Reality Vs Illusion In Dover Beach

To begin, Dover Beach expresses the relationship of reality versus illusion. In Dover Beach, Arnold tells the readers that he want his lover and himself to be honest and more truthful to one another because Arnold know that the world is not everything it seems to be and that “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” (5,5-9). This quote explains about how peace will begin to fade if the world continue to live on without faith. The situation described in the poem reflects the one in the novel very well. As the characters in the novel are in a world of reality versus illusion by the society, similar to the people in the poem, they started becoming empty.
When Mildred tell Montag that "My 'family' is people. They tell me things; I laugh, they laugh! And the colors!" (pg 69) Mildred pretend as if her family in the television is just as necessary as her real family members. She is so wrap up in it that it's hard for Mildred to distinguish which one is the most important. An example of this is how the only family that Mildred love is the people in a television wall, how these television people are not real or capable of passion! Montag was also asking Mildred the same favor as what Arnold who try to convince his wife, to be honest to one another and try not to lie to each other again. Sadly, Mildred did not really understand the Dover Beach and was not moved by it, unlike her friends who cried and left the house. This event verifies Mildred as a hollow character that is being controlled by the society just like Arnold who is telling his wife that the world is not everything it appears to be and that the society is not what you think it