Dover Beach Analysis

Kelly Moriarty

Moriarty 1

Mrs.Coppola Com 131 2 Apr 2015 Dover Beach: A Dark Sea of Doubt Since the beginning of time, humans have labored to make sense of their existence. The industrialization and commerce of the 19th century did not lead society to find this greater purpose, but rather separated them greater. In Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach”, he creates a dramatic monologue of the Victorian Era that depicts the shaken belief in God and religion due to these advancements. The audience is moved through the poem with the use of multiple figures of speech, elevating the central theme. In “Dover Beach,” Arnold chronicles and laments the loss of faith in God and its’ dreadful impact on the individual and society. The solemn tone of “Dover beach” is developed immediately through the description of the slow and soft rumbling of sound made by the sea waves as they swing backward and forward on the pebbly shore. The sea withdraws the pebbles backward, then after a pause, the returning waves roll them back up to the shore. Arnold suggests the “eternal note of sadness” in human life through this heavily referenced melancholy imagery. The word eternal is critical to the tone, because it shows that this sadness is not an fleeting whim but rather an inescapable, suffocating infinity. This sadness began in the gradual loss of man’s faith in God and Christianity. The sea is a symbol for the faith in religion that surrounds the world. The sea rises in high tide, and then slowly recedes with the mournful sound of pebbles “grating” against each other. The poet reminds the audience of the world in which there was men who believed in God and Christianity. Due to industrialization of the 19th century, though, Arnold watched society

Moriarty 2 separate themselves from their faith, like the water does to the shore at low tide. The white cliffs, composed of chalk, a limestone that easily erodes, symbolizes the eroding faith in god as well. This separation caused great pain and discord within the world. The passing of faith causes the minds to be isolated in the border between belief and disbelief, like the narrow strait of Dover, sandwiched between the eroding white cliffs. By comparing the erosion of human spirituality to the painful withdrawal of the tide, Arnold shows that, like the tide, the receding of faith is inevitable, and will leave the “naked shingles of the world” exposed (28). The idea of naked shingles left in the wake of spiritual recession is a haunting sort of image. He compares “human misery”, or a faithless existence, to the “turbid ebb and flow” of the retreating sea of faith (17-18). This is an incredibly somber image because it makes the idea of escaping misery seem so impossible, because of how clouded societies minds have become by the advancements in technology. It is a chilly prospect, and it brings into the mind a dreary feeling of helplessness, as though the mind is left stripped, like the “naked shingles of the world” (28). Arnold propels the reader into this misery through an anaphora, or the repetition of a word. A world without God “Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, / Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain” (33-34). The world has become a selfish, cynical, materialistic battlefield in the industrial revolution, lost without the guiding light of a faith in God. The images of sadness, melancholy, and desolation dominate this poem. Arnold’s “Dover Beach” is not a love poem, but rather a forewarning of the dangers of technological advancements without a firm foundation in faith. Arnold’s tentative solution of true love in a

Moriarty 3 short two lines is overwhelmed by the emotional impact and vividness of the final image. The poet cannot seem to purge from his consciousness his horrifying vision of human life. True love can not save him or his companion from the “darkling plain” of the godless society (35). For even in true love there must exist a reverent belief in God to give meaning to existence. Through “Dover Beach”, Arnold reports the effects of industrialization of the 19th century England through a series of metaphors. The Victorian world was changing very rapidly with the growth of science and technology. This poem condemns the loss of faith in religion and God. Life without faith will remain dark and empty, like the shore line at low tide. True love is not even capable of saving society, for life truly has no real meaning without a belief in God.

Moriarty 4 Works Cited Mays, Kelly J. “Dover Beach." The Norton Introduction to Literature. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. 73-101. Print.

Moriarty 5 The sea is calm tonight. The tide is full, the moon lies fair Upon the straits; on the French coast the light Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay. Come to the window, sweet is the night-air! Only, from the long line of spray Where the sea meets the moon-blanched 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 The eternal note of sadness in. Sophocles long ago Heard it on the Ægean, and it brought Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow Of human misery; we Find also in the sound a thought, Hearing it by this distant northern sea. The Sea of Faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world. Ah, love, let us be true To one another! for the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, 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.