Confuzzled

[katyhasclogs]

Can anyone help me out with a definition of pathetic fallacy?

I always thought it was (among other things) when the weather reflected the mood of a person or story, and I'm sure that was what I was taught at school, but the Wikipedia entry seems to indicate it's more like what I would refer to as personification...

Comments

[godricgal]

My Brewers's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable says:

"A term coined by John Ruskin...to describe the figure of speech that attributes human feelings to nature. Ruskin claimed that a writer was pathetically fallacious when he ascribed such feelings to the inanimate. "

Example: "The one read leaf, the last of its clan,
That dances as often as dance it can."

I've never heard of it before, but by that explanation, I would say that 'the weather reflected the mood of a person or story' is an example, rather than a definition.

[katyhasclogs]

Looking at all the different definitions, I get the impression that the weather reflecting the mood is only an example of pathetic fallacy in particular circumstances, i.e. if the weather is described as cruel or miserable or cheerful, rather than the weather conditions just seeming appropriate for the situation.

Whereas I'd always thought it was the latter, and the difference is so nuanced I can sort of see how it could be a common misunderstanding.

[vnfan]

Wikipedia does classify it, further down, as a form of personification.

It also looks as if Ruskin was limiting it to emotive expression on the part of inanimate objects, rather than just sentient action (mountains shouting and trees having wisdom and stuff like that).

[katyhasclogs]

Yeah, it does look like it's a very particular sort of personification.

What's really weird is that I don't seem to be the only person to have thought it was something different - I guess either the meaning's become twisted or it's a common misunderstanding.