On Newton's Third Law

The pillow is not a solid object. It moves with the hand and absorbs the energy over a longer period of time.

If an object of weight W rests on a table, the table reacts with an upward force of W. If the table is very strong, the deflection is not noticeable.

If an object of weight W rests on a pillow, the pillow compresses, but when the object finally comes to rest, the pillow reacts with an upward force of W. The deflection may be substantial and the pillow is noticeably deformed, but the reaction is the same as it was on the rigid table.

@ ChaoticIntellect

Well explained. So wouldn't the explaination (if I actually understood it correctly) also lead us to infer that its quiet difficult (or impossible) for our hand to apply above a certain force to the pillow due its material nature?

Btw, thanks to all of you

If the load is static, there is no limit to its magnitude. It simply compresses the pillow until it comes to rest.

If the load is dynamic, there is an impact upon collision. The impact will feel more painful on a hard table than a soft pillow because the pillow acts as a shock absorber causing a slower deceleration as stated by lynlynch.

How is this explained in terms of Newton's laws? After all a compressing collision in terms of the pillow, is a collision too.