Year 11 SACE English semester 2
What purpose does pathetic fallacy/weather serve in Hannah Kents, ‘Burial rights’?

Throughout ‘Burial Rights’ written by Hannah Kent, a novel set in Northern Iceland, 1829 showing the journey of a women being sent to death for the murder of two men. Throughout the novel every chapter begins with some sort of historical document whether it may be a letter or some sort of other file. These are placed in the text to show the real dates and people in the story as this text is based off a true story. The characters show many emotions through out and this is shown through the weather. Obviously because of what Agnes is experiencing in her life, having to wait for her death, she is in quite a negative mind set through …show more content…
After Agnes is mentally scared by witnessing the attempt to skin a dead carcass, she moves outside and starts feeling very down and negative, she describes the landscape around her as “The blue eventide seems to have crept up from the dark intestine of the river”. This shows how the characters describe the landscape and that their initial interpretation of the landscape often changes depending on what has just occurred or the mood that the character is in. After this event occurs, Margaret goes to comfort Agnes, this is a key point showing the growth of their relationship, in this section of the text, Agnes describes the weather as “The drizzle ceases. Snow begins to fall.” After Agnes and Margaret keep talking for a while and becoming closer their relationship grows and the description of the weather begins to have a much more positive tone, this shows that the weather is used in this text to show the relationship of these two characters.

The use of pathetic fallacy is greatly shown in this text to further show and represent the feelings and emotions of the characters. It is also used to foreshadow Agnes’ feelings throughout and is used very effectively in conveying this. In the way that weather is used by Hannah Kent it can show the growth of relationships but is mainly used to show how Agnes is feeling towards her upcoming