Dover Beach Modernism

Through the controversy of romanticism and modernism in Dover Beach, Arnold allows for readers to question the importance of life and what it means to fulfill human destiny while harnessing the quintessence of who you are. Arnold gives vivid imagery of the beautiful coastline bordering France to present the challenging contrast that we have the choice to either find fear in the future because of its uncertainty, or to embrace the beauty of the present because it is all we have in each moment. In raising this argument, Arnold presents a battle between both truths that reveal to readers the importance of staying solace to your loved one in a world of chaos.
This space of comfort is what Arnold challenges readers to find within their own interpretation
This mark of temptation opens up the option to entice the senses of readers, while making way for the implication that a sombre mood is still present as the sea is still calm. As the stanza continues, line nine exclaims, “Listen! You hear the grating roar” (line 9). This building roughness amongst the sea introduces the roaring battle we often fight as we develop throughout society. The “roar”, also being a metaphor for the tide that crashes along the shore, gives the imagery that one needs in order to recognize the tribulations that constantly challenge us. This static moment presents readers with the image of actively choosing to embrace the now or living in fear of the future and constantly resisting the challenges that are naturally apart of life in the same manner that the waves crash along the shoreline no matter how rough the tide gets. While Arnold indirectly suggests that learning about our truth oftentimes calls for us to reject the beliefs of the world, we do not always prepare for the hardships that may come with such self reflection. Hence why many people succumb to the pressures of the world instead of embracing their true innate purpose and facing the
He expliciates how living a life of morality is becoming more about exploring the consciousness each person yields from within, and less about the religious boundaries that encompass who is true and whole. This significant stride in discerning totality of human nature is one that has affected the Victorian period and continues to be apart of modern day society. While Dover Beach identifies the beauty of turmoil to be an oxymoron it becomes clear through the vivid ending phases of the poem, “Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night” (lines 36-37). The lack of control one may have over the challenges that may be faced during a liminal period can often develop a person into being more self aware. Although the moral perspective that one might have on life can become a period of developing trust through the process of transformation. It best identify with the uncanny depiction that there is beauty in the struggle of life. This outlook during the Victorian era of literature supports the belief that Matthew Arnold has been profoundly noted to be one of the most Modern writers of this era. Arnold’s futuristic interpretation of the power of literature is one that has been able to transcend the minds of a multitude of young writers proceeding after