The Victorian era is a time when people emphasized the advances in science and started questioning the existence of God. In “Dover Beach,” written by Matthew Arnold, The poet senses the turn of historical time and finds this change echoed in the continually shifting figure of the beach – the blurry border between land and sea. The poem asks us to consider what lost with the fading faith in society.
For Arnold, loss of faith prompts uncertainty. Arnold begins his poem with the line, “The sea is calm tonight” (1). The beach looks lyrically beautiful at first sight, “glimmering,” “tranquil,” “sweet” (5-6), but the poet sees the beach in a much more chaotic light than the visuals suggest. The sound of the sea quickly turns into a “grating roar” (9) and the way it moves the pebbles, as “waves draw back, and fling / at their return, up the high strand” (10-11), makes it unnerving and unsettled, eventually brings “the eternal note of sadness” (14) at the end of stanza one. The sudden intrusion of sadness shows the poet’s sense of loss. The sea is a symbol of the poet’s inner thoughts and represents his reflection on human faith. The beach’s slow, repetitive movements symbolize the gradual but inevitable loss of faith that he senses in the world, something which gives him feelings of sorrow.
Arnold’s comparison between the loss of religious faith and the movement of the waves implies that these kinds of historical changes come in cycles. In the second stanza, the sea becomes a vehicle that mentally transports the poet to ancient Greece. Arnold imagines “Sophocles” (15), the great Greek tragedian, interpreting the same sadness “of human misery” (18) in the sea as the author himself does. The constant flowing and retreating of the waves and the sound they produce give off feelings of melancholy and profound sorrow.
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The tide becomes a metaphor for faith in the world. It comes and goes, bringing peacefulness and tranquility when it rises, similar to how faith brings about good things in the world, and when it goes, it leaves behind only misery, anguish, and despair. The sea functions as a representation of time, as it is, in part, a symbol of the past, allowing the poet to see eye to eye with another great intellectual thinker who lived thousands of years ago, both ruminating on the human misery when they look upon the ocean.
Arnold’s position on this loss of religious faith becomes most evident in the third and fourth stanzas, making his stance clear that a world filled with beliefs and ideas is one that is “full” (22) and “bright” (23), brimming with potential and beauty, whereas one devoid of such conviction can only be “melancholy, long, withdrawing” (25) and “retreating” (26). “The Sea of Faith” (21) is at low tide, on its way out, whereas once it had been full. Faith and religion can no longer wash away the sins of humanity because they are on the retreat.
Arnold’s thoughts on the fading faith amongst humanity directly transition to his belief that scientific advancement represents a loss rather than a gain. The new era, although “like a land of dreams / so various so beautiful, so new” (31-32), in poet’s eyes, actually has “neither joy, nor love, nor light / Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain” (33-34). Arnold worries that scientific advancement will bring only chaos and evil, “confused alarms of struggle and flight” (36), and “ignorant armies clash by night” (37), and ultimately more doubt and emptiness in our lives.
In conclusion, admitting the change in society is as inevitable as the waves rising and falling, the transitional nature of the beach makes the poet think more deeply about faith, change, and loss. As he sees it, the Victorian era society is moving from faith to a science-based understanding of the world. A world filled with religion is likewise filled with good things like peace and tranquility, while a world devoid of faith is likewise devoid of peace, and instead filled with emptiness and human misery. “Dover Beach” is thus a poem that questions the dominant values of its day and expresses the sense of grief of the loss of religion.
