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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
Hyperbole
Explanation and Analysis—Henry’s Wife’s Portrait:
When the narrator is looking around Henry’s cottage after being invited in, he notices a photograph of Henry’s wife. He uses a pair of hyperboles and a metaphor to capture his and Henry’s experience while looking at the photo:
I went to the little black-walnut bracket on the farther wall, and did find there what I had not yet noticed—a daguerreotype-case. It contained the sweetest girlish face, and the most beautiful, as it seemed to me, that I had ever seen. The man drank the admiration from my face, and was fully satisfied.
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Explanation and Analysis—Living Dead Men:
As the narrator sets the scene at the beginning of the story, he describes the desolate conditions of California mining communities in the decades after the Gold Rush, using a hyperbole in the process:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Round about California in that day were scattered a host of these living dead men—pride-smitten poor fellows, grizzled and old at forty, whose secret thoughts were made all of regrets and longings—regrets for their wasted lives, and longings to be out of the struggle and done with it all.
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