A Pragmatic Analysis of Hyperbolic Expressions in Shakespeare's Hamlet

Abstract

This paper examines the occurrence of hyperbole in Hamlet. Hyperbole has been studied in rhetoric and literary contexts. The paper emphasizes the interactive nature of hyperbole. In Hamlet, hyperbole, in addition to other tropes, play a very significant role in Î means for an end. Sometimes, it expresses surprise, or anger, in other times; it exaggerates the character's psychological ambivalence. Thus, any instance of hyperbole, attracts the readers' or audiences' utmost attention. Since little attention has been paid to the study of hyperbole and there has been no linguistic and pragmatic considerable framework for the analysis of hyperbole, investigation has been assigned as the objective of this research.