Pathetic Fallacy

Objective: To understand how and why writers use Pathetic Fallacy

Read this extract from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. What is the weather like? How is the narrator feeling? “Morning, dismal and wet, at length dawned…The porter opened the gates and I issued into the streets, pacing them with quick steps, drenched by the rain which poured from a black and comfortless sky.”

What is Pathetic Fallacy? The weather reflects a character’s emotions. The writer makes a connection between human emotion and the appearance of the landscape or the behaviour of the weather. It is as if the environment shares human emotions or is somehow aware of people. E.g. Lovers meet in sunshine; a teenager is thrown out of home in a rain storm.

Development If you had to describe your day so far, what genre would it be? (e.g. horror, comedy, romance, etc.) What type of weather would your day be?

Write the events of your day so far as the opening scene of a short story. Use creative language and pathetic fallacy No more than 50 words E.g. ‘It was a dark and windy morning and the sun had not yet risen…’ E.g. ‘The sun rose gloriously and the breeze was gentle…’

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/education/id/1297192/index.html