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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
Explanation and Analysis—Your Kingdoms for a Kiss:
In Act 1, while trying to awaken Antony to the ways in which he has been struck and even duped by love, Ventidius criticizes his devotion to Cleopatra and hyperbolically rants about just how little it might take for Antony to give up his power to her:
They said they would not fight for Cleopatra.
Why should they fight, indeed, to make her conquer,
And make you more a slave? To gain your kingdoms,
Which, for a kiss at your next midnight feast,
You’ll sell to her? Then she new names her jewels,
And calls this diamond such or such a tax;
Each pendant in her ear shall be a province.
Although Ventidius is sympathetic to Antony’s grief following his defeat at the Battle of Actium, he is frustrated by his friend’s inability to put aside his love for Cleopatra, especially when it comes at the expense of his military’s support. Exasperated, Ventidius deploys his hyperboles with laser-precision, lambasting Antony for how utterly he has fallen under the spell of Cleopatra’s love by suggesting that a kiss might be all it would take for him to sell the whole of the empire.
However, Ventidius’s efforts do not achieve their desired effect, as Antony proves himself equally adept at (and even prone to) hyperbole while discussing his emotions—particularly when it comes to his love for Cleopatra and his melancholy whenever he's separated from her. Thus, he returns Venditius’s argument in kind, with a hyperbolic rebuke of his own:
Ventidius, I allow your tongue free licence
On all my other faults; but, on your life,
No word of Cleopatra: she deserves
More worlds than I can lose.
While Ventidius uses hyperbole to expose the faults in Antony’s thinking, Antony uses hyperbole to express his innermost emotions. By forbidding Ventidius from uttering a harsh word against Cleopatra in such extreme, grandiose terms (“she deserves / More worlds than I can lose”), Antony’s hyperbole serves as a demonstration of just how completely consumed he is by his passions and how divorced he has become from reason.
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Act 2
Explanation and Analysis—Not All the Diamonds:
In Act 2, Ventidius rejects Cleopatra’s efforts to win his favor through gifts of jewels and wealth, using hyperbole to emphasize his extreme objection to everything she represents:
Tell her I’ll none on’t:
I’m not ashamed of honest poverty.
Not all the diamonds of the East can bribe
Ventidius from his faith. I hope to see
These, and the rest of all her sparkling store,
Where they shall more deservingly be placed.
In the passage above, Ventidius draws a clear line in the sand between himself and the Egyptian monarch, denoting in the clearest terms possible that his position is firmly anti-Cleopatra. Unlike Antony’s self-indulgent emotional uses of hyperbole in other moments of the play, Ventidius employs these exaggerated statements to demonstrate how deeply he upholds his professed moral values. Expressing the depth of his distaste for Cleopatra and her bribes, Venditius’s claim that he values his faith and honor more than “all the diamonds of the East” sets him up definitively as the voice of reason and morality in the play. His use of hyperbole is strategic, meant to reinforce his upright character and his inability to be swayed by her blatant attempts at grabbing power. His parting jab that Cleopatra’s current “sparkling store” belongs by rights to another (namely, Antony’s wife, Octavia) serves as a final, clever declaration of his loyalties.
Related Themes:
