T.s eliot theory of objective correlative

Literary Criticism II
ENG- 332
Lecture No: 15
“T.S Eliot’s Theory of Objective Correlative”
Course: Literary Criticism II- ENG- 332 – Instructor: Siraj Khan, Lecturer in English, Department of English KUST- Email: siraj.khan@kust.edu.pk
By: Siraj Khan
Lecturer in English
KUST

What the Thunder said?
Here is no water but only rock
Rock and no water and the sandy road
The road winding above among the mountains which are
mountains of rock without water.”
Topic: T.S Eliot’s Theory of Objective Correlative
Course: Literary Criticism II ENG- 332 – Instructor: Siraj Khan, Lecturer in English, Department of English KUST- Email: siraj.khan@kust.edu.pk

Outlines
Poet’s Biography
Eliot’s Critical Concepts
Theory of Objective Correlative
Hamlet and his problems
Poetic Process
Remarks

T. S Eliot
(September 26, 1888– January 04, 1965 )
American born British Poet, Essayist, Literary Critic,
Dramatist, Publisher and editor
 Eliot is one of the greatest literary critics of England
from the point of view of his critical writings. His five
hundred essays occasionally published as reviews and
articles had a far-reaching influence on literary criticism
in the country.
 His criticism was revolutionary which inverted the
critical tradition of the whole English speaking work.

Objective Correlative
 For Eliot, the “Objective Correlative” is a pattern of
objects, events, actions or a situation that can serve
effectively to awaken in the reader an emotional
response without being a direct statement of that
subjective emotion.
• The theory of the ‘objective correlative’ is one of the
most important critical concepts of T.S. Eliot. It exerted a
tremendous influence on the critical temper of twentieth
century. In the concept of the ‘objective correlative’,
Eliot’s doctrine of poetic impersonality finds its most
classic formulation.

• Eliot himself defines ‘objective correlative’ as “a set of
objects, a situation, a chain of events, which shall be
the formula” for the poet’s emotion so that “when the
external facts are given the emotion is at once evoked.”
• According to Eliot, the poet cannot communicate his
emotions directly to the readers, he has to find some
object, suggestive of it and only then he can evoke the
same emotion in his readers.
• So this ‘objective correlative’ is “a set of objects, a
situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula
of that particular emotion; such that when the external
facts, which must terminate in sensory experience, are
given, the emotion is immediately evoked.”

• Like Aristotle, Eliot is of the opinion that it is
not the business of the poet to ‘say’ but to
‘show’, not to present but to represent. In other
words, Eliot’s concept of the objective
correlative is based on the notion that it is not
the business of the poet to present his emotions
directly but rather to represent them indirectly
through the ‘objective correlative’ which
become the formula for the poet’s original
emotions.

• One of the reasons why Eliot admires Dante’s poetry
is that Dante’s was ‘a visual imagination,’ because he
attempted ‘to make us see what he saw,’ because he
did not lose his grasp over ‘the objective correlative.’
• If writers or poets or playwrights want to create an
emotional reaction in the audience, they must find a
combination of images, objects, or description
evoking the appropriate emotion. The source of the
emotional reaction isn't in one particular object, one
particular image, or one particular word. Instead, the
emotion originates in the combination of these
phenomena when they appear together.

• From the essay Hamlet and his problems
• “the only way of expressing emotion in the form of
art”
• Objective correlative- “a set of objects, a situation, a
chain of events which shall be the formula of that
particular emotion”
• Emotional reaction doesn’t get stimulated from one
particular object/image/word
• It originates in the combination of these when they
appear together

Objective Correlative
• Objective correlative acts as a medium for the poet
to transmit his emotions to the reader in an
objective way
• Work of art as an artifact; an organic whole
• Successful instance of objective correlative: Sleep
Walking scene in Macbeth
• Hamlet; an artistic failure; lacks objective
correlative

Sleep Walking Scene in Macbeth

Critical Concepts
• Eliot devised numerous critical concepts that gained wide
popularity and has a broad influence on criticism. ‘Objective
co-relative’, ‘Dissociation of sensibility’, ‘Unification of
sensibility’ are few of Eliot works hotly debated by critics.
• His comments on the nature of Poetic Drama and the relation
between poetry and drama have done much to bring about a
revival of Poetic
• Drama in the modern age. Even if he had written no poetry, he
wouldhave made his mark as a distinguished and subtle
(shrewd) critic.

• Eliot’s views on the nature of poetic process are equally
revolutionary.
• According to him, poetry is not inspiration, it is organization. The
poet’s mind is like a vessel in which are stored numerous feelings,
emotions and experiences. The poetic process fuses these distinct
experiences and emotions into new wholes.
• In his most famous critical essay "Tradition and the Individual
Talent", Eliot argues that art must be understood not in a vacuum,
but in the context of previous pieces of art. Eliot himself employed
this concept on many of his works, especially on his long-poem
The Waste Land.
The Nature of Poetic Process

Remarks
• If writers or poets or playwrights want to create an
emotional reaction in the audience, they must find
a combination of images, objects, or description
evoking the appropriate emotion. The source of
the emotional reaction isn't in one particular
object, one particular image, or one particular
word. Instead, the emotion originates in the
combination of these phenomena when they
appear together.

GOOD LUCK

T.s eliot theory of objective correlative

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