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Definition of Pathos
Pathos, along with logos and ethos, is one of the three "modes of persuasion" in rhetoric (the art of effective speaking or writing). Pathos is an argument that appeals to... read full definition
Pathos, along with logos and ethos, is one of the three "modes of persuasion" in rhetoric (the art of effective speaking or writing). Pathos is... read full definition
Pathos, along with logos and ethos, is one of the three "modes of persuasion" in rhetoric (the art of effective... read full definition
Chapter 4: The Fight
Explanation and Analysis—"Like a Old Dog" :
In a pathos-filled passage, Tess, an enslaved woman on the Weylin Plantation who serves, under coercion, as a “bed mate” for Tom Weylin, uses a simile that compares her position to that of “a[n] old dog”:
Poor Tess. Weylin had tired of her as a bed mate and passed her casually to Edwards. She had been afraid Edwards would send her to the fields where he could keep an eye on her. With Alice and I in the house, she knew she could be spared. She had cried with the fear that she would be spared. “You do everything they tell you,” she wept, “and they still treat you like a old dog. Go here, open your legs; go there, bust your back. What they care! I ain’t s’pose to have no feelin’s!”
Dana’s narration is punctuated with pathos as she acknowledges that “Poor Tess” has been passed from Tom to the cruel overseer, Edwards. Tess, she notes, is terrified that she will be sent from the house to the fields, where she will perform back-breaking labor under the constant supervision of Edwards. Describing her own unfortunate position, she states that the men treat her “like a old dog,” a simile that underscores the lack of compassion or sympathy that defines her relationship to the men who sexually assault her. Though Tess is terrified of Edwards, she would still prefer that he respect her feelings and offer her some of the courtesies of a genuine relationship.
Related Themes:
