What is "pathos" used to evoke in an audience?

Master AMSCO Literary Terms and Allusions Test. Enhance your literary skills with engaging flashcards and multiple choice questions. Equip yourself with tips and insights to ace the test now!

Pathos is a rhetorical device used to appeal to the emotions of an audience, intending to create feelings such as sympathy, sadness, or empathy. When a speaker or writer employs pathos, they aim to connect with the audience on an emotional level, allowing the audience to feel what the speaker is communicating. This emotional resonance can be crucial in persuading listeners or readers to accept a particular viewpoint or take action.

The other options reflect different rhetorical strategies or focuses that do not pertain to emotional engagement. Logical reasoning and evidence refer to logos, which relies on facts and logic to convince an audience. Technical language and terminology might be useful in specific fields of expertise but do not inherently invoke emotional responses. A sense of adventure and thrill may relate to specific themes in literature or storytelling, but it does not encapsulate the broader emotional spectrum that pathos aims to elicit. Thus, the correct answer accurately identifies that pathos is about creating emotional responses.

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