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, Stockburger 2 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
Stockburger 3 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 Stockburger 4 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. Stockburger 5 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.