FREE ESSAY ON MATTHEW ARNOLD

MATTHEW ARNOLD

Angela Stockburger
May 4, 1999
Mr. Harris AP Composition
Research Paper Period 2
Matthew Arnolds melancholy in life, religion, and love
In "Dover Beach," Matthew Arnold discusses his religious views, the melancholy in his
life, and a new love, which he experiences by an isolated individual as he confronts the
turbulent historical forces and the loss of religious faith in the modern world. Matthew
Arnold's faith in his religion is lost, and he is awaiting his lost love. He is
melancholy. 
The main theme in Matthew Arnold's, "Dover Beach," is when an isolated individual
experiences anxiety as one is confronted by the turbulent historical forces and the loss
of the religious faith in the modern world. Matthew Arnold is an author who strongly
voices his opinion on topics on such topics as religion, life, love, and the sadness that
goes along with what is gone or lost. For example, Matthew Arnold states,
"Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! For the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
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So various, so beautiful, so new
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night"
(Arnold, 830-831).
Matthew Arnold gives his views on life, love and the world. He explains that the world is
similar to a land of dreams, and that it is something beautiful and peaceful, but in
actuality, Arnold says that it is not. Arnold states that we are like the waves that
crash and hit the shore, struggling and fighting for our place on this earth. He says
that love is the cure for all of the struggling and fighting that takes place on earth.
Love is the only thing that he can rely on right now, even though his love is not in his
life. Love is Arnold's way of escaping the harsh realities in life. He says that life is
a struggle, and that are not any signs of joy, love, light, certitude, peace, nor help
from pain.
Matthew Arnold had a strong belief in his religion but now it is lost. Alan Roper says,
"To combine with an economy rare in Arnold his preoccupation with a lovers'
communication, the difference between epochs, the wistful delusions of moonlit scenes,
the disappearance of religious certitude, the anarchy of modern life" (Roper, 178).
Matthew Arnold says:
"The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd.
But now I only hear
It's melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
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Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world. (Arnold 830-831).
His Religion was strong at one point, but then he lost faith in God and in his own
beliefs, and at that point was when he lost his religion. The sea of faith symbolizes the
movement away from religion and anger. This is the literal sea, which means that the sea
is the way that it has always been seen.
Many readers of Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach," have experienced the same eternal not of
sadness at Dover Beach. Machann says, "Arnold would probably be shocked to know how
modern readers linger in his forest glade, how many have heard the eternal note of
sadness at Dover Beach and taken courage from his courage, how many scholar gypsies there
are among us, how many have felt the chill of the Carthosians and know ourselves better
in the morning" (Machann, 94). Matthew Arnold has lead the way for courage, and he has
taught people that even though there is this eternal note of sadness, that others have
experienced, there is still the ability to be courageous and fight. 
Matthew Arnold explains that his love is gone, and that his love comes back but in
spirit. Arnold says:
"Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanch'd land,
Listen! You hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
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The eternal note of sadness in"
(Arnold, 830-831). 
Johnson states that to Matthew Arnold, love is the most important idea on this land.
Johnson says, "Arnold's "Dover Beach" hold that love is best, better than the pomps of
the world and better than the worship of nature-as if to justify the lady's actions"
(Johnson, 3). Johnson is saying that, after interpreting "Dover Beach," the most
important concept is love and that it is more important than the worship of nature,
according to Matthew Arnold.
Kenneth Allott describes his poem as a combination of melancholy intermingled with the he
sea. Allott states, "It is the latter kind of love that the speaker in "Dover Beach"
refers. Situated in a particularized landscape and dramatic context, the speaker appeals
to his beloved for loving fidelity as the one stay of humanity in a world which seems
beautiful, but in reality has neither love, nor joy, nor light, nor certitude, nor peace,
nor help for pain. In this most famous of his lyrics Arnold invests two of his major
poetic images, the sea moonlight, within almost unbearable melancholy. The irregular
lines and rhymes of the first three stanzas give way in the concluding stanza to
regularity or metre and rhyme in beautifully varied iambic pentameters summing up the
human predicament" (Allott, 65). In Allots opinion, the sea is the melancholy. The sea is
angry. Pointing out the irregular lines and rhymes symbolizing the unorganized corrupt
sea.
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Stacy Johnson believes that there had to be feeling before this poem was written. Johnson
states, "Duty of a prophetic office pull him away from his poetic line, no doubt, but if
he felt no such tension he would not be a serious Victorian poet, and he could not have
written "Dover Beach" (Johnson, 10).
Matthew Arnold wrote many poems, one being "Dover Beach." "Dover Beach," was one of
Matthew Arnold's most popular poems. In his poem, he relates melancholy with the sea,
while discussing love and religion. He describes his loss of religion as being a loss of
anger. He is yearning for his lost love, who he watches for always.