The Theme of Loss of Faith in "Dover Beach" By Matthew Arnold

“If you lose money you lose much, if you lose friends you lose more, if you lose faith you lose all” Eleanor Roosevelt, former first lady of the United States The poem “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold is about the speaker who expresses the changes during the Victorian era about science and faith. The speaker stands on the beach and uses the beach and waves to describe his fears and expresses what will happen if his fear were to come true. His fears can affect society and the values that we are losing and what we might become as a society. Matthew Arnold “Dover Beach” expresses his fears through the theme of loss of faith how society has started to lose faith, he expresses that love won’t be enough, and the importance of faith in our lives

Arnold describes the fear of loss of faith as he uses the beach to illustrate that. As the poem opens, he states the following “The sea is calm tonight” (Arnold 530) this gives the readers a sense of tranquility and peace. At that moment the speaker is describing the atmosphere where he is at as something peaceful. He also describes the sea and the sound of “pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling” (Arnold 530). Which can confuse the reader at first from the true message the poet wants to convey which is that even though it might sound beautiful is” the eternal note of sadness in” as the poet describes it (Arnold 530). This unexpected introduction of sadness hints the sense of loss. As we continue to read on, the speaker says the following “the sea of faith was once, too, at the full, and around earths shore, but now I only hear its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar” (Arnold 531).

The poem is essentially saying that the loss of faith is happening all around, when we take into consideration the year this was written it was during the Victorian era, during that period of time scientific advancement had been taking place, the speaker says that these advancements could be a loss rather than gains he expresses this when he states “and we are here as on a dark plain, swept with confused alarms of struggles and flight, while ignorant armies clash at night”( Arnold 531). This quote comes to show the speaker’s point of view which is that by the loss of faith and incrementation of scientific advancement it will create more doubts.

The speaker also mentions that as faith diminishes all, there’s left is love. But he fears that that won’t be enough only faith is enough. The speaker illustrates this when he states the following “ah love, let us be true to one another for the world which seems so various, so beautiful, so new hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light'(Arnold 531). This statement highlights that on the surface the world seems beautiful and new, but in reality, is just an appearance or a mask. For the author a world without faith is like being naked. The speaker uses shingles to give his point of view he states that “Retreating to the beach of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear and naked shingles of the world” (Arnold 531) as believers decrease he sees the world as nothing in others words a world without faith is like naked shingles.

The speaker also highlights the importance of faith throughout the poem. The speaker makes note that “and we are here as on a darkling plain” (Arnold 531) the speaker uses the word dark to highlight what they world would become. Here we get a sense of importance to how faith plays an important role to the speaker. The author also say that a world without faith would be misery in a world without faith he gave the example, if Sophocles, he was an ancient Greek playwright who “heard it on the Aegan, and it brought into his mind the turbid ebb and flow of human misery”(Arnold 530). The speaker seems to be using imagery and uses the ocean just like Sophocles once did to describe humanity using the waves to describe sorrow and sadness.

To conclude “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold main theme is about loss of faith. And how during the Victorian era, people started to lose faith and more in science. Works as a way to teach humans that faith is really important in our lives to achieve. Currently we are facing many problems in our world and one of them that has really caught my attention is the fire in Australia. The fire is affecting the animals and the people around it by destroying their homes and taking their lives. In this situation we can’t lose our faith just like Arnold implied in his poem instead we have to maintain our faith and come together as a unified world to tackle such problem.