Hamlet and His Problems is an essay written by T.S. Eliot in 1919 that offers a critical reading of Hamlet. The essay first appeared in Eliot's The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism in 1920. It was later reprinted by Faber & Faber in 1932 in Selected Essays, 1917-1932. Eliot's critique gained attention partly due to his claim that Hamlet is "most certainly an artistic failure." Eliot also popularized the concept of the objective correlative — a mechanism used to evoke emotion in an audience — in the essay. The essay is also an example of Eliot's use of what became known as new criticism.
Read more about Hamlet And His Problems: Content, Objective Correlative, Criticism
Famous quotes containing the words hamlet and/or problems:
“If I had any doubts at all about the justice of my dislike for Shakespeare, that doubt vanished completely. What a crude, immoral, vulgar, and senseless work Hamlet is. The whole thing is based on pagan vengeance; the only aim is to gather together as many effects as possible; there is no rhyme or reason about it.”
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910)
“The problems of all of humanity can only be solved by all of humanity.”
—Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)