The Origin of the “Objective Correlative”: Matthew Arnold and Walter Pater

The Origin of the “Objective Correlative”: Matthew Arnold and Walter Pater

By the “objective correlative,” a verbal equivalent for the poet’s personal experience, T. S. Eliot meant to end the abuse of language which he believed widely spread by the pernicious influence of Romanticism and Symbolism. Ironically, however, its origin dates back to the Romantic / Symbolist aesthetes. Arnold taught Eliot how to achieve a balance between “the style” and “the subject matter,” by curbing both Symbolist and Imagist indulgence in stylistic experiments. Pater, on the other hand, showed Eliot how to be modern by denying Hegel’s transcendental self, something he also learned directly from the French poets. Even though the quasi-scientific term strips it of any historical context, the exploration of it shows a continuous line which runs from the Romantic’s idea of symbol, through the Symbolists, and into the “image” of Pound and the Imagists. This is the line that strived to make creation self-sufficient by the indirect method of evocation, and a line in which Arnold and Pater form an important link. The idea of “objective correlative” belongs to the tradition, started by the great Romantic poets, that aimed to overcome Cartesian representational realism as well as subjective idealism. Eliot’s contribution is in adding further scepticism about the transcendental self and his recognition of the danger that poetic transcendence could turn into solipsism.