MATTHEW ARNOLD

1822-1888

Themes:

looks for meaning in a modern world that has become increasingly discordant.

the situation of a man of an older era entrapped within a new and inimical one, and convulsed with longing for what he has lost—and found himself unable to describe timeless emotions, only “doubt” and “discouragement,” those “exclusively modern” sentiments.

sense of displacement. Nostalgic for a more meaningful time (“The Sea of Faith / Was once, too, at the full” [lines 21–22]), he offers a bleak view of the modern age.

Shows the doubt and melancholy that infused so much of Victorian writing.

Dover Beach

Themes: The modern world is without faith and

stability the illusion that all is well is false human relationships may or may not be a

defense against the uncertainty of modern life

the present can only be understood in relation to the past.

Dover Beach

several contrasts here: between what is seen and what is heard; between tranquility and turbulence, between illusion and reality; etween the present moment and eternity.

In the second stanza, the sea is the link to:

the historical past a generalized feeling of discontent, to “the turbid ebb and flow / Of human misery”

(lines 17-18).

Dover Beach - continued

What happens to this image of the sea in the third stanza? “The Sea of Faith . . . Retreat[s]” (lines 21-26)? difference between present and past here: “The Sea of

Faith / Was once . . . like . . . a bright girdle furled. / But now I only hear / Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar / Retreating . . . down the vast edges drear / And naked shingles of the world” (lines 21-28).

In the past, the “Sea of Faith” encircled the world, as if to secure it, whereas in the present, the sea has abandoned the world and left it unclothed, exposed.

“withdrawing roar, / Retreating” emphasizes this backward movement and the sense of desertion.

What kind of faith the narrator is talking about.?

Dover Beach - continued

Critics have surmised that Arnold had in mind the religious certainty of the medieval era. the “Sea of Faith” was like “a bright girdle furled” (lines 21,

23). Yet “Faith,” as used here, seems to include more than just

religious faith; the complete vulnerability of the “naked shingles” (line 28) suggests a world devoid of stability or certainty.

The final stanza at first appears to offer a remedy to this uncertainty (“Ah, love, let us be true / To one another!” [line 29-30]), yet the hope offered here is placed in doubt: (lines 35-37)? a grim vision of modernity. Can human alliances overcome

the obstacles presented here?