There are many examples in Shakespeare's King Lear, such as Cordelia's acceptance of defeat:
"We are not the first / Who with best meaning have incurred the worst."
Pathos which seems excessive or exaggerated becomes melodramatic or sentimental, and when its disproportion to its subject results from anticlimax, pathos becomes bathetic. Modern tastes usually prefer pathetic effects achieved through understatement and suggestion, rather than an extended focus upon suffering, though some movies still attract large audiences by offering a good cry.