dicuss dover beach as a dramatic monologue .explain the theme of the poem
Answers
Answer:Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" is an expression of a particular kind of unease and religious uncertainty that arose during the mid-Victorian period, a reaction to the loss of faith that was happening in line with the rise of science. This was the time of Darwin: the "Sea of Faith" which had once seemed to girdle Britain so firmly was beginning to "ebb away," and this left many, like Arnold's speaker, feeling that the world around them was now no longer one of "certitude." As people began to turn away from a near-universal Christian faith, they seem lost, "ignorant armies" who clash with each other seemingly in the dark, unguided by any clear lights.Arnold uses a rhyme scheme and meter which seems to reflect his preoccupations. He uses iambic pentameter, which suggests a desperation to cling to recognized forms, but the rhyme scheme itself is variable, as are the line and stanza lengths. It is as if the poet is trying to reassert old forms and structures in a place where they seem no longer to fit. Likewise, he makes a classical allusion, referencing the Greek dramatist Sophocles, but this serves only to indicate that the "misery" he is feeling now is one that stretches across the ages—Sophocles, too, heard the note of sadness in the sea, and struggled to turn it into "certitude," with little success.
The sea in this poem is used to great effect. It is both literal, a boundary between England and the far-off French coast, and metaphorical. Once, the "Sea of Faith" seemed to protect the island nation. Now, the sea simply represents a continuous home for human sadness and misery, transmitting the“Dover Beach” is a dramatic monologue of thirty-seven lines, divided into four unequal sections or “paragraphs” of fourteen, six, eight, and nine lines. In the title, “Beach” is more significant than “Dover,” for it points at the controlling image of the poem.
On a pleasant evening, the poet and his love are apparently in a room with a window affording a view of the straits of Dover on the southeast coast of England, perhaps in an inn. The ptoward the French coast, some twenty-six miles away, and is attracted by the calm and serenity of the scene: the quiet sea, the moon, the blinking French lighthouse, the glimmering reflections of the famous white cliffs of Dover. He calls his love to the window to enjoy the scene and the sweet night air; there is one element out of tune with the peaceful scene, however, and the speaker strongly urges his love to “Listen!” to the rasping sound from the shingle beach as the waves, flowing in and out, drag the loose pebbles back and forth. This repetitive sound underlies the otherwise peaceful scene like background music and suggests to the speaker some unspecified, unrelenting sadness. To this point (line 14), the poem has been essentially straightforward description.
In the second section, the speaker (presumably grounded in the classics as Matthew Arnold was) is reminded that the Greek tragic dramatist Sophocles had heard the same sound in the Aegean and it had suggested to him the turbid ebb and flow of human suffering
Explanation:
Explanation:
A dramatic monologue is a kind of poetry where ,a single person,who is not the poet,utters the speech in a specific situation that makes up the whole of the poem.The poet speaks through the medium of an imagined character (supposed listener)and achieves an objectivity as characterises a drama. Whereas a drama progresses through conflicts and actions in a monologue, the development occurs through the clash of motives within the speaker. Being a monologue presence of another person can be felt but he or she will not utter a single word . By the poet's words his or her presence can be understood and character can be revealed. Use of first person in a dramatic monologue is mandatory.
Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold is dramatic monologue lamenting the loss of true Christian faith in England during the mid 1800’s as science captured the minds of the public. The world is exposed, no longer protected and enveloped in beauty, as it once was. Indirectly, the poem implies the desperate state of the world in the final stanza is a result of the retreating "Sea of Faith." Because faith has been lost, the world has lost joy, love, light, certitude, peace, and healing.
The whole poem is the speech of one unidentified male character addressed to an unidentified woman, presumably his beloved. There is no dramatic interaction between them in that the female listener is silent throughout the poem. Everything about the passive listener and the dramatic situation is revealed in the speech of the speaker. The time is night and the place is in a room with a window overlooking Dover beach in England. The speaker is a mature male with a philosophical temperament. He seems to be melancholic as he broods over the darkening prospectus of the Victorian age.
This poem is a critical reflection on the Victorian age and how it is being caught in the chaos of the clash between science and religion. The speaker starts by delineating the dramatic situation. The atmosphere being invoked is calm and the mood is meditative. The speaker meditates on the sea and its calmness. Although the atmosphere is tranquil, the speaker can bear an "eternal note of sadness." The speaker, then, amplifies this note of sadness into a note of universal tragedy by invoking the Greek tragedian Sophocles. The speaker identifies this universal tragedy of human existence as due to the loss of religious faith. The literal sea he invoked at the beginning of the poem becomes the sea of Faith. In the past it was in full tide but now it is retreating exposing the "naked shingles of the world." The speaker invokes "love" as the only available means of a positive time.
The sea invoked at the beginning of the poem becomes the sea of Faith. In the past it was in full tide but now it is retreating exposing the "naked shingles of the world." The speaker invokes "love" as the only available means of a positive time.
The poem shuffles across a pictorial setting to turbulent sea of receding faith back to the ladylove again where the confused speaker finds the only solace and ray of hope. So the poem is fine example of dramatic monologue though all the tension is in inner conflict at heart land.