Dover Beach Theme Imagery and Sound Essay

In Dover Beach, Matthew Arnold creates a monologue that shows how perceptions can be misleading. The theme of fallacy versus human race in Dover Beach reflects the speakers awareness of the inconsistency between what is perceived and what truly is real. Arnold conveys the theme of Dover Beach through cardinal essential developments. First, he pulmonary tuberculosiss visual mental picturery. Second, he uses audio (aural) tomography. Third, he uses meter and metric. These mechanics alone do not rationalize why illusion and existence differ, solely they do help to explain how Arnold sets up the poem to condense the theme.The strongest support of the theme comes from its intense imagery which is scattered throughout Dover Beach. The most affecting image is the sea. The sea includes the visual imagery, used to chatter illusion, as well as the auditory imagery, used to express reality. The image is intensely drawn by Arnold to vividly see the faith disappearing from the sp eakers founding. The image of vestige encompasses the speakers life just like the night wind pushes the clouds in to change a bright, cool sea into dark, naked shingle. The irony of Dover Beach lies in the separate elements of the troubled speaker and the calm sea with tranquil moonlight. For example, the moonlit cliffs of the start-off stanza appear again in the literary arguments for the serviceman/Which lies before us like a land of dreams.The sea which begins calm and tranquil, becomes a hell dust shore with naked shingles and night-wind which in turn disrupts the speakers faith. The symbolism of the speakers faith, as well as light and dark, reinforce the theme of illusion versus reality. The illusionary quality of the sea infers how very shaky and insecure the speakers faith has become. In downslope 21, the speaker refers to the sea as a metaphoric sea of faith. This symbol represents the illusion of the speakers faith. The reality of his neglect of faith becomes ap parent in lines 25 through 28.The speaker explains on how that once great and calm sea of faith has turned into a roar, dark, windy, dreary, and gravely bench. In reality, the speakers faith disappears with totally darkness to replace it a powerful symbol of disillusionment which sets the mood for the rest of the poem. In stanza 3, the fiction like the folds of a bright girdle furled (Line 13) contrasts with Vast edges drear/And naked shingles of the world (Lines 27-28)The speakers problem also appears in the sounds of the words throughout the poem. The consonant quality of the g and the r in grating roar (line 9) takes on an auditory quality, whereas the previous stanza displayed visual qualities. The grating and roaring pebbles produce sound while the calm sea and glowing French coast produce a visual effect. In line 13, the words tremulous cadence behind slows the reader with the sounds of the t, c, and s sounds. aft(prenominal) stanza two, the third, fourth, and fifth stan zas alternate sounds (stanza three, first three lines of stanza four, last five lines of stanza four and stanza five). The smooth sounds of l in line 7, long line, and the f in line 23, folds and furled, point out the antecedents of illusion where the conflict of the illusion versus reality does not exist. In contrast, the rough sounds in line 28, naked shingles of the world, indicate the places where reality not only exists, nevertheless where illusion cannot exist, and the speaker cannot escape his misery.The sounds of the words not only slow the speakers struggle, but also suggest the underlying motif of light and dark. The words glimmer and gleam. The gl suggests light whereas the ea suggest smallness. The er suggests movement. All combined, the allusion is made to the idea of a small, moving light. This contrasts with the darkness of the later on stanzas indicated by the words darkling and night. In the third stanza, the words faith and bright followed by but imply a loss of faith, and in doing so associates darkness with loss of faith. The lack of a convention in the rhyme scheme reflects the speakers inner debate. The rhyme scheme of the first stanza consists of ABACD. The first and third lines rhyme, to-night and light, but no other lines rhyme in the first stanza. The same instance occurs in the second stanzas rhyme scheme of BDCEFCGHG. Multiple lines do rhyme, but in no set blueprint. This opposes the chemical formula of the iambic rhyme of the first stanza. A vivid description of the calm sea in the first eight lines allows a picture of the sea to unfold. The next six lines really put up out, especially the words Listen, grating roar, and eternal note of lugubriousness.The distinction between the sight and sound imagery continues into the third stanza. Sophocles can hear the Aegean Sea, but cannot see it. He hears the purposelessness of human misery, but cannot see it because of the turbid ebb and flow of the sea. The allusion of Sophocles an d the pastis replaced by the auditory image, But now I only hear/ Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar/ Retreating to the breath/ Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear/ And naked shingles of the world (Lines 24-28). There is a sense of sympathy. The words tremulous cadence slow and eternal note of sadness evokes a sense pity for the speaker whose struggle with illusion and reality seems to end in darkness and sadness.Not only will the speaker have to confront reality, but beyond the naked shingles the darkness continues, interrupted only by the confused alarms and fights and ringing conflicts of battle by night-the sounds of supreme futility Arnold uses much(prenominal) alliteration and assonance in the poem as well. For example, in line 31, To lie before us like a land of dreams, repeating the letter L at the beginning of three words. Also, in line 4, Gleams and is gone repeating the letter G. Arnold shows use of assonance in line 2, tied/lies and in line 31, lie/likeThe most important method in Dover Beach includes the rhythm and the meter of the lines and the stanzas of the poem. The sea/is calm/to-night. The gentle lively rhythm of the iamb mirrors the ebb and flow of the sea. The positive words of the first line manifest this idea to picture a calm sea thinly lapping at the beach. The second line also reveals a calm sea. However, line 3 breaks the pattern and forces the reader to break his or her own rhythm. Line 3 includes Upon/the straits,//on the French/Coast/the light. The line begins and ends with an iamb, but the middle is broken up. This is a foreshadow of the disorder to come. The fourth line breaks up thus far farther at the beginning, but the fifth line recovers the rhythm. Glimmering/and vast//out in/the tran/quil bay.The rhythm recovers by the end of the first stanza, but the original rhythm has not. The number of feet per line constantly increases from three to four and then to five, once again, a foreshadow of the upcoming strug gle. The second stanza attempts to regain a pattern but the pattern disappears in line 7 only to reappear in line 8. The pattern of iambs continues through the stanza, but the number of feet per line never projects a pattern. In other words, by the use of a pattern in the rhythm and the lack of a pattern in the number of feet per line and the rhyme scheme, Arnold portrays an outwardly rhythmic and flowing poem with underlying confusion and trouble.The illusion of the rhythm masksthe reality of the struggle of the speaker. The auditory qualities of lines 9-14 set the tone for the rest of the poem. LISten yoU HEAR the GRATing ROar / of PEBbles which the WAves acquire back, anD FLinG, / aT their return, UP the HIgh strand, / BEgin, anD ceASE, anD thEN agAIN beGIN, / with TREMulous CAdenCE SLOw, anD bring / the eterNAL banknote oF SADness IN.Arnolds Dover Beach applies technical qualities, symbolism, and imagery to reveal the theme of illusion versus reality. The stirred struggle of the speaker is supported by the rhythm and the meter, the lack of a consistent rhyme scheme, the figures of speech, the sound of the words, and the irony of the entire poem. The symbolism of the sea and the imagery of light and dark bring out the alternate visual and auditory qualities, which elaborate on illusion and reality, respectively, Arnolds portrayal of one persons battle with illusion and reality shows a complex view of humanity in a unbiased poem.