Pathos
Crime and Punishment
by Fyodor Dostoevsky
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Crime and Punishment: Pathos 1 key example

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

Key Examples in Crime and Punishment

Part 5, Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—What a Heart She Has:

At the funeral dinner for her husband Semyen Marmeladov, his widowed wife Katerina Ivanovna—fatally afflicted with tuberculosis—wields pathos in defense of her stepdaughter Sonya, who has been falsely accused by Luzhin of stealing money from his room. 

“Sonya! Sonya! I don’t believe them! You see I don’t believe them!” Katerina Ivanovna cried [...] “You still don’t know what a heart she has, what a girl she is! As if she would take anything! Why, she’d strip off her last dress and sell it, and go barefoot, and give everything to you if you needed it—that’s how she is! She got a yellow pass because my children were perishing from hunger, she sold herself for us!…Ah, husband, husband! Ah, my poor, dead husband! Do you see? Do you see? Here’s your memorial meal! Lord! But defend her!”