Tyas Nuriska

C0310063

Analysis of Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold

(Semiotic Approach)

Introduction

Most of literary work values are not told explicitly. Many values were hidden between

words. The words will have two interpretations which are the literal meaning and the hidden

meaning. This double meaning mostly can be found in poetry in form of sign. Those signs

will have different meaning besides the literal meaning. The help to interpret signs is

semiotic.

Semiotic is a study about signs. C. S. Pierce, the American philosopher categorized the

existence into three that simply referred as firstness, secondness and thirdness. Based on the

relationship between categories, Pierce‟s sign has three aspects which are representament,

object and interpretant. Sign based on its object has trichotomy which is icon, index and

symbol. An icon is a sign which relationship with its object based on similarity while index is

a sign with another object‟s relationship is based on the closeness. The last is symbol which

defined as a sign which relation to its object was based on convention.

Most of the poet use symbol to give the message of their poem implicitly. One of those

poets was Matthew Arnold although nowadays he was known for his essays. He was born at

Laleham on Thames in 1822. His father, Thomas Arnold was a historian and great

headmaster at Rugby. Later, he was accepted in Balliol College in 1841 with scholarship. He

began to work in literature since 1849 with his most prized poetry such as The Scholar Gypsy

and Dover Beach. Aside working as a poet, he also wrote critic in 1857. Some of his work
such as Essay Criticism in 1865 contains his lectures in Oxford. The second series of Essay

Criticism appeared after his death. Matthew Arnold died at Liverpool in 1888. (Kunitz, 1836)

Matthew Arnold lived in Victorian era, named after Queen Victoria ascended in 1837. In

this era the science and technology were advanced greatly. This progress leads to Revolution

Industry. Victorian women also started to work and became more independent. However, in

this era doubt of religion also doubt of faith also happened. It happened when the scientist

questioned Bible, which in turn also questioned religion. To sum up, in Victorian era science

and technology were at its peak when religion was in crisis of faith (Johnson). Matthew

Arnold also felt his crisis of faith which he poured in Dover Beach.

In Dover Beach, Matthew uses many symbols inside to express his feeling toward the

situation at the time. He uses those symbols to contradict the world of industrialization and

religion world. He also refers in Sophocles‟ work to make those contradictions shown clearly

in the poem.

Discussion

Dover Beach

The sea is calm to-night.

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-blanch'd 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 {AE}gean, 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 furl'd.

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

The first stanza is describing the sea‟s condition at night. I assume here the word „sea‟

meant life. Later in first stanza there are such sentences describing about sea‟s condition such

as the tide was full / the waves draws back and fling / began, and cease, and then began

again. Those sentences are also describing the speaker‟s life which has his life up and down,

sometime good and the other time his life were bad. However, in the last stanza the speaker

implied that his life was down indicated by “the eternal note of sadness in”.

In the second stanza, the word „sea‟ changed meaning with “The sea of faith”. Here, the

speaker talked about his loss of faith which was the common thing since this poetry was

made in Victorian era. His loss of faith was not coming abruptly but rather slowly shown in

the sentences “it brought / Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow / Of human misery”. The

loss of faith was finally at its peak with the words hearing it by this distant northern sea. This

stanza showed us the loss of faith that happened in Victorian era.

The third stanza described more about faith in the past using the word „sea‟ again. The

speaker described the era before Victorian which is Romantic era. The romantic era

emphasized imaginary and the harmony of nature. The word used in this poetry to describe
this era were “…and round earth's shore / Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd”. The

rest of third stanza told about the changes happened in society. The speaker voiced this era

was dark since the loss of faith. He used words like „melancholy‟, „retreating‟ and „night‟ to

describe the dark era. Those words also can describe England‟s condition after Revolution

Industry which pollution happened because of many factories built and represented in the

„night‟ word. The words „melancholy‟ and „retreating‟ can be used to describe human

individualistic in Victorian era.

The last stanza was the speaker‟s hope of the return of the faith. He pleaded to Love

which he believed will be faithful to him. He pleaded rather desperate because he used words

“let us be true / to one another!” and he hoped in the next line that his world will full of faith

like in the past. In this stanza, the past was referred by „land of dreams‟. The last three lines

again the speaker‟s description about industrialization which gave us very dark and cruel

impression. He used word „darkling plain‟, „confused alarms of struggle and flight‟, and

„ignorant armies clash‟ to depict both the environment and the people in Victorian era. Those

words also indicate the loss of faith after Revolution Industry.

Conclusion

To conclude, Matthew Arnold uses nature metaphor in Dover Beach. In this poetry, he

described the loss of faith or religion by comparing the sea. The sea holds significant sign

here for it represent life. Through the poem, the sea always fluctuating from light in the first

stanza and become darker in third stanza. Aside the word „sea‟, the loss of faith also depicted

by the words „night‟ and „melancholy‟. This poem actually told about the phenomena in

Victorian era, where people started to lose their faith in religion. It was the effect of the rise

of science and made people more individualists. Half of this poetry also described the era

before Victorian generally.

References

Kuitz, Stanley. 1836. “Matthew Arnold: A Biography”. 28 May 2013.

<http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/arnold/bio.html>.

Johnson, Veronica M. “Victoria Era Crisis of Faith”. 28 May 2013.

<http://veronica.johnson227.tripod.com/id23.html>.

PoemHunter.com. 2004. “Matthew Arnold: Poems”. 25 May 2013.

<http://www.poemhunter.com/i/ebooks/pdf/matthew_arnold_2004_9.pdf> .