Lady Audley’s Secret Literary Devices

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 Lady Audley’s Secret

Explanation and Analysis—Glorious Old Place:

Braddon describes the beauty of Audley Court in the hyperbolic language her readers soon learn is typical for passages concerning the house. In so doing, she aligns the house's appeal with Lucy's own charms, intermingling the two:

A glorious old place. A place that visitors fell in raptures with; feeling a yearning wish to have done with life, and to stay there forever, staring into the cool fish-ponds and counting the bubbles as the roach and carp rose to the surface of the water.

Explanation and Analysis—Soft and Feathery:

Lucy’s beauty and ability to attract people is regularly referred to in ways that make it seem almost supernatural. Here, as Lucy sits painting and talking to Mrs. Dawson, Braddon uses hyperbolic language and a metaphor referring to an angel’s halo to emphasize its power:

The governess lifted her head from its stooping attitude, and stared wonderingly at her employer, shaking back a shower of curls. They were the most wonderful curls in the world—soft and feathery, always floating away from her face, and making a pale halo round her head when the sunlight shone through them.

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Explanation and Analysis—Petty Woman's Tyranny:

In this segment of Lady Audley's Secret, the narrative uses hyperbolic language and dramatic irony to talk about Lady Audley's beauty and how it has made her selfish and self-obsessed:

Did she remember the day in which that fairy dower of beauty had first taught her to be selfish and cruel, indifferent to the joys and sorrows of others, cold-hearted and capricious, greedy of admiration, exacting and tyrannical with that petty woman's tyranny which is the worst of despotism?

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Lady Audley’s Secret: Hyperbole 3 key examples

Definition of Hyperbole

Key Examples in Lady Audley’s Secret