Question

what is pathetic fallacy

Answer 1

The attribution of human feelings and responses to inanimate things or animals, especially in arts and literature

Answer 2

Answer:

From Shakespeare’s Macbeth to Disney’s “The Haunted Mansion”, we can see abundant use of pathetic fallacy. Imagine how these works would have lost their magic without the use of this specific literary device.

We can see the use of pathetic fallacy in several literary works. But, what exactly the pathetic fallacy is and how to use them effectively. If you want to expand your knowledge, so that you can brag about it, read on to some unknown facts about pathetic fallacy that no one would tell you.

Pathetic Fallacy- What it is?

It is a literary device, which accredits human emotions to inanimate objects, nature or animals. This figure of speech is usually used to reflect the narrator or other characters’ inner experience through the environment. For example, in many novels, we see that during an intense fight scene, a violent storm rages, or rainfall occurs when a character dies. Another example of pathetic fallacy can be found in Keats’ ‘Ode to Melancholy’:

“Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud”

Here, ‘weeping cloud’ shows that the human emotion weeping has been ascribed to clouds. Thus, this is an example of pathetic fallacy.

Now, to clear your concept of pathetic fallacy, here are some important facts about this literary device

   Pathetic fallacy is different from personification- Anybody learning about pathetic fallacy will readily identify it with personification which is another literary device. But, don’t make the mistake of thinking that they are the same. This is how they differ:

   Pathetic fallacy- It can be seen as a type of personification where inanimate objects of nature are given human emotions. For example, in the line, “The night has been unruly”, the human emotion unruly has been attributed to the night. Pathetic fallacy is usually associated with only the ascription of human emotions to different facets of nature.

   Personification- On the other hand, in personification, any human action, quality, or attribute can be ascribed to nonhuman things. An example of personification would be “The Sun smiled at us”. Here, human action has been attributed to the Sun. Personification is attributed to both natural and man-made things.