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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
Chapter 1: How Brangwen Married a Polish Lady
Explanation and Analysis—A New Birth:
When Tom marries Lydia, their first days and weeks in the Marsh Farm are marked by tension, passion, and feelings of distance. In his description of Tom's feelings as he adjusts to his new life, Lawrence employs a series of hyperbolic metaphors and similes:
It was as if a strong light were burning there, and he was blind within it, unable to know anything, except that this transfiguration burned between him and her, connecting them, like a secret power. Since she had come to the house he went about in a daze, scarcely seeing even the things he handled, drifting, quiescent, in a state of metamorphosis. He submitted to that which was happening to him, letting go his will, suffering the loss of himself, dormant always on the brink of ecstasy, like a creature evolving to a new birth.
In the early days of his marriage, Tom is struck both by contrasting feelings: he feels, simultaneously, transformed by the presence of Lydia and her daughter Anna in his life and home, while also struggling with the emotional distance between them. He feels, Lawrence writes, like he has been blinded by a strong light and, also, that some force "like a secret power" connects him to Lydia, transforming them both. These similes all underscore Tom's sense that a rapid and profound change has come to his life. Further, Lawrence writes that Tom "went about in a daze," stuck in a state of "metamorphosis," in a manner "like a creature evolving to a new birth." Throughout this passage, these various similes and metaphors exaggerate Tom's sense that he has been transformed by marriage, hyperbolically suggesting that he has been reborn in a new form.
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Chapter 2: They Live at the Marsh
Explanation and Analysis—Like a Broken Arch:
Among other reasons, Tom is drawn to Lydia for her status as a foreigner whose manner of speech and dress attest to the broader world that Tom has never seen. However, Tom also suffers due to the emotional distance between himself and Lydia, a distance that stems both from cultural differences and from Lydia's unresolved trauma. In his description of Tom's despair, Lawrence uses a simile that compares their marriage to a "broken arch":
She sank away again. The strange leaves beating in the wind on the wood had come nearer than she. The tension in the room was overpowering, it was difficult for him to move his head. He sat with every nerve, every vein, every fibre of muscle in his body stretched on a tension. He felt like a broken arch thrust sickeningly out from support. For her response was gone, he thrust at nothing. And he remained himself, he saved himself from crashing down into nothingness, from being squandered into fragments, by sheer tension, sheer backward resistance.
Their marriage is defined by alternating periods of warmth and coldness. When Lydia grows distant from him, Tom feels an "overpowering" sense of tension in the Marsh Farm. Using hyperbole, Lawrence writes that "every nerve, every vein, every fibre of muscle" in Tom's body was "stretched on a tension," exaggerating Tom's reaction to this marital difficulty. Further, he writes that Tom "felt like a broken arch thrust sickeningly out for support." In architecture, both parts of an arch physically support each other and, often, support the load or weight above them. This simile, which imagines Tom as a fragment of a broken arch, receiving no support from the missing half, underscores his sense that Lydia is not able to offer him support emotionally.
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Explanation and Analysis—Fire-Eating:
Lawrence employs hyperbole, metaphor, and simile in a passage in which Lydia reflects upon the early days of her marriage to Lensky, a doctor who became an important leader in the fight for Polish independence from Russia:
Lensky was something of a fire-eater also. Lydia, tempered by her German blood, coming of a different family, was obliterated, carried along in her husband’s emphasis of declaration, and his whirl of patriotism. He was indeed a brave man, but no bravery could quite have equalled the vividness of his talk. He worked very hard, till nothing lived in him but his eyes. And Lydia, as if drugged, followed him like a shadow, serving, echoing. Sometimes she had her two children, sometimes they were left behind.
A more mature Lydia looks back ambivalently on her first marriage to Paul Lensky. The narrative characterizes him as "a fire-eater," a metaphor that suggests that he was willing to accept risks and danger in the pursuit of Polish nationalism. Additionally, Lawrence, using hyperbole, writes that Lydia was "obliterated" by the passion of her husband, who worked himself to the bone "till nothing lived in him but his eyes." These exaggerated statements suggest that Lensky was entirely swept up in his political ideals, sacrificing both health and security for the cause of Polish independence.
In contrast, Lydia "followed him like a shadow," a simile that underscores her loyalty to her husband but also suggests that she was animated by personal loyalty rather than political beliefs. Later, Lydia feels that her marriage to Paul was a dangerous and costly mistake.
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Chapter 4: Girlhood of Anna Brangwen
Explanation and Analysis—Life and Fire :
Anna falls quickly for Will Brangwen, her cousin, when they meet at the Marsh Farm. In his depiction of Anna's growing attraction to Will, Lawrence employs both metaphor and hyperbole:
For his body was so keen and wonderful, it was the only reality in her world. In her world, there was this one tense, vivid body of a man, and then many other shadowy men, all unreal. In him, she touched the centre of reality [...] Out of the rock of his form the very fountain of life flowed. But to him, she was a flame that consumed him. The flame flowed up his limbs, flowed through him, till he was consumed, till he existed only as an unconscious, dark transit of flame, deriving from her.
Here, the narration reflects Anna's own somewhat exaggerated perception of Will as "the only reality in her world," a hyperbolic claim that highlights both Anna's obsession with Will and also her own immaturity. Lawrence adds that, to Anna, "there was this one tense, vivid body of a man, and then many other shadowy men," a metaphor that suggests that Anna only has eyes for Will, regarding other men as insignificant and insubstantial, like shadows. Will is, to Anna, the "centre of reality," a "rock" from which "the very fountain of life flowed," and she is, in contrast, "a flame that consumed him." These metaphors, drawn from the natural world, again underscore the central role that Will assumes in Anna's life. Ultimately, theirs is a tempestuous marriage marked by both conflict and passion.
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