Previous
Hyperbole
Definition of Idiom
An idiom is a phrase that conveys a figurative meaning that is difficult or impossible to understand based solely on a literal interpretation of the words in the phrase. For... read full definition
An idiom is a phrase that conveys a figurative meaning that is difficult or impossible to understand based solely on a literal interpretation of the... read full definition
An idiom is a phrase that conveys a figurative meaning that is difficult or impossible to understand based solely on... 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 1
Explanation and Analysis—Shut His Bosom:
In Act 3, Scene 1, the Duke of Florence speaks of his astonishment that France has chosen not to get involved in the ongoing conflict, using a combination of an idiom and a metaphor referring to an embrace. Shakespeare also employs personification, as this important figure declares:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Therefore we marvel much our cousin France
Would in so just a business shut his bosom
Against our borrowing prayers.
Related Themes:
Act 4, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Disgrace Knocks:
Parolles contemplates the lies he will need to fabricate for Bertram and the Lords in order to maintain his façade of bravery. In this scene, Shakespeare combines idiom, personification, and a classical allusion to display Parolles's internal conflict:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[...] [T]hey begin to smoke me; and disgraces have of late knocked too often at my door. I find my tongue is too foolhardy; but my heart hath the fear of Mars before it and of his creatures, not daring the reports of my tongue.
Related Themes:
Act 5, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis— Fortune's Butt'ring:
When the Fool encounters Parolles delivering a letter in Act 5, Shakespeare makes his distaste for Parolles’s stench apparent through the use of the sensory language of smell, personification, and idiom:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Truly, Fortune’s displeasure is but sluttish if it smell so strongly as thou speak’st of. I will henceforth eat no fish of Fortune’s butt’ring. Prithee, allow the wind.
Related Themes:
