
Definition of objective correlative : something (such as a situation or chain of events) that symbolizes or objectifies a particular emotion and that may be used in creative writing to evoke a desired emotional response in the reader Examples of objective correlative in a Sentence
What is the objective correlative in writing?
What is the Objective Correlative? The objective correlative is a fantastic technique that you can use to create emotion in your writing. It empowers writers to move away from abstraction (i.e. using direct words like angry, sad, or afraid, which are abstract to the reader) and color a character’s emotion with imagery, metaphor, and meaning.
Who coined the term objective correlative art?
Though not given worldwide attention by T.S. Eliot - the American-British author, essayist, and literary critic - until 1919 in his article 'Hamlet and His Problems,' the term 'objective correlative' was first used by American painter and poet Washington Allston to describe artistic relationships to emotion sometime around 1840.
What happens when writer fails to find objective correlatives for emotions?
According to Eliot, when writer fails to find objective correlatives for the emotions they wish to convey, readers or audiences are left unconvinced, unmoved, or even confused.
What is correlative theory according to Santayana?
Santayana suggested that correlative objects could not only express a poet’s feeling but also evoke it. Critics have argued that Eliot’s idea was influenced, as was much of Eliot’s work, by the poetics of Ezra Pound and that the theory dates at least to the criticism of Edgar Allan Poe.

How do you use objective correlative in a sentence?
The lazy summer scene was a very poor objective correlative to my current mood of leaping anxiety and jangled suspense.
Who introduced the term objective correlative?
objective correlative, literary theory first set forth by T.S. Eliot in the essay “Hamlet and His Problems” and published in The Sacred Wood (1920).
What is objective correlative in Hamlet and his problems?
The objective correlative concept that Eliot popularized in this essay refers to the concept that the only way to express an emotion through art is to find "a set of objects, a situation, [or] a chain of events" that will, when read or performed, evoke a specific sensory experience in the audience.
Is objective correlative a technique?
Objective correlative is a technique where the character never tells the reader what she is feeling. Instead she evokes that feeling through sensory experiences and description of her environment.
Why is objective correlative important?
The objective correlative's purpose is to express the character's emotions by showing rather than describing feelings as discussed earlier by Plato and referred to by Peter Barry in his book Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory as "...
What is objective theory in literature?
Objective theory is the literary theory which deals with a literary work itself. The literary researcher focuses the analysis in the intrinsic elements or the element that build up the literary work itself.
Who is famous for objective correlative?
The theory of the objective correlative, as Eliot uses the term, has its roots in 'Hamlet and his Problems', one of T. S. Eliot's most important and influential essays. It was first published in 1919.
What are the main problems of Hamlet?
Hamlet has the problem of procrastination and cannot act from emotions due to a lack of self-discipline. He is a man of reason and denies emotions so that his search for the truth of whether Claudius killed his father is satisfied.
What is objective correlative in tradition and individual talent?
In "Hamlet and His Problems" Eliot presents the phrase "objective correlative." The theory is that the expression of emotion in art can be achieved by a specific, and almost formulaic, prescription of a set of objects, including events and situations.
What is objective correlative in the Lovesong of J Alfred Prufrock?
Hence, from the starting lines of the poem Prufrock inserts the images of his discontentment, awkwardness, hesitation, alienation and debasement which can serve as an objective correlative for his emotion which he tries to hide it or at least he does not want to express it openly but through certain devices.
What is theory of impersonality?
In the theory of Impersonality, the poetic development is the continuous subtraction and diminishing of poet's personality and emotions. The poet's personality and subjectivity is considered less important because a poet can only attain tradition / historical sense through objective sensibility.
Who created new criticism?
The term was coined by W.K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley as a principle of New Criticism.
Who coined the term Gynocriticism?
Abstract. Gynocriticism is the study of women's writing. The term gynocritics was coined by Elaine Showalter in 1979 to refer to a form of feminist literary criticism that is concerned with women as writers.
Who coined the term New Criticism?
The term was coined by W.K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley as a principle of New Criticism.
Who coined the term dissociation of sensibility?
T.S. Eliotdissociation of sensibility, phrase used by T.S. Eliot in the essay “The Metaphysical Poets” (1921) to explain the change that occurred in English poetry after the heyday of the Metaphysical poets.
Who are considered the father of New Criticism?
I.A. Richards's1929: I.A. Richards's Practical Criticism: A Study of Literary Judgment. Richards has been called the father of New Criticism. He was one of the first to study literary interpretation as a kind of science.
What is objective correlative?
For Eliot, the objective correlative was a device that allowed (or perhaps even urged) the author to use imagery, scenarios, and even character traits that were widely recognizable to audiences to convey certain emotions that they represented. T.S. Eliot's Objective Correlative Overview.
When was the term "objective correlative" first used?
Though not given worldwide attention by T.S. Eliot - the American-British author, essayist, and literary critic - until 1919 in his article 'Hamlet and His Problems,' the term 'objective correlative' was first used by American painter and poet Washington Allston to describe artistic relationships to emotion sometime around 1840.
Who coined the term "objective correlative"?
Lesson Summary. Though the term was coined around 1840 by painter and poet Washington Allston, the notion of an objective correlative, or a set of objects, images, or situations combined to evoke a particular emotion, was later popularized by T.S. Eliot beginning with his article 'Hamlet and His Problems' in 1919.
Who was the first person to use the objective correlative?
T.S. Eliot. American-British author, essayist, and literary critic. Washington Allston. American painter and poet who first used objective correlative to describe artistic relationships to emotion sometime around 1840. 'Hamlet and His Problems'. in this article, Eliot conceptualized the objective correlative.
What is objective correlative?
In short, the phrase ‘objective correlative’ means a situation or set of events which act as the ‘formula’ for evoking a particular emotion in a play (or other work of literature). But there’s a little more to it than this, and the idea of the objective correlative has its roots in one of Eliot’s most contrarian literary-critical positions.
What is the difference between objective and correlation?
The term sounds more complex than it actually is: ‘objective’ means universally applicable or relatable, while ‘correlative’ simply denotes ‘something with correlates’ or, if you prefer, corresponds. So a situation in a Shakespeare play must objectively suggest corresponding emotions in the audience, which they then experience thanks to the situation and events they are witnessing. The action of the play evokes or inspires these emotions within the play’s audience.
Who first used the term "objective correlative"?
Objective correlative, literary theory first set forth by T.S. Eliot in the essay “Hamlet and His Problems” and published in The Sacred Wood (1920). According to the theory, The term was originally used ...
Who first proposed the objective correlative theory?
Objective correlative, literary theory first set forth by T.S. Eliotin the essay “Hamlet and His Problems” and published in The Sacred Wood(1920). According to the theory,
Who suggested that correlative objects could not only express a poet’s feeling but also evoke it?
Santayana suggested that correlative objects could not only express a poet’s feeling but also evoke it. Critics have argued that Eliot’s idea was influenced, as was much of Eliot’s work, by the poetics of Ezra Poundand that the theory dates at least to the criticismof Edgar Allan Poe.
What is objective correlation?
Objective Correlative is a term popularized by T.S. Eliot in his essay on 'Hamlet and His Problems' to refer to an image, action, or situation – usually a pattern of images, actions, or situations – that somehow evokes a particular emotion from the reader without stating what that emotion should be.
Who coined the term "objective correlation"?
Objective Correlative was the term first used in a mid-nineteenth-century art lecture given by the American poet and painter Washington Allston, but later it was redefined by T.S. Eliot and became widespread among the critical circles specially the New Critics.
What happens when a writer fails to find objective correlatives for the emotions they wish to convey?
According to Eliot, when writer fails to find objective correlatives for the emotions they wish to convey, readers or audiences are left unconvinced, unmoved, or even confused.
How does Eliot express emotion?
Explaining his view Eliot says, "The only way of expressing emotion in the form of art is by finding an 'objective correlative'; in other words, 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' it is from this point of view that he finds Hamlet defective and “an artistic failure.” He also says that in Macbeth Shakespeare is successful in finding an 'objective correlative' to express the emotions of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Eliot says: “If you examine any of Shakespeare’s more successful tragedies, you will find this exact equivalence; you will find that the state of mind of Lady Macbeth walking in her sleep has been communicated to you by a skilful accumulation of imagined sensory impressions; the words of Macbeth on hearing his wife’s death strike us as if given the sequence of events, these were automatically released by the last even in the series. The artistic “inevitability” lies in this complete adequacy of the external to the emotion; and this is precisely what is deficient in Hamlet. Hamlet (the man) is dominated by an emotion which is inexpressible because it is in excess of the facts as they appear ……Hamlet is up against the difficulty that his disgust is occasioned by his mother but that his mother is not an adequate equivalent for it; his disgust envelops and exceeds her. It is thus a feeling which he cannot understand; he cannot objectify it, therefore remains to poison life and abstract action. None of the possible actions can satisfy it: and nothing that Shakespeare can do with the plot can express Hamlet for him.