T.S. Eliot: HAMLET AND HIS PROBLEMS

An Analysis

by: S. Sulochana Rengachari

ISBN 978-81-7977-483-0

pp.: 36+4

Price: Rs. 30.00

The criticism of Thomas Stearns Eliot is essentially workshop criticism because it is a byproduct, a secondary result, of his creative work. He is considered the literary dictator of the twentieth century and a modern critic. “Hamlet and His Problems” was published in 1920, in his collection of essays on poetry and criticism, The sacred Wood. He was a strong influence on the School of New Criticism started by a group of American scholars during the earlier decades of the twentieth century. New Criticism stresses the dire need for textual analysis in criticism It is reminiscent of the adage “Trust the tale and not the teller”. Eliot observes in his seminal essay “Tradition and the Individual Talent”, that “honest criticism and sensitive appreciation” should be directed towards the text written by the writer and not the writer himself. He has followed the tenets of New Criticism in his essay “Hamlet and His Problems”. He dropped this composition from his collection of essays published after twentytwo years, in America. He explained that when he read the essay again he felt rather embarrassed because he opined that he had been inexperienced when he wrote it. However, the essay is quite significant as a piece of New Criticism.

List of Contents:

LIFE AND WORKS OF T. S. ELIOT
A SHORT SUMMARY OF “HAMLET AND HIS PROBLEMS”
PARAPHRASE AND MEANINGS
HAMLET AS AN ARTISTIC FAILURE
VIEWS OF STOLL AND J. M. ROBERTSON ON SHAKESPEARE’S HAMLET
ANALYZE T. S. ELIOT’S CRITICAL CONCEPT OF “OBJECTIVE CORRELATIVE”
CORIOLANUS AS SHAKESPEARE’S GREATEST TRAGEDY
“HAMLET AND HIS PROBLEMS” AS DESTRUCTIVE CRITICISM
WHY IS ELIOT’S ESSAY CONSIDERED IMPUDENT?
“HAMLET AND HIS PROBLEMS” AS NEW CRITICISM
QUESTIONS