“Dover Beach” Matthew Arnold
Thesis: The tone being expressed in “Dover
Beach” is one of longing and nostalgia, wishing for religion’s influence to be
the same of the past.
Arnold expresses sadness for the
loss of faith he sees occurring around him. He feels that what once used to be
a resounding entity has now been reduced to a weak being. He compares faith to
a sea, and states that it “was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore…but
now I only hear/ Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar” (22-25). Arnold has
realized that religion is waning. There was a time where religion was extremely
prominent in society, but now that influence is fading. Moreover, Arnold
believes that this regression is detrimental to society. He writes that “we are
here on a darkling plain/ Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,/
Where ignorant armies clash by night” (35-37). More or less, society has
entered into a dark age. Without religion Arnold feels that the world is truly
lacking. There cannot be progress and peace without faith, and so Arnold mourns
for the society he once knew.
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