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Ashley Murphy
Agnosticism in 19th Century England as Seen Through “Dover Beach”
The 19th century brought many drastic changes to life in England. The Industrial Revolution created
long hours, harsh working conditions and a sense of “mass man” throughout society. The many revolutions
in Europe that took place during this time were bloody and violent, and the introduction of mass automated
weaponry created a sense of impersonality behind the countless deaths and injuries. In addition to all of this,
Enlightenment ideals still caused people to look at everything thought to be true with a sense of skepticism
and to judge it based on its rationality. It is only natural that in this period of skepticism and loss of
individuality, a sense of agnostic secularism arose as people began to question their faiths and the idea of
religion. The poem “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold is a perfect example of the feeling of unrest many
people felt during this period. Originally, many people had spent their lives relying on religion; after it began
to lose its infallibility, many did not know where to turn. Echoing the sentiments of the time, Arnold
somberly proclaims that the beautiful, God-filled world has now been filled with a dreary emptiness.
With the birth of the Enlightenment, many philosophers of the 18th and 19th centuries began to
intensely question religion. Immanuel Kant played an integral role in criticizing formal religion, claiming it
should be ground solely in ethics. He attempted to objectify religion, declaring that all arguments needed to
be supported with fact and not with experience. Kant argues that “We cannot conclude to the existence of
something S simply from the definition of S… because a definition is a set of predicates and existence is not
a predicate” (Caputo 44). Kant suggests that religion is a product of how Man thinks he should worship God,
and as a result, Man creates many superfluous superstitions not grounded in moral law in which to please
God and to attain everlasting life. Caputo describes Kant’s beliefs perfectly, saying, “…we should
distinguish the rational element in religion, which is its universal ethical content, from the superstitions,
supernatural dogmas, and cultic practices which vary from one religion to another” (Caputo 48). This
objectification of religion led many later philosophers to further critique religion and God, eventually to
question whether the existence of God was rational and based in truth; this speculation only added to the
increased unrest during the time when Arnold published “Dover Beach.”
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After Kant’s groundwork, two of the most renowned philosophers of the 19th century, Kierkegaard
and Nietzsche, helped to create an even greater sense of religious confusion. On one hand, Kierkegaard
argued against Kant, saying that religion is not objective but instead the complete subjective experience one
has when worshipping God. As the “Father of Existentialism,” Kierkegaard argued that existence could not
be rationally explained, and instead, we as people need to take a leap of faith and focus on the reality of God
all around us. As Caputo states, Kierkegaard “…[did] not think that the world makes sense, or that human
beings could lift themselves up by the bootstraps of their own Philosophical Reason, or that the soundness of
the Moral Law would make us whole… He took existence to be a gaping wound whose bleeding can be
staunched only by a transforming leap of faith” (Caputo 52). In his powerful works, Kierkegaard made a plea
to return to subjective, whole-hearted worship, like that of the medieval mystics, instead of the rational overanalysis that was prevalent during the 19th century.
On the other hand, Nietzsche made a bold proclamation in his work, The Gay Science: “God is dead.
God remains dead. And we have killed him” (Nietzsche 95). He argued throughout his works that humans
have elevated themselves to be their own gods and therefore no longer need “God.” Like Kierkegaard,
Nietzsche also believed that the world is a senseless place, but mankind put its faith in this idea of “God” to
cope with the unanswerable truths of the universe. “Nietzsche had a terrifying vision of the world as so many
forces swirling and sweeping their way across infinite cosmic space, building up and discharging their
energies, forming unstable constellations that soon enough become undone,” Caputo theorizes, and “[W]e
require a tidier view of the world than is suggested by all that tumult if we are to get ourselves through the
day” (Caputo 54). To Nietzsche, God and religion are only attempts to rationalize this vast, meaningless
world; as a result, we understand the world through jaded lenses. He argued that belief in God is solely an
attempt to create a sense of order and purpose in an irrational universe. “Thus they arrive at their stupendous
concept, ‘God.’ That which is last, thinnest, and emptiest is put first, as the cause, as ens realissimum [the
most real thing]” (Nietzsche 482). Although Kierkegaard and Nietzsche appear to be on opposite sides of the
belief spectrum, they both agreed that 19th century society had killed the idea of God with its obsessive
rationality. “Instead of beginning on our knees, we are all seated solemnly and with stern faces on the hard
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benches of the court of Reason as it is called into session” (Caputo 46). Between Nietzsche’s argument for
the nonexistence of God, the constant headlock between Kierkegaard and Nietzsche and the need to use
Reason to rationalize all ideas, the 19th century society had no idea what to believe.
The period in which Matthew Arnold released his poem “Dover Beach” was full of universal unrest
and skepticism. This is seen most clearly in the last two stanzas of the poem where the subject is
contemplating his faith and the concept of reality. In the first of the two stanzas, the rhyme scheme is very
chaotic, if existent at all. There are only two rhyming lines in the whole stanza, giving the impression that the
narrator of the poem is trying to find order in his faith, but the chaos of the remaining rhymes reminds us he
is only answered with the irrationality of the world around him. The meter is iambic, creating a false sense of
order, but the meter haphazardly switches between trimeter, quadrameter and pentameter. Overall, the first
stanza reflects the general sentiment of many during this period, representing a desperate attempt to create an
ordered and rational argument to support the existence of a divine plan, only to be answered with the
unordered, cold nature of the universe.
The first stanza also has a very sad, almost mournful tone. The subject starts off by reminiscing on
when he was at one point filled with faith. Arnold writes, “The Sea of Faith/ Was once, too, at the full” (2122), creating an image like a cup filled to the brim with happiness and good fortune. His reference to the
“folds of a bright girdle furled” (22) creates an image of a vivacious and “colorful” outlook on life. He
returns to his reality after line 22, though, when he admits that his wondrous, exciting “Sea of Faith” has
turned into nothing more than just waves on a beach. He only hears the silence where God’s voice used to be,
although “Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar” (25) gives the impression that he is longingly listening for
the sounds of faith to come back. His use of the word “roar” in contrast to “the breath/Of the night-wind”
(26-27) used to describe the gentle ebb and flow of the ocean further emphasizes how deafening the silence
has become to him, as he would like nothing more than to hear God’s voice again. Unfortunately, though, he
admits that the world is not the same as it used to be, as the waves of faith have drawn back to reveal the
“naked shingles [pebbles] of the world” (28), the rocky undercarriage of reality hidden underneath the veil of
faith. He now sees reality as the sharp, jagged, unkind existence that it is, according to him, and it will never
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regain its beauty. At the end of the first stanza, the subject of the poem is longing for his faith to return to
him, but he knows all too well that reality is not as beautiful as he once thought.
In the second stanza, the subject decides it is time to stop mourning the loss of his faith and instead
turn to all he can trust: love. The rhyme scheme in this paragraph is in the form ABBA, creating a much
stronger sense of order and rationality. He is finally deciding not to let himself dwell on his past faith, but
instead to accept what he knows to be true now. The meter for the most part remains fairly constant. The first
line is in iambic trimeter, but from that point to the third to last line, the poem in iambic pentameter. This
shows that after he decides to be true to what he knows, his anxiety towards the chaos of the unknown
appears to decrease and he becomes confident in his choice to live in the present and not the past. The last
two lines, however, deviate from iambic meter, creating a clashing feeling of discomfort. This shows that
although he appeared confident before, he is still uneasy and, to some extent, scared. These final lines show
that although he appears to have come to a solution of how to cope with his loss of faith, he still is fearful for
what his faithless future holds.
The second stanza has a much more cynical tone than the first. In the first line, line 29, he is telling
his lover that they can only be true to the one thing they for sure understand: each other. The pause after true
creates a sense of hesitancy as well, as if he were going to say they should remain true to their faith. When he
instead tells her to be true to one another, he is deciding to put his faith behind him for good. Also, the word
“love” in line 29 has a double meaning. While he is referring to his lover, it also represents the general
concept of love as well. He is personifying love, asking it to help him remain true to only one another. In the
following lines, his cynicism is also present when he declares that the world is not as beautiful as it once was:
“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” (30-34);
In losing his faith, he also lost the beauty of the world around him. Everything appears significantly less
joyous and exciting to him, and he is beginning to realize that the world is a senseless, irrational land of
emptiness. In fact, he even goes on to say that the world is just getting darker as time passes, as if he had
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stopped following the light at the end of the tunnel and instead turned back into the darkness. “And we are
here as on a darkling plain” (35) the subject says, creating a murky and ominous image of the world around
him. It appears as if there is no joy left in his life, and his unyielding realism reminds him constantly of the
bleak nature of being. This leads into the last two lines of the poem where the clashing meter already adds a
sense of discomfort. In these lines, he sadly reflects on the struggle all people have in trying to decipher our
senseless world. He realizes he is not the only one struggling with his faith - the loss of faith is an epidemic
of this time period. People are confused about what to believe and how to come to terms with the harsh
reality of the irrational world. Just like the Athenians in the Peloponnesian War, the darkness settled around
these people, and mass confusion began to set in. As the poem says, “…ignorant armies clash by night” (37).
These confused people began to defend their faith in every way they could, all clashing with one another, in
an attempt to deny the thought that maybe there was not a god watching out over them after all. This somber
end to the poem leaves a lasting sense of emptiness with the reader as it is clear that no matter how badly the
subject wants to regain his faith, he has truly lost all hope in finding it. His cynicism and sadness radiate
through the poem as he now feels the loneliness in the dark, senseless world.
“Dover Beach” perfectly emphasizes 19th century sentiments. It not only displays the world as a cold,
lonely place, but it allows the reader to experience the pain and fear many people felt after realizing their
faith was null and void. In reading the philosophy of the great scholars of the day, we understand the reasons
why the later 19th century was so full of unrest and agnosticism; through powerful poems, such as “Dover
Beach” and George Herbert’s “The Collar,” we experience the suffering one endures when they are forced to
question whether their beliefs are ground in reality or not. Matthew Arnold perfectly captured the sentiments
of countless people in his powerful poem, and he allows us to see how deeply faith, and the loss of faith,
really does affect humanity.