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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 2, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—An Act of Pleasure:
In Act 2, Beatrice realizes that De Flores, who disgusts her, might nevertheless be useful to her in her romantic pursuit of Alsemero. Despite her previous cruelty, she treats him kindly in order to flatter him into assisting her. While De Flores understands Beatrice’s intentions, he is deeply pleased to receive this kind treatment, and he hyperbolically claims that this casual interaction is, for him, akin to a sexual act:
DE FLORES [ aside ] : Her fingers touched me! She smells all amber.
BEATRICE : I’ll make a water for you shall cleanse this
Within a fortnight.DE FLORES : With your own hands, lady?
BEATRICE : Yes, mine own, sir, in a work of cure I’ll trust no other.
DE FLORES [ aside ] : ’Tis half an act of pleasure
To hear her talk thus to me.
Beatrice offers to create a “water” (or tincture) that will fix De Flores’s skin, which she implies is diseased or otherwise unattractive. De Flores, who is unaccustomed to being treated civilly by her, marvels at this offer, asking if she will make the tincture with her “own hands.” When she confirms this, De Flores notes, in an aside, that this conversation is “half an act of pleasure” to him, or in other words, similar in intensity to a sexual act. De Flores’s language in this scene emphasizes his love for Beatrice, but also her generally unkind treatment of him.
Act 5, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Contrariety:
In Act 5, Tomazo has begun to suspect that De Flores, whom he previously regarded as a kind and helpful servant, played a role in the murder of his brother Alonzo. He expresses his distaste for De Flores in highly exaggerated, hyperbolic terms:
TOMAZO: I find a contrariety in nature
Betwixt that face and me: the least occasion
Would give me game upon him; yet he’s so foul,
One would scarce touch [him] with a sword he loved
And made account of; so most deadly venomous,
He would go near to poison any weapon
That should draw blood on him; one must resolve
Never to use that sword again in fight
In way of honest manhood, that strikes him;
Some river must devour’t, ’twere not fit
That any man should find it.
Tomazo notes his “contrariety” (or in other words, opposition) to De Flores's “face,” adding that he would attack him at the slightest provocation. As his disgust for De Flores deepens, his language becomes increasingly hyperbolic. De Flores, he claims, is “so foul” that a person would not “touch [him] with a sword he loved,” as the “deadly venomous” body of De Flores would “poison” the weapon. Further, Tomazo suggests, with similar hyperbole, that any sword that came into contact with De Flores’s blood would have to be discarded in a river, as it is not “fit” that the weapons should be used by any decent man.
