When Miss Rousset reveals to her fellow French travelers that the German commander has given her an ultimatum—sleep with him so that he won't prevent her and her compatriots from leaving the small town of Totes—they are all shocked. Maupassant captures how appalled her fellow travelers are using hyperbole, as seen in the following passage:
Everybody was choked for words, and indignation was rife. Cornudet broke his glass, so violently did he bring his fist down upon the table. There was a clamor of censure against this ignoble soldier, a blast of anger, a union of all for resistance, as if a demand had been made on each one of the party for the sacrifice exacted of her.
While there is exaggerated language in the beginning of this passage—“Everybody was choked for words” and experienced “a blast of anger, a union of all resistance”—the hyperbole at the end is even more extreme. The idea that these nine characters heard about the German commander’s request for sex and experienced it “as if a demand had been made on each one of the party for the sacrifice exacted of [Miss Rousset]” is clearly an exaggeration. With this hyperbole, Maupassant is simultaneously showing readers how dramatic this group of people is and also how much they have come to ally themselves with Miss Rousset despite their class differences. They experience the commander’s request as if he had made the request of them because they have embraced Miss Rousset as one of their own.
That said, their empathy and solidarity is short-lived. Just the next morning, Miss Rousset's nine traveling companions turn against the sex worker after deciding that their desire to make it to their final destination is more important than her dignity. In this way, Maupassant shows the hypocrisy of wealthy people claiming to be moral when they inevitably put their needs before those of someone from a lower class status (specifically a sex worker).
When, near the beginning of the story, Miss Rousset tells the group of French travelers in the carriage with her what inspired her to leave Rouen, she explains her hatred of Prussian soldiers, using a hyperbole in the process:
“I believed at first that I could remain,” she said. “I had my house full of provisions, and I preferred to feed a few soldiers rather than expatriate myself, to go I knew not where. But as soon as I saw them, those Prussians, that was too much for me! They made my blood boil with anger, and I wept for very shame all day long.”
The hyperbolic language that Miss Rousset uses here—"They made my blood boil with anger, and I wept for very shame all day long"—communicates several important things to readers. First, it shows how patriotic Miss Rousset is. She objects to the presence of Prussians in her city not because she dislikes them as individuals but because they represent an assault on the French nation, and she therefore cannot stand the sight of them. Her blood did not actually boil with anger, and she did not actually weep all day long, but this language helps communicate the depth of her hatred and rage.
Miss Rousset’s use of hyperbole also shows how passionate she is when it comes to rejecting the war, particularly when compared to the people around her. At this point, Maupassant has already explained why the married couples in the carriage have chosen to flee: the men want to make money off of the war and have forced their wives to accompany them. While Miss Rousset is leaving Rouen as a form of protesting the war on moral grounds, the married men are all choosing to leave for selfish and opportunistic reasons.
