Theme & SymbolAdvanced
Objective Correlative
An external object or scene that evokes a specific emotion.
Principle
Find the object that is the feeling; do not name the feeling.
Takeaways
- Eliot's term for emotion delivered through pattern, not statement.
- The reader feels the emotion before recognising it.
- Stating the emotion alongside the object weakens both.
Overview
T. S. Eliot's term for the technique of producing a particular emotion in the reader by presenting a set of objects, situations, or events that, taken together, evoke that emotion without naming it.
Examples
- A widow folds her husband's shirt the way he folded it.
- A long shot of an empty kitchen at dawn.
- A bowl of fruit that no one is eating.