Definition of pathetic fallacy in US English:
pathetic fallacy
nounpəˈθɛdɪk ˈfæləsipəˈTHedik ˈfaləsē
The attribution of human feelings and responses to inanimate things or animals, especially in art and literature.
Example sentencesExamples
- Such intelligence prevents any recourse to the pathetic fallacy.
- I question this, taking it to be nothing more than idle pathetic fallacy.
- The room had darkened, as if obeying the laws of pathetic fallacy.
- Of late he had a deeper understanding of pathetic fallacy as Ruskin had called it.
- Of course, thinking that the daffodils were actually extending a welcome to me is a pathetic fallacy.
- No pathetic fallacy here, nature remains impervious to human crises.
- Wordsworth in particular used the pathetic fallacy with great seriousness, not as a decorative device, but its use declined after Ruskin's formulation.
- Literary critics call it the pathetic fallacy: just as there's no such thing as a lonely mountain, there can be no such thing as a ‘selfish gene’.
- It is the pathetic fallacy made literal - Winston's thoughts really do appear in the world, are indistinguishable from it.
- This is not quite what Ruskin called the pathetic fallacy, that conviction of fellow-feeling between men and nature; it's more like the demonic fallacy.