A literary device wherein
something nonhuman found in nature like animals, plants, natural forces etc.
functions as if from human feeling or motivation or thought. The term was
coined by John Ruskin in his book Modern Painters. The description will be
imaginary and fanciful. The term pathetic here uses in a derogatory
senses- as imparting emotions to something else. In literature inanimate
objects found in the nature are often being used to mirror the mood of a person.
E.g. angry tides, smiling stars etc. Victorian
writers and Gothic novelists abundantly used this technique in their
works.
Examples
Wordsworth uses the image
of cloud to picture the feeling of loneliness.
I wandered lonely as a
child
That floats on high o’er
vales and hills
Mary Shelley in her Frankenstein
has used the pathetic fallacy effectively.
The desert mountains and
dreary glaciers are my refuge. I have wandered here many days; the caves of
ice, which I only do not fear, are a dwelling to me, and the only one which man
does not grudge
The creature tells his
pathetic and desolate life to his creator, Frankenstein. The desolate glaciers
and desert mountains explains his status to the reader.
