Genre
Essay
Setting and Context
20th century Europe, especially England.
Narrator and Point of View
Eliot uses first person narrative scheme and directly addresses the readers.
Tone and Mood
Ironical, direct, critical, discursive.
Protagonist and Antagonist
As these are critical essays, there are no such protagonist and antagonist.
Major Conflict
In "Tradition and the Individual Talent", the major conflict is between the actual tradition of literature and its contemporary scenario in England. In this essay he puts forth the contrast between Romantic criticism and Victorian criticism.
Climax
In "Hamlet and His Problems", Eliot critically analyses Hamlet as a character and the play as a whole. At the climax of this essay he states that Shakespeare had failed to recognise the mental crisis of Hamlet and gives reasonable points to prove it.
Foreshadowing
Eliot foreshadows the anomalies in Hamlet from the very beginning of his essay. Through this essay he proves that Shakespeare's major artistic succes is actually an unfortunate artistic failure.
Understatement
Eliot understates the contemporary tradition of English literature to enlighten his readers about the real tradition of literature according to his view.
Allusions
In one of his essays Eliot alludes to the critical work of J.M. Robertson on Shakespeare's Hamlet.
Imagery
T.S. Eliot uses the imagery of a chemical reaction to portray the working of an artist's mind. He uses the image of platinum used as a catalyst in the formation of sulphurous acid to illustrate that a writer's mind should act like the platinum foil.
Paradox
"Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things."
Parallelism
Eliot's essays are in parallel with the temperament of Victorian era.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
"I shall, therefore, invite you to consider, as a suggestive analogy, the action which takes place when a bit of finely filiated platinum is introduced into a chamber containing oxygen and sulphur dioxide." Here the platinum is a metonym for an artist's mind.
Personification
N/A
