Examples Of Hyperbole In Hamlet

The tragic play, Hamlet, by William Shakespeare is about revenge. Many characters feel they were wronged and as a result seek retribution. In the first soliloquy, Hamlet illustrates his frustration over the hasty decisions that have occurred over such a short period of time. In Hamlet’s first soliloquy, the use of literary devices help to promote the theme of haste. In this passage, Hamlet reveals that his anguish is caused by the hurried actions of his mother, Queen Gertrude, following his father’s death. To express how deep Hamlet’s late father’s love was for Queen Gertrude, Shakespeare uses hyperbole, “So loving to my mother / That he might not beteem the winds of heaven / Visit her face too roughly” (1.2.140-142). By using a force as gentle as the wind, Shakespeare exaggerates the extremity of the late king’s defense over those that he
Next, Shakespeare uses hyperbole to emphasize the short time period between his father’s death and his mother’s remarriage, “A little month, or ere those shoes were old / With which she followed my poor father’s body / Like Niobe, all tears” (1.2.147-149). Hamlet compares the timing of his mother’s remarriage to be a fraction of the time required to break in a pair of shoes. Due to her lack of lamentation, Hamlet also questions her prior devotion to his father. To stress Queen Gertrude’s brief grieving period even further, Shakespeare uses hyperbole, “Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears / Had left the flushing in her galled eyes” (1.2.154-155). Since Hamlet is still mourning the loss of his father, his mother’s ability to dry her tears and dive into a second marriage makes him question his mother’s relationship with his late father and the intentions of her uncle-turned-stepfather. Hamlet’s confidence in his mother’s ability to make reasonable decisions has depleted. Appalled by his mother’s ability to love another man so soon after the death of her first husband, Shakespeare uses a simile to