Victorian the Significance of Love

Victorian

the significance of love and faith in Victorian Poets

Victorian poets

In the work of two of the three Victorian poets, discuss those elements, which you feel gave their contemporaries some answer to the problems of faith.

The question of faith in the Victorian age was an important issue, especially in the light of the challenges to religion from emerging scientific theories. The advance of industrialization and science of during this century resulted in many questions about faith and led many people during this era to question accepted structures of thinking and conventional religious views. As one commentator notes, the influence of the ethos of science was to disrupt traditional views of life and reality. "Some forms of the sciences, especially those emanating from France, seemed to suggest a restricted (or even non-existent) role for God in the universe, and thus to undermine the Anglican politico-religious establishment." (Fyfe and van Wyhe )

This dilemma of faith and the consequent effect that the advance of science and the concomitant secularization had on the meaning of existence, is evident in many of the poets and writers of that era. It will be suggested in this paper that many of the Victorian poets were cognizant of the search for faith and that they were also aware that the traditional structures were no longer adequate to provide answers to these questions. Alternatively, love and art are often seen as alternatives for a society or a world that had lost its faith and way. Many of these aspects are evident in the works of Matthew Arnold and Robert Browning.

2. Arnold and Browning

The poem "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold exhibits many of the aspects of this search for faith and meaning in life. In this poem the sea is used as a metaphor for life and society. At first we encounter the beauty and radiance of the sea as it is viewed in the moonlight. However, the mood changes and a tone of sadness and even hostility begin to emerge. For example, the last lines of first stanza juxtapose the mood of natural beauty with a sense of sadness.

With tremulous cadence slow, and bring

The eternal note of sadness in.

(Lines 13 -- 14)

This refers to the human condition and also obliquely to a society which has lost direction and faith. The second stanza increases the intensity of this vision of humanity with the lines;

… the turbid ebb and flow

Of human misery.

(Lines 17-18)

This theme is developed and in the third stanza we encounter the perception of the "Sea of Faith." The poet notes that the sea of faith was "… once, too, at the full." We can interpret this as meaning that faith in life, society and spiritual existence was previously more abundant in history and there was less pessimism about human society and human nature. As one commentator notes, the sea becomes, "a symbol for a time when religion could still be experienced without the doubts brought about by progress and science (Darwinism). Now, the 'Sea of Faith' and thus the certainty of religion withdraws itself from the human grasp and leaves only darkness behind."

(Fyfe and van Wyhe)

The protagonist in the poem states that the sea is for him no longer a symbol of faith and plenitude but rather he only hears" Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar & #8230; "

However, the answer or rather the response that the poem provides to this sense of emptiness and loss of faith is expressed in the final stanza. In the face of this awareness of human decline and despair the protagonist pledges love to his partner. This love is described as "true," which implies a love that is faithful and enduring and which can transcend the loss of faith in the world.

This vision or poetic image of loss of faith in human nature can be seen, albeit in a different light, in the work of Browning. An example would be the poem "Fra Lippon Lippi." In this poem the poet questions the nature of art and whether it should be true-to -- life or idealistic. The question is related to the way that art can best serve religious purposes and also refers to the gap between ordinary life and religious faith. The argument that runs throughout the poem is that the religious authorities are more concerned with appearances than expressing deep religious convictions.

Many of Browning's poems were concerned with what many Victorian's saw as the moral decay and the loss of faith. This was also linked to the advance of scientific theories which undermined religious conviction. Browning often critiques human nature. This is evident in one of his most popular poem, "My Last Duchess." In this poem we encounter a world where love and faith have become perverted by status and power.