Select the correct Figure of Speech used in the sentence from the options given below:-
Here's the smell of blood still; all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Hyperbole
Hyperbole:
- Hyperbole is deliberate exaggeration for strong effect; it is not meant to be taken literally.
- The line is spoken by Lady Macbeth in the sleepwalking scene of Shakespeare's Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 1).
- She says that all the perfumes of Arabia could not remove the smell of blood from one small hand. No real smell could resist every perfume in a whole land; the exaggeration shows how deep and lasting her guilt is.
Example: I have told you a million times to shut the door.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: Simile — Incorrect. A simile compares two things using "like" or "as"; the line has no such comparison.
Example: She is as brave as a lion.
Option 2: Antithesis — Incorrect. Antithesis places contrasting ideas side by side in a balanced form; the line has no pair of opposites.
Example: To err is human, to forgive divine.
Option 3: Personification — Incorrect. Personification gives human qualities to a non-human thing; the perfumes are not given any human action.
Example: The wind whispered through the trees.
Contrast: a simile compares with "like" or "as", antithesis balances opposites, personification makes a thing act like a person, and hyperbole exaggerates beyond belief.