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Definition of Hyperbole
Hyperbole is a figure of speech in which a writer or speaker exaggerates for the sake of emphasis. Hyperbolic statements are usually quite obvious exaggerations intended to emphasize a point... read full definition
Hyperbole is a figure of speech in which a writer or speaker exaggerates for the sake of emphasis. Hyperbolic statements are usually quite obvious exaggerations... read full definition
Hyperbole is a figure of speech in which a writer or speaker exaggerates for the sake of emphasis. Hyperbolic statements... read full definition
Key Examples in All's Well that Ends Well
Act 2, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Helen the Medicine:
When attempting to persuade the King to meet with Helen, Lafew employs hyperbole, allusion, and idiom to describe Helen’s remarkable medical abilities. He states:
I have seen a medicine
That’s able to breathe life into a stone
Quicken a rock, and make you dance canary
With sprightly fire and motion, whose simple touch
Is powerful to araise King Pippen, nay,
To give great Charlemagne a pen in ’s hand
And write to her a love line
Related Themes:
Act 3, Scene 5
Explanation and Analysis—Wrack of Maidenhood.:
Mariana uses hyperbole and allusion to warn Diana about men’s deceptive ways, specifically targeting the untrustworthy Parolles:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I know that knave, hang him! One Parolles, a filthy officer he is in those suggestions for the young earl.—Beware of them, Diana. Their promises, enticements, oaths, tokens, and all these engines of lust are not the things they go under. Many a maid hath been seduced by them; and the misery is example that so terrible shows in the wrack of maidenhood cannot for all that dissuade succession, but that they are limed with the twigs that threatens them.
Related Themes:
