Is it an idiom? What's the meaning here?

Question

"As the pain [of the tumor] increased, he banged his head in agony and frustration." (the second clause, I mean.)

Answer 1

No, it s not an idiom , its just a description of what hes doing. Idioms use figurative meaning, colloquial metaphors and the real meaning has to be deduced, for eg. to have a bun in the oven= be pregnant

Answer 2

The meaning I take from this sentence is that increased agony and being subjected to pain helplessly can cause a person to do damaging things to themselves because they simply don't know what else to do, and doing nothing is too frustrating.
I don't think we're talking about an idiom here. It's a simple situation where a person does something sort of 'illogical' because there are no logical options available.

Answer 3

If you're referring to the "he ban . . . " part then it seems somewhat obvious that agony refers to the extreme pain the person is suffering due to the illness.

Since judgment of the phrase is based on this one sentence, the frustration naturally is connected to the gigantic effort in time, in medical treatment, and therefore in money that hasn't paid off.

Being subjected to extreme pain despite maximum effort covering all bases to try to fix the problem would lead to great irritation.

Answer 4

In this context it could be either. He could be literally hitting some object with his head, or it could just be a metaphorical representation of his frustration.

The usual idiomatic meaning of 'to bang one's head' is more like 'to expend effort with no results'.

I would guess a literal reading is meant here, but I can't be sure.

Answer 5

it may or may not be an idiom..it's hard to tell....is he really physically banging his head? if so then it's not an idiom...if he isn't really doing it then it is an idiom....but not really a good example

Answer 6

Is that you Scarlett...*hugs*