In literature and the arts, bathos (UK: /ˈbɛθɒs/ BAY-thoss; Ancient Greek: βάθος, meaning "depth") is a technique where a grand or formal style is used to describe simple, silly, or unimportant topics. This can also happen when a serious tone suddenly shifts to something trivial, creating humor. Today, bathos can occur by mistake (due to poor artistic skill) or on purpose as a tool to make people laugh. Originally, it described an amusing failure to achieve artistic greatness and was first discussed in this way by Alexander Pope in his 1727 essay "Peri Bathous." Intentional bathos is often found in satirical works like burlesque and mock epic. The term "bathos" or "bathetic" is also used in other art forms, such as music, where passages are marked "ridicolosamente" (meaning "ridiculously"). In film, bathos may appear through a sudden contrast cut meant for humor or accidentally through a jump cut.
Alexander Pope's definition
The term "bathos" was first used by Alexander Pope in his essay Peri Bathous, or the Art of Sinking in Poetry (1727). This work was a humorous imitation of Longinus’s Peri Hupsous (On the Sublime), which discussed how poetry could be grand or impressive. Pope’s essay mocked contemporary poets while also criticizing those who supported "dunces," or poorly educated writers.
Pope’s essay was inspired by Boileau’s Treatise of the Sublime (1712), which explained how poetry could rise to greatness. However, Pope’s rival, Leonard Welsted, had falsely claimed to translate Longinus’s work when he actually translated Boileau. Pope responded by writing Peri Bathous to challenge this false version of the "sublime." While Boileau described how poetry could be awe-inspiring, Pope created a detailed guide on how poetry could "sink" or fail, especially in works by writers who supported Ambrose Philips, a poet who had long been at odds with Pope.
Pope also linked "bathos" to love after marriage, which he said was very different from the "sublime" but still had political meaning. Edmund Burke, a later writer, was influenced by Pope’s ideas about love and used them in his own work, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1756).
An example of Pope’s humor appears in his description of painting. In art, still life was considered the lowest type of painting. Pope joked that even this low genre could fail, using the word "stiffen" to describe lifeless, unnatural art:
"Many Painters who could never hit a Nose or an Eye, have with Felicity copied a Small-Pox, or been admirable at a Toad or a Red-Herring. And seldom are we without Genius’s for Still Life, which they can work up and stiffen with incredible Accuracy."
In chapters X and XI of Peri Bathous, Pope explained how humor could be created by using common speech patterns and figures of speech.
Although Pope’s essay lists many ways to write poorly, the most famous method is combining serious topics with trivial ones. This mix breaks rules about what is appropriate for a subject and creates humor through unexpected contrasts.
Since Pope’s time, the word "bathos" has sometimes been confused with "pathos" (which means sadness or pity) and has been used to describe art or events that are both sad and funny.
When artists intentionally mix serious and trivial ideas, the result is surreal humor or absurdity. However, when the mix happens by accident—such as a filmmaker trying to make a scene scary but instead making it silly—the result is bathos.
Some forms of kitsch, like using serious art subjects in trivial ways (such as printing Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper on tea towels), also express bathos.
A type of enjoyment called "camp," described by Susan Sontag in 1964, involves appreciating the strange or unintentional qualities of bathos.
Pope’s idea of bathos can be seen in a humorous line from a sign:
"This is the greatest Elephant in the World, except Himself."
Years before Pope used the term, John Dryden had written about a grand scene in his play Albion and Albanius (1684–85), which included a cave decorated with shells and sea views.
Pope used this type of humor in his poem The Rape of the Lock, where a character is upset about the death of a pet dog instead of a lover. Søren Kierkegaard later used a similar idea in his book The Sickness Unto Death, suggesting that losing a small item, like a dog, could feel more painful than losing a limb. When used intentionally, this is satire. When it happens without meaning to, it is bathos.
In 1764, William Hogarth created a final engraving titled The Bathos, or the Manner of Sinking in Sublime Paintings, which showed Father Time exhausted in a scene of destruction. This work mocked the popularity of "sublime" art at the time and also hinted at Hogarth’s own death six months later.