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1. 
   ms-mcgregor Teacher
   High School - 12th Grade

   eNotes Editor

   Well, if you were T.S. Eliot, you would say that there was no objective correlative in "Hamlet".You would also say that makes Hamlet an "artistic failure".  An objective correlative is "a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion." In other words, there needs to be something concrete that leads a character to a specific emotion. Eliot says that Hamlet is  "dominated by an emotion which is inexpressible, because it is inexcess of the facts as they appear". In other words, Hamlet's emotions are too  much given the actual events that occur in the play. I suppose that losing your father, and having your mother marry your uncle very shortly thereafter, and then seeing your father's ghost which tells you your uncle murdered him is not enough for Eliot to believe that Hamlet would become very upset, and almost suicidal,when trying to deal with all of this. Perhaps that's why Eliot said in a lecture in 1956 that the term "objective correlative" was one of '‘'a few notorious phrases which have had a truly embarrassing success in the world’."

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   http://www.enotes.com/oce-encyclopedia/objective-correlative

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   Posted by ms-mcgregor on Saturday January 24, 2009 at 6:24 PM
   
   

2. 
   jagtig

   Hamlet's primary objective is to exact revenge as directed by his father. The correlative action is his conflict with Claudius, Polonius and his mother.

   A secondary objective is to satisfy his ambition to be King, now, instead of Claudius. This is referred to by Hamlet in response to Ros.' assertion that he has the word of the King for succession. Hamlet states in response; "Ay, but sir, 'While the grass grows,'--the proverb is something musty." - III,ii,356 http://www.tailsntales.com/eng/sha/ham/tex/sel_6.html#anchor274880

   Ultimately, he proclaims himself King over Ophelia's dead body. "This is I, Hamlet the Dane (the King). - V,i,279 http://www.tailsntales.com/eng/sha/ham/tex/sel_10.html#anchor221637

   The correlative action to that objective is muddier. He appears to have chosen Horatio as his chief courtier, a warlike move, as Horatio is a soldierly sort. However, how he will share the Crown with his mother leads to the aggravation of the ongoing incest dilemma, one first created by the marriage of his uncle and mother. This has been pointed out by innumerable literary critics over the years.

    

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   Posted by jagtig on Tuesday February 10, 2009 at 8:42 AM