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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
Part 2, Chapter 72
Explanation and Analysis—I'm So Funny:
In Part 2 of the novel, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza learn of a spurious sequel to the book written about their exploits, written by a man named Avellaneda from Tordesillas, which contains many inaccuracies. Cervantes, then, alludes to a real book, published under the pseudonym Avellaneda, which falsely claimed to be a sequel to Part 1 of Cervantes's own Don Quixote. In an inn, they meet a man named Don Tarfe who claims to have met Quixote and Sancho. When the man, unaware that he is speaking to the real Sancho, claims that Sancho is not as funny in real life as he is in the book, Sancho responds with hyperbole:
I’m the real Sancho Panza, and I’m so funny it’s as if fun had rained down on me from heaven, and if you don’t believe me just give me a try, and follow me around for a year or so, and you’ll see how the fun gushes out of me at every turn, so much of it and such high quality that even though most of the time I don’t know what I’m saying I make everyone listening to me laugh.
Clearly annoyed by the man's claims, Sancho hyperbolically insists that he is "so funny it's as if fun had rained down on me from heaven." Further, he notes that fun "gushes out" of him "at every turn," and he produces "so much of it and at such high quality" that he makes "everyone listening" to him laugh. Here, he speaks in an exaggerated fashion that suggests that he feels some sense of competition with the "false" Sancho featured in the unauthorized sequel. Quixote and Sancho are haunted by these false doubles, who both do and don't resemble them.
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