Adynaton

__//Adynaton//__


 * D** **efinition::** Adnomination refers a hyperbole where the exaggeration is so ridiculous, that it refers to an impossibility.


 * Origin::** Classical period


 * See also::** Hyperbole

Definition taken from (britannica.com).


 * Examples** from text:

1) In Marquis de Sade's "Effects of Despair" Lord Granwell sees a beautiful girl walking by and becomes immediately infatuated with her. He spends the first page of the story talking with his friends about how badly he wants to be with her.


 * Granwell wants so badly for the girl, who is still a teenager, to be his. He says to his friends that "Even if she was the devil’s own daughter, God strike me down if I never have her!" (de Sade 1). This is an example of an adynaton because it is a phrase that is an impossibility. Regardless of religious beliefs, it is highly unlikely that God would strike down Granwell should he never be able to be with the girl. The impossible nature of this phrase makes it an adynaton.

2) In Kate Chopin's //Story of an Hour//, Mrs. Mallard has just been told that her husband died. She is very caught off guard and does not know what to do with herself.

(EM)
 * Immediately after Mrs. Mallard is told of her husband's death, Chopin describes her as feeling engulfed by something intangible that cannot be explained. "But she felt it creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air" (Chopin 1). Because something intangible could never physically come "creeping" out of the sky and "reach" for her, this is considered to be an example of an adynaton. [[image:412UnQqQKbL._SL500_AA300_.jpg align="right"]]