In Shuttlecock, Prentis inquires of his wife: "Marian," I say
(she is still talking to her plants), "do you believe in the
pathetic fallacy? That it's really a fallacy, I mean?" (p.215)
These two sentences form an entire chapter of Shuttlecock.
According to the Reader's Encyclopedia, Second Edition (Thomas
Y. Crowell Co., 1965), the pathetic fallacy is: A phrase
invented by John Ruskin to designate the illusion that external
objects seem actuated by human feelings, particularly when one
is under great emotional strain. Thus when a poet is tormented
by grief, he is apt to ascribe to inanimate nature either
sympathy or heartless cruelty. Tennyson's "In Memoriam,"
Shelly's "Adonais," and other elegies are especially noteworthy
for eloquent effects gained by the use of the pathetic fallacy.
How is this important in Shuttlecock? Is the pathetic fallacy
important in Waterland? How about in Great Expectations? For the
pathetic fallacy to be active, the author must first invoke some
form of description (of Nature?) (