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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
Act 1, Scene 4
Explanation and Analysis—Sorrow, Sighs, Tears:
Horatio uses pathos when narrating the death of Andrea to Bel-Imperia, Andrea’s lover and the niece of the King of Spain. When she asks him to tell her the full story of Andrea's death in battle, Horatio states:
I took him up and wound him in mine arms,
And wielding him unto my private tent,
There laid him down, and dewed him with my tears,
And sighed and sorrowed as became a friend.
But neither friendly sorrow, sighs, nor tears
Could win pale Death from his usurped right.
Yet this I did, and less I could not do:
I saw him honored with due funeral;
This scarf I plucked from off his lifeless arm,
And wear it in remembrance of my friend.
Related Themes:
Act 3, Scene 7
Explanation and Analysis—Wearied the Earth:
In one of his many soliloquies on the topic of his son’s death, Hieronimo uses hyperbole to express the depths of his mourning. Following the execution of Pedringano, which Hieronimo oversaw in his capacity as a judge, he states:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Where shall I run to breathe abroad my woes,
My woes, whose weight hath wearied the earth?
Or mine exclaims, that have surcharged the air
With ceaseless plaints for my deceased son?
The blust'ring winds, conspiring with my words,
At my lament have moved the leafless trees,
Disrobed the meadows of their flowered green,
Made mountains marsh with spring-tides of my tears
And broken through the brazen gates of hell.
Yet still tormented is my tortured soul
Related Themes:
