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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 6
Explanation and Analysis—Hind's Wardrobe:
In Part 6, Rushdie uses mythic, elevated language to describe the goings-on in Jahilia, his fictionalized Mecca. A central character in this part is Hind, the wife of Karim Abu Simbel and a kind of embodiment of the goddess Al-Lat. Rushdie describes Hind in terms of vivid hyperbole:
[...] the people forgave her her promiscuity, they turned a blind eye to the stories of Hind being weighed in emeralds on her birthday, they ignored rumors of orgies, they laughed when told of the size of her wardrobe, of the five hundred and eighty-one nightgowns made of gold leaf and the four hundred and twenty pairs of ruby slippers.
The notions of "five hundred and eight-one nightgowns," "being weighed in emeralds," and "four hundred and twenty pairs of ruby slippers" are all deeply hyperbolic. But they also spotlight the way hyperbole can blur into myth. Exaggeration can be a helpful tool of mythic world-building because it presents reality as more fantastical than it actually is; it removes the story slightly from the parameters of ordinary life. Exaggerating something is often one way to make it feel more mythic, as, indeed, the people of Jahilia who tell these stories about Hind seem to understand. This kind of exaggeration also spotlights the way myth makes space for the fact that deeply strange or hyperbolic stories sometimes hold more truth than familiar, rational events.
Part 7, Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Othello:
In the beginning of Part 7, Rushdie uses hyperbole and alludes to Shakespeare's Othello to describe Saladin's affection for English culture:
Of the things of the mind, he had most loved the protean, inexhaustible culture of the English-speaking peoples; had said, when courting Pamela, that Othello, 'just that one play,' was worth the total output of any other dramatist in any other language, and though he was conscious of hyperbole, he didn't think the exaggeration was very great.
This passage is one of a few instances in which Rushdie alludes to Othello. Here, Saladin speaks of the play hyperbolically, but he both recognizes his opinion as hyperbolic and explains that he actually doesn't "think the exaggeration [is] very great." Othello recounts the story of a Moorish general, Othello, who is tricked by a character named Iago into believing his wife Desdemona has been unfaithful to him; after murdering Desdemona, Othello finds out the truth and subsequently dies by suicide. The Satanic Verses loosely follows a similar plot: after Saladin tricks Gibreel into believing Allie has been unfaithful, Gibreel murders her and then kills himself. In this reading, Saladin would be Iago, Gibreel would be Othello, and Allie would be Desdemona.
This alignment is important because it reveals both Saladin's and Rushdie's attitudes toward race and Englishness. In Shakespeare's play, Othello is Black and Iago is White. In The Satanic Verses, Gibreel is loyal to his Indian heritage, while Saladin seeks to disavow them in favor of rigid Englishness—particularly during his decades-long feud with his father. Matching the narrative of Othello to that of The Satanic Verses allows Rushdie to interrogate the ways in which race and nationality influence contemporary understandings of (and biases around) good and evil.
Related Themes:
