The Great Gatsby : Pathetic Fallacy

1. The Great Gatsby: Pathetic Fallacy

2. Figurative Language: Personification PERSONIFICATION: When inanimate objects or ideas are given qualities as if they were alive. It could also be when animals are given human qualities. • The pencil flew out of my hand. In this example, the writer is using figurative language to show that it felt like the pencil sprung from her hand. The pencil is not actually flying. • The wind howled through the trees. • The car died of exhaustion.

3. OnEstep further… • What emotions are traditionally associated with the following types of weather? • Rain • Thunderstorm • Sunny • Heat Wave • Mist/Fog

4. Figurative Language: Pathetic Fallacy • Term coined by critic John Ruskin in 1856. • He created the term in order to attack the sentimental over-use of emotion found in the poetry of the late 18th Century • Uses Charles Kingsley’s poem, The Sands of Dee to demonstrate "They rowed her in across the rolling foam - The cruel, crawling foam“ • Ruskin then points out “The foam is not cruel, neither does it crawl. The state of mind which attributes to it these characters of a living creature is one in which the reason is unhinged by grief.” Yet Ruskin did not disapprove of Kingsley’s use of the pathetic fallacy: • “Now so long as we see that the feeling is true, we pardon, or are even pleased by, the confessed fallacy of sight which it induces: we are pleased, for instance, with those lines of Kingsley's, above quoted, not because they fallaciously describe foam, but because they faithfully describe sorrow.” (Ruskin, John (1856). "Of the Pathetic Fallacy". Modern Painters,. volume iii. pt. 4.)

5. Figurative Language: Pathetic Fallacy • When the author ascribes the human feelings of one or more of his/her characters to non-human objects or nature or phenomena. • Examples: • "The fruitful field / Laughs with abundance"—William Cowper • "Nature must be gladsome when I was so happy"—Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë • Example: Friends • Joey and Chandler get in a fight and Chandler moves out. However, the two grow lonely and miss each other having been roommates for many years. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilIwu1NTxqs&feature=player_embedded

6. Pathetic Fallacy: Luhrmann’sRomeo + Juliet • Heat Wave • Emotion: anger, animosity, quick tempers, confusion • Why: represents the feud between the two houses; foreshadows the civil brawl that is about to ensue • Thunderstorm • Emotion: threatening, anticipation, cool “calm before the storm” • Why: represents the feud between the two houses; foreshadows the civil brawl that is about to ensue • Rain • Emotion: sadness, grief, fear, frustration, catharsis/clarity • Why: Romeo grieves Mercutio’s death, Romeo understands the implications that Tybalt’s death has on Romeo and Juliet’s relationship

7. as you read: • Watch out for descriptions of weather and consider these descriptions in light of what you just learned about pathetic fallacy.