Pathetic Fallacy

Pathetic fallacy is when a writer gives human emotions to things that are not human, such as objects, animals or, most commonly, the weather.

Furious winds

The furious winds blew across the plains.
- In this phrase, you are creating an image of the wind feeling fury. This is pathetic fallacy because fury is a human emotion and wind cannot actually feel any sort of emotion.
- By giving the wind a human emotion, it helps the reader to visualise the severity of its anger.
- The idea of the wind being able to feel this emotion also humanises it and suggests that it has a consciousness.

Sea raged

She balled her fists in anger as the sea raged behind her.
- In this phrase, you are creating an image of the sea feeling rage. This is pathetic fallacy because rage is a human emotion and sea cannot actually feel any sort of emotion.
- By giving the sea a human emotion, it helps the reader to visualise the severity of the rage – it almost seems ready to attack.
- The anger of the character is also highlighted and then emphasised because the sea is echoing her feelings as well.

Sad clouds

Mud-coloured clouds drooped sadly over the muddy streets as the criminal continued to elude them.
- This is pathetic fallacy because sadness is a human emotion and clouds cannot actually feel any sort of emotion.
- By giving the clouds a human emotion, it helps the reader to visualise the thick, opaque clouds blocking our view.
- The idea of the clouds feeling sad paints a picture of them hanging low, moving slowly, and obscuring everything.

Tips for Using Pathetic Fallacy

Pathetic fallacy is when a writer gives human emotions to things that are not human, such as objects, animals or, most commonly, the weather.

Alternative use

Pathetic fallacy can also be used when the weather echoes human emotions (e.g. when something sad happens, it is raining).
This is a form of personification but refers purely to giving human emotions to inhuman things.

Focus on the weather

Focus on making the weather feel something.

Consider the mood

Be careful with how you use the pathetic fallacy – your choice of emotion will either emphasise the mood you want to create or will change it completely.

Echo characters' emotions

Pathetic fallacy can be used to set the scene, reinforce a feeling, or foreshadow something happening in the future.
If you want to really emphasise the effect, have the weather echo an emotion from a character.

Choose vocabulary carefully

Your choice of vocabulary is vital in creating your language devices.

1Key Terms

1.1Key Terms

1.1.1Key Terms - Nouns, Verbs & Sentence Types

1.1.2Key Terms - Words, Sounds & Language

1.1.3Key Terms - Images, Symbols & Mood

1.1.4Key Terms - Other Techniques

1.1.5End of Topic Test - Key Terms

2Language Techniques

3Paper 1: Reading

3.1Structuring Your Answer - Section A

3.1.1Overview - Section A

3.1.2Answering Question 1

3.1.3Answering Question 2

3.1.4Exam-Style Questions - Paper 1: Reading

3.1.5Answering Question 3

3.1.6Answering Question 4

3.1.7End of Topic Test - Section A

3.1.8Exam-Style Questions - Paper 1: Reading

4Paper 1: Writing

4.1Structuring Your Answer

4.1.1Overview - Section B

4.1.2Answering Section B

4.1.3Answering Section B - Checklist of Techniques

4.1.4End of Topic Test - Writing Section

4.1.5Exam-Style Questions - Paper 1: Writing

5Paper 2: Reading

5.1DAFORESTER

5.1.1Direct Address

5.1.2Alliteration

5.1.3Facts

5.1.4Opinions

5.1.5Repetition

5.1.6Exaggeration (Hyperbole)

5.1.7Statistics

5.1.8Triples (Rule of 3)

5.1.9Emotive Language

5.1.10Rhetorical Questions

5.1.11End of Topic Test - DAFORESTER

5.2Structuring Your Answer

5.2.1Overview - Section A

5.2.2Answering Question 1

5.2.3Answering Question 2

5.2.4Answering Question 3

5.2.5Exam-Style Questions - Paper 2: Reading

5.2.6Answering Question 4

5.2.7End of Topic Test - Section A

5.2.8Exam-Style Questions - Paper 2: Reading

6Paper 2: Writing

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