Dover Beach

In the Victorian era of literature, writers struggled with the place of God in the world. Due to some of the new scientific theories floating around (such as Charles Darwin's On the Origin of the Species), people began to see humans as animals rather than significant bearers of God's image.  Science seemed to be replacing religion as the answer to all of man's problems. In Matthew Arnold's famous poem, "Dover Beach," this conflict between faith and doubt is fleshed out.
   Arnold uses the imagery of a calm sea in the first stanza to symbolize a mind that is at ease with itself: "The sea is calm tonight" (line 1). Yet the tone of the poem begins to slowly change; the sea begins to struggle: "Listen! you hear the grating roar/Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling" (lines 9-10).  The tone is now one of conflict rather than peace. But what exactly is the issue? "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 hear/Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar" (lines 21-25). There was once a time, according to Arnold, in which religion had a considerable hold on people. But now doubt is beginning to replace faith; what if God does not exist? And if it turns out that God is not plausible, then the result is depressing instead of encouraging. Without God, people have no ultimate hope in the end. Everything that they place their hope in in this life ultimately fades in time.
Arnold's conclusion seems to be that we must be "true to one another" (lines 29-30). We should be honest with one another as to the cruel realities of life and not try to shy away from it in the name of faith. Optimism ultimately fails, for you can't deny that life is hard.  Yet if being true to one another entitles only showing how messed up life is, then how do we endure as humans? Why is life worth living in the end? I personally believe that we should still hope for the best, for that is certainly better than being a cynic. For me, the "best" is the unmerited kindness of God, shown in Christ and in the general blessings of life.  That's what helps me endure each day's toils and troubles. Yet I have had battles with doubt before and the battle is most certainly not pretty; its like a sea raging...

    Works Cited: Arnold, Matthew. "Dover Beach." The Norton Introduction to Literature. Eds. Alison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. 10th ed. New York, London: W.W. Norton and Company, 2011. 517-518