pathos
- Noun:
- A quality that evokes pity, sadness, or tender emotion: "Pathos" refers to the quality in a situation, person's experience, or artistic work that makes people feel pity, sadness, or sympathy.
- A style or element intended to evoke such feelings: "Pathos" can also describe a method of expression or a quality in speech, writing, or art designed to stir these emotions in an audience.
- Noun:
- The novel's pathos lies in the protagonist's lonely struggle.
- The speaker used pathos effectively, moving the audience to tears with stories of hardship.
- There is a deep pathos in the photographs of the abandoned village.
"To appeal to pathos": A rhetorical strategy where a speaker or writer tries to persuade an audience by eliciting emotions such as pity, sympathy, or sorrow.
- The charity advertisement appealed to pathos by showing images of suffering children.
"Pathos and bathos": A contrast often discussed in literary criticism. While "pathos" evokes genuine and dignified pity, "bathos" is a sudden shift from a serious tone to a ludicrous or trivial one, often creating an unintended comedic effect.
- The movie aimed for pathos but sometimes descended into bathos with its overly sentimental dialogue.
Pathetic (adj): Arousing pity, especially through vulnerability or sadness. (Note: In informal use, it can mean miserably inadequate or contemptible).
- The lost dog gave a pathetic whimper.
Empathy (n): The ability to understand and share the feelings of another. (While related, empathy involves shared feeling, whereas pathos is the quality that evokes the feeling).
- Her empathy allowed her to connect deeply with the client's distress.
- Pity: The feeling of sorrow and compassion caused by the suffering of others.
- Poignancy: The quality of evoking a keen sense of sadness or regret.
- Plaintiveness: A mournful or melancholy quality.
"Sheer pathos": Used to emphasize the pure and powerful emotional quality of something.
- The final scene was one of sheer pathos.
"A sense of pathos": A common collocation describing the perception or feeling of this quality.
- The crumbling mansion had a sense of pathos about it.
- "To pull at the heartstrings": To evoke strong feelings of pity or sympathy, similar to creating pathos.
- The documentary about the refugees really pulled at the heartstrings.
- a style that has the power to evoke feelings
- a feeling of sympathy and sorrow for the misfortunes of others
- the blind are too often objects of pity
- a quality that arouses emotions (especially pity or sorrow)
- the film captured all the pathos of their situation