What is an example of bathos?
The previous sentence is an example of bathos: an abrupt turn from the serious and poetic to the regular and silly. Rather than likening the woman to a beautiful bird, she is compared, surprisingly, to a tired, old peacock.
What is bathos and pathos in literature?
But this wasn’t it.” The word bathos was coined by Alexander Pope in 1728 in his essay, Peri Bathous, from the Greek word bathos, which means depth. Pathos is a noun and a literary term that means to invoke deep or sentimental emotions or feelings in the reader, especially empathy, pity, sympathy, sorrow and longing.
What is the opposite of bathos?
Opposite of exaggerated and self-indulgent tenderness, sadness, or nostalgia. cynicism. Noun.
What is bathos technique?
bathos, (from Greek bathys, “deep”), unsuccessful, and therefore ludicrous, attempt to portray pathos in art, i.e., to evoke pity, sympathy, or sorrow. The term was first used in this sense by Alexander Pope in his treatise Peri Bathous; or, The Art of Sinking in Poetry (1728).
What is bathos in satire?
Today, bathos refers to rhetorical anticlimax—an abrupt transition from a lofty style or grand topic to a common or vulgar one—occurring either accidentally (through artistic ineptitude) or intentionally (for comic effect). Intentional bathos appears in satirical genres such as burlesque and mock epic.
Is bathos a figure of speech?
Bathos is a literary term derived from a Greek word meaning “depth.” Bathos is the act of a writer or a poet falling into inconsequential and absurd metaphors, descriptions, or ideas in an effort to be increasingly emotional or passionate.
What is bathos as a figure of speech?
Is bathos intentional or unintentional?
Bathos is a literary concept that can go in two directions based on intentionality. Unintentional bathos is usually grounds for a given work to be thoroughly lambasted. Audiences often find that the entire work is ruined by a bathetic ending, even if the rest of the story was well-written and compelling.
What is the effect of bathos?
Definition of Bathos Bathos is a sudden change of tone in a work of writing, usually from the sublime to the ridiculous. This may be done unintentionally, and creates a sappy, overly sentimental effect that is a mark of amateur writing.
Is bathos figure of speech?
What is bathos in writing?
In literary criticism, bathos is a sudden change in speech or writing from a serious or important subject to a ridiculous or very ordinary one. [technical] Synonyms: anticlimax, disappointment, sentimentality, letdown More Synonyms of bathos.
What is the difference between bathos and pathos in literature?
Pathos is a feeling of pity and suffering. Bathos is an effect of anticlimax created by a lapse in mood from the sublime to the trivial or ridiculous. Therefore, bathos has a more complex meaning than pathos. What is the difference between Pathos and Bathos?
What is pathos?
The quality or property of anything which touches the feelings or excites emotions and passions, especially that which awakens tender emotions, such as pity, sorrow, and the like; contagious warmth of feeling, action, or expression; pathetic quality. His voice had a genuine pathos now, and his large brown hands perceptibly trembled.
What does it mean to commit bathos?
You commit bathos if, for example, you ruin a stately speech by ending it with some tasteless anecdote. The adjective is bathetic, like pathetic, the adjective for pathos, the Greek word for suffering. Bathos is commonly misused as the equivalent of ‘sloppy sentimentality.'”
What is the synonym of bathos?
Synonyms of the word bathos that may be found in a thesaurus are anticlimax, letdown, mawkishness. Bathos is usually a transgression performed by poor writers, though bathos may be used by comedy writers to great effect. Consider the Groucho Marx quote: “I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it.”