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Objective Correlative in Eliot and Montale

The document discusses the concept of 'objective correlative' as defined by T.S. Eliot, emphasizing its use in his poem The Waste Land to express emotions through fragmented imagery and cultural allusions. It also explores how Eugenio Montale adapts this technique in his works, using stark landscapes as symbols of existential desolation. The main difference highlighted is that Eliot relies on literary allusions while Montale focuses on natural objects.

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158 views2 pages

Objective Correlative in Eliot and Montale

The document discusses the concept of 'objective correlative' as defined by T.S. Eliot, emphasizing its use in his poem The Waste Land to express emotions through fragmented imagery and cultural allusions. It also explores how Eugenio Montale adapts this technique in his works, using stark landscapes as symbols of existential desolation. The main difference highlighted is that Eliot relies on literary allusions while Montale focuses on natural objects.

Uploaded by

Nicoletta
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Objective Correlative in Montale and Eliot’s The Waste Land

The concept of the objective correlative was famously defined by T.S. Eliot in his 1919
essay Hamlet and His Problems as:

“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.”
(Eliot, T.S. "Hamlet and His Problems", 1919)

In The Waste Land (1922), Eliot implements this technique by using fragmented imagery,
cultural allusions, and recurring motifs (such as water, dryness, and broken cities) to evoke a
sense of cultural despair and spiritual desolation without overtly stating it. The disjointed
structure and intertextual references serve as external correlatives to internal emotional states.

For example, the image of “a heap of broken images” (line 22) in The Waste Land becomes a
powerful objective correlative for the emotional and cultural fragmentation after World War
I.

Eugenio Montale, influenced by Eliot, in his collection Ossi di seppia (1925), initially adapts
the concept of the objective correlative to the Italian and Mediterranean context. He will
further explore this technique in his collection Le occasioni. In Ossi di seppia Montale uses
stark, physical landscapes—rocks, arid coasts, and dead vegetation—as correlatives for
existential desolation. These objects are not just descriptive but imbued with symbolic
resonance.

In the poem “Meriggiare pallido e assorto,” Montale presents the blinding light, dry walls,
and thorns as external signs of dryness, creating a poetic world that is both sensorial and
symbolic.

Scholars note that while Eliot’s correlatives often operate through cultural allusion and
fragmentation, Montale's are more rooted in objects and natural imagery.

As critic Franco Fortini wrote:


“Montale's landscape is always mental, always inner: his ligurian rocks and dying plants are
not metaphors but correspondences—objective correlatives of the condition of being.”
(Fortini, Franco. "Montale e la poesia moderna", Quaderni Piacentini, 1962)

Comparative analysis
Both Eliot and Montale use the objective correlative to express profound existential and
cultural crises. Eliot leans on literary and mythic structures; Montale, on objects. Despite
differences in context and style, both poetically externalize emotion through structured
symbols that do the emotional “work” for the poem.

Comprehension Task
1. What is the definition of 'objective correlative' according to T.S. Eliot?
2. How does Eliot use this technique in The Waste Land? Give one specific example.
3. In one sentence, summarize the main difference between Montale and Eliot’s use of
objective correlative.

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