Examples of hyperbole can be found throughout William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” such as when Romeo claims that Juliet’s “brightness of cheek would shame those stars, / As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven / Would through the airy region stream so bright / That birds would sing and think it were not night” (Act 2). Juliet does not genuinely shine like the sun, and this claim that her eyes make the birds believe it is daytime is exaggerated.
Romeo frequently uses exaggerated language, as one might anticipate from a teen in love. He continues, “[t]here is no world without Verona walls, but hell itself, purgatory, and agony” (Act 3). He claims that living away from Verona is like living in a true hell, yet he is not screaming in anguish forever.
