Need help with "Pathetic Fallacy"

[ArcaNiNe]

I currently have to write an essay comparing techniques used in Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. I'm not 100% sure if this passage in Frankeinstein illuminates pathetic fallacy:

"Autumn passed thus. I saw, with surprise and grief, the leaves decay and fall, and nature again assume the barren and bleak appearance it had worn when I first beheld the woods and the lovely moon."

Could it be a pathetic fallacy because the creature's reaction to autumn reflects how incapable he is of knowing the normality of seasons? Or... am I off the map here.

Thanks in advance.

[edit: first time posting on these forums, so sorry if I've posted in the wrong sub-forum]

[Veho]

Hmm, I might be off the map here too, but I would say nature assuming and wearing 'the barren and bleak appearance' would be pathetic fallacy.

[blank|verse]

I'd agree. There's always a fine line between pathetic fallacy and personification, but you could argue for PF here quite comfortably.

A definition of PF I have is: 'any representation of inanimate natural objects that ascribes to them human capabilities, sensations and emotions' - so you could clearly state that is what is happening with Shelley's description of nature in the Frankenstein extract.

So it is the description: "nature again assume the barren and bleak appearance it had worn" not anything to do with the creature's reaction that makes it PF, just make sure you understand the difference.

Hope that helps.

[AuntShecky]

(I tried posting to this thread earlier, but the site disappeared on me.)

I only wanted to add to the reply of Blank Verse above in that the term "pathetic fallacy" originated in 1856 from the critic John Rushkin. It wasn't so much personification (as in Blank Verse's definition above) that he objected to but the instances where the metaphor went overboard. (I think of the "pathetic fallacy" as personification or anthropomorphism on steroids), such as (I'm quoting the Oxford Companion here)Wordsworth's "faith that every flower enjoyed the air it breathed." Because Wordsworth and (P.) Shelley were fond of using metaphors that seemed to be examples of "pathetic fallacy," Rushkin
thought them to be lesser artists than Shakespeare, who used the device sparingly.

Later poets and authors are for the most part naturalistic and realistic, yet still try to achieve a kind of communality with nature and creation.

As far as the pathetic fallacy committed by Mary Shelley in Frankenstein: she wrote the novel in a competition among her husband and others. There is a slight possibility that she was mocking her spouse's exaggerated description of nature, but her writing style was heavily influenced by the florid depictions of nature by Wordsworth and his contemporaries. Also, this is a so-called "Gothic" novel, and thus everything, not just the sensational aspects, would be emphasized. Not only that, the creature whom Dr. F. constructs was originally supposed to be a "superhuman," thus aspects of the human being would be included, even in their grotesquely wayward details.

PS. I don't think the passage from the novel you
cited is an example of pathetic fallacy. The term pathetic fallacy applies to a non-human object,when the natural object is said to act like a human being such as "the skies wept." The passage you cite shows a human or quasi-human reaction to autumn.

[ArcaNiNe]

Thanks for the replies, they were [all] helpful.

[kelby_lake]

Pathetic fallacy is when the surroundings of a character reflect their inner state. A very basic example is heavy rain outside when a character is depressed.

The passage you posted isn't pathetic fallacy as he is merely observing the weather.

[ArcaNiNe]

hmm alright I'm convinced that it isn't PF now, but I could very well argue personification right?

[myrna22]

Pathetic fallacy is when the surroundings of a character reflect their inner state. A very basic example is heavy rain outside when a character is depressed.

The passage you posted isn't pathetic fallacy as he is merely observing the weather.

Agree.

Pathetic fallacy differs from simple personification in that pathetic fallacy reflects the mood of the character.

JANE EYRE has many examples of pathetic fallacy. For example, the morning after Rochester proposes to her, Jane describes the morning thus: "rooks cawed, and blither birds sang." Her mood, she describes as "jubliee." Later, as the wedding draws near, she feels "feeverish" with anticipation but also a sense of unease, a "restless, excited mood." This expresses her feelings as well as foreshadowing what will happen. She "sought the orchard: driven to its shelter by the wind, which all day had blown strong and full from the south; without, however bringing a speck of rain. Instead of subsiding as night drew on, it seemed to augment its rush and deepen its roar; the trees blew steadfastly one way, never writhing round, and scarcely tossing back their boughs once in an hour; so continuous was the strain bending their branchy heads northward--the clouds drifted from pole to pole, fast following, mass on mass: no glimpse of blue sky had been visible that July day.

It was not without a certain wild pleasure I ran before the wind delivering my trouble of mind to the measureless air-torrent thundering through space."

The personification of the wind and the trees which reflects Jane's mood is pathetic fallacy.


“Pathetic fallacy
The assignment of human feelings to inanimate objects, as coined by the Victorian literary critic John Ruskin. For him, a poet’s tendency to project his or her emotions outward onto the workings of the natural world was a kind of false vision. Today the term is used more neutrally, and the phenomenon is usually accepted as an integral part of the poet’s craft. It is related to personification and anthropomorphism, but emphasizes the relationship between the poet’s emotional state and what he or she sees in the object or objects.

For instance, in William Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” the speaker sees a field of daffodils “tossing their heads in a sprightly dance,” outdoing the nearby lake’s sparkling waves with their “glee.” The speaker, in times of solitude and introspection, is heartened by memories of the flowers’ joy.”
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/learning/glossary-term.html?term=Pathetic%20fallacy