T.S. Eliot's Objective Correlative

T.S. Eliot examines in his critical essay On Hamlet the way in which Shakespeare returned the tragic effect in his tragedies Lady Macbeth and Hamlet; Eliot reaches the conclusion that while in Lady Macbeth Shakespeare found the "formula" to express Lady Macbeth's feelings and emotions (through the sleep-walking speech), Hamlet's state of mind cannot be returned because there is "an excess of the facts as they appear".

The "formula" used by Shakespeare is called by Eliot objective correlative; the objective correlative is defined as "a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events" that immediately evoke an emotion or a feeling.

To sum up according to Eliot form and matter must be in perfect symmetry to create a successful work of art: if the matter (thought, feeling, action) is "too much" ("in excess of") there is lack of unity, while if the form (words) overwhelms the matter there is an over-description (the same that happens when we say "I am speechless").