Difference between personification and pathetic fallacy

[claig]

Can any English experts explain what the distinction between personification and pathetic fallacy is? Also what does atmospheric description mean in an English passage? Is it to do with nature or something else?

Not sure about your second q as that sounds fairly self explanatory

but pathetic fallacy is using description of the weather or whatever to mirror the feelings that are occurring in the characters, or the atmosphere or somesuch thing

It's a bit like the howling wind on the moor when Heathcliff is going nuts

that sort of thing.

while personification is about crediting something inanimate with human attributes. I think, it's been a while...

excellent, thanks IngridBergman. I've spent a few "pleasant" hours googling like mad and what you say about pathetic fallacy does come up i.e. the weather, mood, atmosphere etc. But then there is also an alternative that comes up about John Ruskin etc., where they give examples like the "the crying wind". But isn't the crying wind just personification?

I would say the crying wind was personification, yes. It's very similar to PF but a pretty direct form of it, it can be part of PF but isn't it fully iyswim - it's a contributing thing. So you might for instance say 'Juliette heard the crying wind outside as she focused on her sewing, trying to keep Marcus from interrupting her thoughts.'

That would be using the pathetic fallacy. The personification is just part of how it is done. (confusing self, too, it's not just you)

Thanks. That's how I have come to understand it, as a subset of personification - a special type of personification.

Yes that's sort of it. I'd say it's quite hard to differentiate between them but one is sometimes used within the other. You can have the pathetic fallacy quite happily without any personification being used.

The rain set early in tonight,
The sullen wind was soon awake,
It tore the elm-tops down for spite,
and did its worst to vex the lake:
I listened with heart fit to break.
When glided in Porphyria; straight
She shut the cold out and the storm,
And kneeled and made the cheerless grate
Blaze up, and all the cottage warm...

Good example of pathetic fallacy from Browning's 'Porphyria's Lover' - the speaker is a touch disturbed and later goes on to strangle Porphyria. So the pathetic fallacy of the weather in the opening lines mirrors the speaker's mood. Browning also uses personification in the 'sullen wind' tearing the elms down 'for spite' - obviously wind cannot feel either emotion but it helps reflect the speaker's disturbed state of mind.

Thanks, the CowardlyLion. I have never read any poetry, can't even remember doing it at school. But I am starting to really get into it. I will have to buy an anthology of some sort soon.

For instance, 'Nigel continued his journey through the winding roads and as he drove, the sky seemed to come in around him. The clouds hung heavily, and it grew dark. He knew he had to turn back and make things right but he felt impelled by his guilt to keep driving.'

that sort of thing...no personification but still PF. It wouldn't normally be so blatant but I put in the second bit about how he was feeling to show you what I was doing with the weather, iyswim. You might already know how dreadful Nigel was feeling so the author wouldn't need to spell it out, depending on the prior context.

great, so is it a reflection of someone's mood (necessarily a person?) through the external atmosphere of inanimate things such as nature?

Yes, and I think necessarily a person or people.

great, thanks