In literature, pathetic repetition is a special usage of repetition, in which the desired effect is one of desperation or futility. Consider the following lines of Ovid's Metamorphoses:

at pater infelix, nec iam pater, "Icare," dixit,
"Icare," dixit "ubi es? qua te regione requiram?
Icare" dicebat ...

Or, for you non-Latin speakers,

But the unlucky father, now no longer a father, said, "Icarus, Icarus, where are you? Where shall I look for you? Icarus?"

Here, Daedalus's cries of woe are augmented by his repetition of his son's name.