Main Difference
The main difference between Bathos and Pathos is that the Bathos is a literary term for anticlimax of amusing failed attempts at sublimity, or pathos and Pathos is a rhetorical device.
Bathos
Bathos ( BAY-thoss; Greek: βάθος, lit. “depth”) is a literary term, coined by Alexander Pope in his 1727 essay “Peri Bathous”, to describe amusingly failed attempts at sublimity (i.e., pathos). In particular, bathos is associated with anticlimax, an abrupt transition from a lofty style or grand topic to a common or vulgar one. This may be either accidental (through artistic ineptitude) or intentional (for comic effect). Intentional bathos appears in satirical genres such as burlesque and mock epic. “Bathos” or “bathetic” is also used for similar effects in other branches of the arts, such as musical passages marked ridicolosamente. In film, bathos may appear in a contrast cut intended for comic relief or be produced by an accidental jump cut.
Pathos
Pathos (, US: ; plural: pathea; Greek: πάθος, for “suffering” or “experience”; adjectival form: pathetic from παθητικός) appeals to the emotions of the audience and elicits feelings that already reside in them. Pathos is a communication technique used most often in rhetoric (in which it is considered one of the three modes of persuasion, alongside ethos and logos), as well as in literature, film, and other narrative art.
Emotional appeal can be accomplished in many ways, such as the following:
by a metaphor or storytelling, commonly known as a hook;
by passion in the delivery of the speech or writing, as determined by the audience; and
by personal anecdote.
Bathos (noun)
Overdone or treacly attempts to inspire pathos.
Bathos (noun)
Depth.
Bathos (noun)
Risible failure on the part of a work of art to properly affect its audience, particularly owing to
Bathos (noun)
anticlimax: an abrupt transition in style or subject from high to low.
Bathos (noun)
banality: unaffectingly cliché or trite treatment of a topic.
Bathos (noun)
immaturity: lack of serious treatment of a topic.
Bathos (noun)
The ironic use of such failure for satiric or humorous effect.
Bathos (noun)
A nadir, a low point particularly in one’s career.
Pathos (noun)
The quality or property of anything which touches the feelings or excites emotions and passions, especially that which awakens tender emotions, such as pity, sorrow, and the like; contagious warmth of feeling, action, or expression; pathetic quality.
Pathos (noun)
A writer or speaker’s attempt to persuade an audience through appeals involving the use of strong emotions such as pity.
Pathos (noun)
An author’s attempt to evoke a feeling of pity or sympathetic sorrow for a character.
Pathos (noun)
In theology and existentialist ethics following Kierkegaard and Heidegger, a deep and abiding commitment of the heart, as in the notion of “finding your passion” as an important aspect of a fully lived, engaged life.
Pathos (noun)
Suffering; the enduring of active stress or affliction.
Pathos (noun)
a quality that evokes pity or sadness
“the actor injects his customary humour and pathos into the role”