preview

Themes Of Matthew Arnold

Good Essays

What brings you happiness? Is it friends or family? Different people find happiness in different things, for author Matthew Arnold happiness can be found in peaceful times, religion, and the ways of the old world. Arnold was a man of the past and disliked the modernization of the world in the 19th century, making it harder for him to find happiness. This struggle to find peace created that hatred for the change and his negative attitudes towards the new world are apparent in his writings. Within his works, Arnold uses constant themes of anti-modernization and faith throughout his poems to portray his attitudes towards humanity’s loss of faith and the reasons modernization of the world during the 19th century was wrong. His distaste for the change is seen throughout almost all of his works of literature and also proven by psychologists who have studied the life of Arnold. In the 1800s when society was getting rid of their older way of living and developing newer ways, people such as Arnold were having issues adapting to this lifestyle. Arnold had disatisfaction in the new world for various reasons which consist of the fact that he thought the modern society was too problematic. His desire to escape the complexities of his new life was apparent within one of his most famous poems “Cadmus and Harmonious” saying, “Therefore they did not end their days/ In sight of blood, but were rapt, far away,/ To where the west-wind plays,” (Arnold, “Cadmus and Harmonia” 26-28). Here

Get Access