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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 Jude the Obscure
Part 1, Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Cat-Latin:
In Chapter 4, Par 1, the traveling Physician Vilbert employs hyperbole to excite and mock the young protagonist. He tells the child Jude that the university at Christminster is such a distinguished place that even the old women who do the laundry speak Latin:
‘You’d say so, my boy, if you’d seen it. Why, the very sons of the old women who do the washing of the college can talk in Latin – not good Latin, that I admit, as a critic: dog-Latin – cat-Latin, as we used to call it in my undergraduate days.’
‘And Greek?’
‘Well – that’s more for the men who are in training for bishops, that they may be able to read the New Testament in the original.’
‘I want to learn Latin and Greek myself.’
‘A lofty desire. You must get a grammar of each tongue.’
‘I mean to go to Christminster some day.’
Related Themes:
