is a game of strategy and “transactions.” Here, Mary is commenting on the indirect effects of the inheritance system in England at the time—because young women needed to secure financially stable futures for themselves, they had to think strategically and “take in” their love interests or they might be left without any money.
It is notable that she says this manipulation strategy is not reserved for women alone. Men, she argues, also manipulate women to marry them. Though she does not say so directly, this likely had less to do with financial security and more with maintaining a certain social status by marrying women of a similar rank.
When Mary is describing to Edmund her struggle in finding a farmer who would lend her their horse and cart during harvest season (so she could transport her harp from the city), she uses a hyperbole to describe their reaction:
“To want a horse and cart in the country seemed impossible, so I told my maid to speak for one directly; and as I cannot look out of my dressing-closet without seeing one farm yard, nor walk in the shrubbery without passing another, I thought it would be only ask and have, and was rather grieved that I could not give the advantage to all. Guess my surprise, when I found that I had been asking the most unreasonable, most impossible thing in the world, had offended all the farmers, all the labourers, all the hay in the parish.”
Mary’s assertion that she “had offended all the farmers, all the labourers, all the hay in the parish” is obviously untrue, but communicates two important qualities of Mary’s. First, she is out of touch with the ways of working class people and country folk generally (as she should know that working farmers all rely on their horses and carts during harvest season). And second, she is prone to entitlement and melodrama. These characteristics of hers prove to be one of the reasons Edmund ultimately ends their courtship and marries Fanny—who is more caring and moral—instead.
When Julia is sulking after not being chosen to play opposite Henry in their production of Lovers’ Vows, Austen uses a hyperbole to capture her despair:
She either sat in gloomy silence, wrapt in such gravity as nothing could subdue, no curiosity touch, no wit amuse; or allowing the attentions of Mr. Yates, was talking with forced gaiety to him alone, and ridiculing the acting of the others.
The description that Julia is “wrapt in such gravity as nothing could subdue” is an exaggeration that effectively communicates how upset she is to lose potential quality time with Henry. The intensity of Julia’s reaction makes sense in context—with Maria engaged to Mr. Rushworth, it is Julia’s turn as the younger sister to find a husband and secure a financially stable future for herself. In her mind, she should be the one with Henry, not her sister who is engaged to another man.
There is also an element of foreshadowing in this passage in that Mr. Yates is the only one Julia engages with in this moment, and he is the man who she will go on to marry later in the book. Even though she is talking to him with “forced gaiety,” she is talking to “him alone,” suggesting that there is an opening for a relationship later on.
When Fanny reads over the beginning of a letter Edmund was writing to her before she interrupted him—in which he simply communicates that he bought her a gold chain—her hyperbolic reflections show how deeply she loves him:
Two lines more prized had never fallen from the pen of the most distinguished author— never more completely blessed the researches of the fondest biographer. The enthusiasm of a woman’s love is even beyond the biographer’s. To her, the handwriting itself, independent of anything it may convey, is a blessedness. Never were such characters cut by any other human being as Edmund’s commonest handwriting gave!
Fanny’s internal declaration that “the most distinguished author” could not have written “two lines more prized”—and that Edmund’s handwriting itself was more notable than that of “any other human being”—makes her infatuation with him absolutely clear.
In addition to communicating to readers how deeply Fanny is in love with Edmund, this moment also shows how Fanny believes that someone’s character can come through in the way that they approach writing letters. Letters in the novel tend to be a way in which characters communicate their secret, inner feelings (or, in some cases, to obfuscate them), and this interaction shows that Fanny believes Edmund to be revealing a new part of himself to her.
When Edmund is reflecting at the end of the novel on his feelings for Fanny (and hers for him), Austen uses hyperbolic language to capture his joy:
His happiness in knowing himself to have been so long the beloved of such a heart, must have been great enough to warrant any strength of language in which he could cloathe it to her or to himself; it must have been a delightful happiness! But there was happiness elsewhere which no description can reach. Let no one presume to give the feelings of a young woman on receiving the assurance of that affection of which she has scarcely allowed herself to entertain a hope.
Here, Edmund excitedly moves between believing that his happiness is “great enough to warrant any strength of language” and also that “no description can reach” how he is feeling. These exaggerated, hyperbolic statements show how deeply in love Edmund is with Fanny. This is an important move on Austen’s part since, at this point in the novel, readers need a bit more convincing of his feelings for Fanny. After all, the book takes place over ten years during which Edmund strictly views Fanny as a cousin and friend. In this way, the hyperboles seek to successfully convince readers of the depth of Edmund's feelings.
