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Hamlet and His Problems
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<p> "Hamlet and His Problems" is an essay written by <a href="/facts/T._S._Eliot/7GTE9As8">T. S. Eliot</a> in 1919 that offers <a href="/facts/Critical_approaches_to_Hamlet/duEp4SRn">a critical reading of <i>Hamlet</i></a>. The essay first appeared in Eliot's <i><a href="/facts/The_Sacred_Wood_(T._S._Eliot)/FKNRRCxd">The Sacred Wood:</a> Essays on Poetry and Criticism</i> in 1920. It was later reprinted by <a href="/facts/Faber_%26_Faber/CPvre283">Faber & Faber</a> in 1932 in <i><a href="/facts/Selected_Essays,_1917-1932/ybyvGWtA">Selected Essays, 1917-1932</a></i>. Eliot's critique gained attention partly due to his claim that <i><a href="/facts/Hamlet/fm6AnR17">Hamlet</a></i> is "most certainly an artistic failure." Eliot also popularised the concept of the <a href="/facts/Objective_correlative/R3CzUVDk">objective correlative</a>—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 <a href="/facts/New_criticism/yYCKR7oY">new criticism</a>. </p>