Progress is manifest destiny. Progress is civilizing the uncivilized, elevating the inhabitants of the third world and taming the “savages” that live off the land. Though progress may seem superficially as beneficial to society, it is occasionally viewed as the abandonment of many ideals, inevitably leading to many atrocities. Mathew Arnold, in his poem “Dover Beach,” was highly influenced by the rapid advancement during the Victorian era. The poem was written in 1851, a time when England saw massive industrialization as well as momentous shifts toward rational thought that caused dissonance in people’s beliefs. In “Dover Beach,” Arnold creates a melancholic mood by utilizing diction, figurative language, and symbolism. Using these literary elements, he portrays the speaker as afraid of what the world is becoming, thus dissuading the reader from the “progress” apparent during the time.
Arnold’s use of diction to describe the sea and the naturalistic scene conveys the speaker’s uncertainty about nature, implying apprehension of the treasured beauty. Although the poem begins with seemingly optimistic language in the first few lines, the mood quickly changes as Arnold uses cacophony and imagery. Language such as “moon-blanch’d land” describes the desolate, lifeless shore—the beach is completely bare and without human existence (8). The only hint of humanity is “on the French coast,” (3) where “the light / Gleams and is gone” (3-4). Arnold’s failure to mention any existence of humankind on the beach indicates that the speaker is withdrawn from humanity, already portraying his detachment. After first describing the surroundings as “glimmering” and “tranquil,” (5) Arnold starts to utilize adjectives such as “grating” (9) and “tremulous” (12). Arnold’s shift in diction foreshadows the inevitable calamity and the speaker’s awareness of a grim future. Throughout the rest of the poem, he describes the landscape and nature in a disheartening way. Though Arnold exhibits some of nature’s attractive qualities, he indicates that the beauty hardly conceals nature’s darkness and gloom. For example, when he writes, “for the world, which seems / To lie before us like a land of dreams,” he makes use of the word “seems” to imply that the outward appearance of the world covers a bleak reality (30-31). The speaker first looks to nature for comfort and reassurance, but only hears “The eternal note of sadness,” thereby portraying a pensive sadness in regards to nature and the world (14). The rhyming couplet at the end portrays that the speaker is afraid of what will happen to this world “Where ignorant armies clash by night” (37). The speaker believes that we are in the dark—darkness that we brought upon ourselves; not even nature can guide us away from our ignorance.
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Arnold’s description of the sea and his use of similes illustrate the speaker’s apprehension concerning the human condition. The last stanza reinforces the narrator’s pessimistic attitude about society. The speaker describes how love is the only value remaining, though it provides a very tenuous refuge. Arnold utilizes the simile, “the world, which seems / To lie before us like a land of dreams” to show how industrialization and progress seem to create an illusion of a paradise (30-31). The parallel structure “So various, so beautiful, so new” projects the high hopes and promising expectations of this new society (32). However, the reality is otherwise, as shown by the parallel structure “Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light” (33). The two parallel structures create a strong contrast where the narrator calls attention to everything that was promised and then concedes that reality is disappointing. Arnold ends his poem with an extended simile, comparing the situation to a battle occurring on a “darkling plain” (35). Arnold alludes to a horrible occurrence where men are killing their brethren; the speaker expresses his belief that the human condition is failing and that we are becoming blinded to the truth. He fears humans are becoming “ignorant armies,” failing to realize who is a friend and who is a foe (37).
Arnold further shows the narrator’s loss of hope in humanity by using the sea as a symbol. In the third stanza, Arnold uses the “Sea of Faith” to refer to the times when people were pious and felt comforted by God. He juxtaposes how the sea “Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore,” (22) but after the Enlightenment, the sea is now ebbing, exposing the “naked shingles of the world” (28) as people drift toward rational thought and away from religion. The third stanza describes the author’s perception of the effect of industrialization as well as the lack of morality and religious precepts. The sea had nurtured humanity for so long, but now the narrator just hears its sad retreat. As the Sea of Faith becomes smaller, it disappears into the atmosphere and leaves the edges of the world naked. Through the symbol of the sea, Arnold suggests that the major shifts in society occur subtly—the beach’s gradual ebb symbolizes the slow but inevitable loss of faith that the speaker senses in this historical moment. Arnold alludes to Classical Greece to exemplify that the sea has been receding over a long period of time. The speaker imagines Sophocles hearing the same sadness in the sea that he hears now: The “human misery” evokes a feeling of detachment from society in both the speaker and Sophocles (18). The speaker thereby implies that the Sea of Faith was even fuller a long time ago and has been shrinking for millennia.
Throughout his poem “Dover Beach,” Matthew Arnold conveys a fear of failing to find any meaning in the major aspects of life. In the poem, the speaker seeks refuge within nature but quickly realizes that nature has only a few beautiful aspects that fail to cover its gloominess. The speaker then turns to religion and realizes that the ideal of faith is diminishing altogether. Without faith and joy, the narrator, by examining the dire human conditions, feels alienated from the rest of humanity where these core ideals have ceased to exist. The speaker searches for some important meaning in his life, but is fearful that he may come up short. Fahrenheit 451, a book by Ray Bradbury set in a dystopian world, alludes to “Dover Beach” and portrays a similar theme: The book shows the protagonist’s disconnection and separation from nature and society, specifically through the discovery of the unrelenting sadness in the world, the human suffering, the loss of faith, and the realization of the flaws in the world. Both works fundamentally discourage our current notion of “progress” in favor of a simpler world. A world with piety. A world not intent on destroying nature.
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