After all, it’s not enough just to notice features like pathetic fallacy, or similes, or metaphors, or any other technique. In fact, it’s a bad habit to simply look for these features and point them out without analysing them. We call this “feature spotting”. Instead, you need to be able to know what those techniques are doing there and why the writer might have used them.
So, I asked my class my three tried and tested questions that always help me to decide what a feature is doing:
1. What does this (in this case, the pathetic fallacy) suggest or imply about the storm?
It implies that the storm is aggressive, incredibly strong and hostile to the people on the mountain.
2. How does this make the reader feel?
It makes them feel afraid for those people trapped on the mountain, and it primes them to expect danger and loss of life.
3. Why did the writer (in this case Dickinson) want the reader to feel that way?
Dickinson was an eyewitness to the storm and to the disaster. He wants the reader to feel transported to those terrifying moments on the mountain, to feel helpless and attacked by the storm. He wants to convey a sense of fear and hostility to the reader.
So, pathetic fallacy helps Dickinson to create the effect he wants. As human beings, we are more likely to feel a sense of danger, tension and fear if we envisage the thing attacking us as having a will of its own (otherwise known as agency).
Take a look at the quick worksheet below, containing a definition of pathetic fallacy, some examples and a short extract containing the technique. Underneath the extract, you’ll see I have included my three questions for you to practise answering yourself!