The objective correlative is a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which evokes a particular emotion. Eliot thought that the only way to express emotion in a form of art is by finding an objective correlative.

The best examples of the objective correlative are of Shakespeare’ Macbeth and Hamlet: Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking speech, Macbeth’ speech as he heard of his wife’s death and in one of Hamlet’s speeches. According to that in Hamlet’s speech the prince is “dominated by a state of mind which is inexpressible, because it is in excess of the fact as they appear”.

So a successful artistic creation needs a balance between a coalescence of form and matter. If there is “too much” matter, we have a strain. If there is few matter the experience is overwhelmed by the words.