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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
Volume 1, Book 3: In the Year 1817
Explanation and Analysis—A Casus Belli:
When Tholomyes has a little too much to drink at a public house, he begins to orate at the party about the frivolity of women. Tholomyes uses hyperboles and allusions to bolster his point about women:
In love there are no friends. Everywhere where there is a pretty woman hostility is open. No quarter, war to the death! A pretty woman is a casus belli; a pretty woman is flagrant misdemeanor. All the invasions of history have been determined by petticoats. Woman is man’s right. Romulus carried off the Sabines; William carried off the Saxon women; Caesar carried off the Roman women. The man who is not loved soars like a vulture over the mistresses of other men; and for my own part, to all those unfortunate men who are widowers, I throw the sublime proclamation of Bonaparte to the army of Italy: ‘Soldiers, you are in need of everything; the enemy has it.’
Tholomyes maintains a very cavalier attitude towards women, for whom he shows little respect and care. His attitude is especially evident in how he manipulates Fantine and takes advantage of her naivety. In his oration, he says that “all the invasions of history have been determined by petticoats,” hyperbolizing the effect of women in men’s prideful pursuits of war. Tholomyes condemns women for their beauty, explaining that it triggers hostility and ultimately causes invasions. This point is the ultimate demonstration of disrespect towards women, as he blames them for the greed of men.
Tholomyes even uses allusions to some of the most notorious invasions in history: Romulus carried out the abduction of many Sabine women not long after the founding of Rome, William the Conqueror's overtook England in the 11th century, and Julius Caesar invaded Britain during the Gallic Wars. Tholomyes uses these incidents to explain the triggering effect of women on men. According to Tholomyes, women should be reproached for their existence, for it unfailingly leads to war.
Related Themes:
Volume 2, Book 2: The Ship Orion
Explanation and Analysis—Second Escape from Toulon:
At the port of Toulon, the topman on a ship (the topman works with rigging) nearly falls to his death before Jean Valjean jumps into action to save him. The story uses several hyperboles and a metaphor to explain the anticipation of the moment as well as the wonder of Jean Valjean:
In a twinkling he was on the yard; he paused for a few seconds and appeared to be measuring it with his eye; these seconds, during which the breeze swayed the topman at the extremity of a thread, seemed centuries to those who were looking on. […] One would have said it was a spider coming to seize a fly, only here the spider brought life, not death. Ten thousand glances were fastened on this group; not a cry, not a word; the same tremor contracted every brow; all mouths held their breath as though they feared to add the slightest puff to the wind which was swaying the two unfortunate men.
This near-accident occurs after Jean Valjean has finally been recaptured. The story hyperbolizes the drama of the scene by both lengthening the moments and heightening the anticipation in the crowd of onlookers. Centuries pass in a moment, everything panning out in slow motion, demonstrating the crowd's nail-biting fear. The metaphorical comparison of Jean Valjean to a spider catching a fly also hyperbolizes his finesse and strength.
The audience is unable to look or steal away from the rescue. The narrator creates a moment of knotted tension with the phrases “ten thousand glances” and “the same tremor contracted every brow.” Every onlooker is fixated on this one moment, their faces painted with the same horror. These descriptions are explicit exaggerations of the situation in number and intensity.
Volume 3, Book 1: Paris Studied in Its Atom
Explanation and Analysis—The Bottom of History:
At the beginning of Volume 3, the narrator transports the reader to the primary setting of the story: Paris. With hyperboles, the narrator puts the city on a pedestal and highlights its superior place in history:
To sum it all up once more, the Paris gamin of today, like the graeculus of Rome in days gone by, is the infant populace with the wrinkle of the old world on his brow. […] The gamin expresses Paris, and Paris expresses the world. For Paris is a total. Paris is the ceiling of the human race. The whole of this prodigious city is a foreshortening of dead manners and living manners. He who sees Paris thinks he sees the bottom of all history with heaven and constellations in the intervals.
The story hyperbolizes the absoluteness and significance of Paris, painting the city as the end of the world, the “ceiling” and the “bottom.” To the narrator, nothing outside of Paris matters, let alone exists. The French—perhaps in this case Hugo—believe that everything one could ever need or want to learn is in Paris. To think that all of history and the heavens are within Paris is an exaggeration in every sense. This hyperbole is a great representation of the nationalism and pride that the French felt during this revolutionary period.
The heart of the city, though, is the population of "gamin": street urchins with dirty hands and hearts of gold. These gamin are also a representation of revolutionary France following the fall of Napoleon. Repressed into poverty, even people with good intentions resort to crime to survive, much like Jean Valjean.
Related Themes:
