A rhetorical appeal that evokes emotions, particularly pity, sympathy, or compassion, to persuade an audience. In literature and art, pathos creates emotional connection between the work and its audience.
From Greek 'pathos' meaning 'suffering,' 'experience,' or 'emotion,' from 'paschein' (to suffer or experience). Aristotle identified pathos as one of three modes of persuasion alongside ethos and logos in his 'Rhetoric.'
Pathos is why we cry at movies or feel outraged by injustice in novels—it's the emotional bridge between art and audience! Greek tragedians mastered pathos to create catharsis, but modern advertisers use the same techniques when they show sad puppies to sell pet insurance.
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