Crisis of Faith : Dover Beach

The Victorian Era (1837-1901) is generally associated with the ‘crisis of faith’ caused by new scientific discoveries especially the publication of Charles Darwin’s revolutionary book titled “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859. It introduced a scientific theory stating that biological specimens, including humans evolve over the course of generations through a process of natural selection.

“….on the French coast the light

Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,

Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.”

In other words, it contradicted existing religious beliefs and scientific knowledge of the Victorians. According to the existing religious beliefs, God created man directly from the clay image by breathing life into him.

The speaker of Arnold’s poem tells how “The Sea of faith/ Was once, too, at full, and round the earth’s shore.’’ The sea of faith, which was full before Darwin’s theory of evolution, is now a “long withdrawing roar’’.

“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! ...”

The Victorians are suffering an internal crisis of faith, and thus to survive, the speaker of Arnold’s poem makes a plea to his beloved that they should remain true to each other. Love is the only solaces that can help one survive this crisis of faith.

“”Retreating, to the breath

Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear

And naked shingles of the world.’’

Many theologians began to find out the compatibility between Darwin’s theory and Christian doctrines. Some of them adopted the view that evolution was God’s method of creation. Others argued that Darwinism was compatible only with atheism. Some also resisted evolution specifically for the human species, partly due to concerns that evolution could conflict with Christian claims that human beings are created in the image of God.

“The Sea of Faith (Religion)

Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore

Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.’’

It made the Victorians feel that they had been suddenly abandoned by God and this led them into an era of doubt about the existing religious beliefs. This is called the ‘crisis of faith’. It is against this background that Matthew Arnold, the poet of Dover Beach is “often described as the embodiment of Victorian religious crisis’’.

“Ah, love, let us be true

To one another! for the world which seems

To lie before us like a land of dreams…”

Dover Beach is often read as a poem that was written as a way of expressing the void left by theory of evolution. According to a critic, in Dover Beach the statement “the light/ gleams and is gone’’, represents some kind of melancholy as felt by the Victorians, when they were faced with Darwin’s observations.

“Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar.’’

Matthew Arnold’s Dover Beach presents the common opposition between appearance and reality. The poet is suggesting that the world, which apparently looks beautiful is not so in reality.

“Sophocles’ long ago

Heard it on AEGEAN, and it brought

Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow

Of human misery; …”

The appearance in the opening lines, which describes the calm sea, the shining moon, the glimmering cliffs of England, is quite different from the reality of life, which the poet accepts, is like the desolate beach and the confused battlefield.

The world according to the speaker, “seems/ To lie before us like a land of dreams,’’ offering at least an appearance that seems “so various, so beautiful, so new.’’ The speaker is suggesting that the world in reality does not offer any of the promises it makes like that of joy, love, light, certitude, peace and help for pain. Contrary to these promises, the world is like a battlefield at night where soldiers fire at shadows, unable to distinguish between friend and foe or between good and evil. All this has been attributed to the loss of faith in God and religion under the influence of scientific ideas.

“The sea is calm tonight.

The tide is full, the moon lies fair

Upon the straits;”

But at reality, the calm sea waves “tremulous cadence” i.e., the sound made by the pebbles when they strike the shore have been described as representing an “eternal note of sadness”. This eternal note of sadness takes back the speaker to the ancient Greek playwright. Sophocles, who heard the similar sound on the Aegean Sea and was reminded of the misery of human existence: Therefore, the perpetual movement of the waves and the sound made by the pebbles suggest to the speaker not serenity but hopelessness and despair.

‘’…..we find also in the sound a thought,

Hearing it by this distant northern sea.”

Moreover, the fourth and final stanza is extremely pessimistic which depicts the grim reality of the world, which is in contrast to the joy and innocent beauty of the first few lines of the poem.