The Scholar's “Fight to Find the Lost Element”
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
ISSN 1798-4769 Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol. 6, No. 6, pp. 1325-1332, November 2015 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/jltr.0606.21 The Validity of the Vision: The Scholar’s “Fight to Find the Lost Element” Bahee Hadaegh Shiraz University, Iran Abstract—In the context of Anorld’s poetic landscape, the “forest glade” is gone and the “glimmering sea is far beyond the reach of people who are wandering in the “darkling plain” where the genuine self is buried. The inability to find the genuine self, brought about by loss of hope, made the inhabitants of the “burning plain” continue their oscillations between the frustrating world and what they unconsciously felt to be its essential existence. It is actually because of this lack of courage that Empedocles suspends his own life. The inhabitants of the “burning desert” wait passively, and the culture simultaneously wait for the light; they are shown as awaiting some revolution, but they are in a mood of “not being” or in a continual disappointment, without specific purpose. The aim of this essay is to show the changes in the passive, meditative mood of Arnold’s characters who begin the active life of the quest to find the genuine self. This quest begins with the story of “The Scholar Gipsy”. Index Terms—The Scholar Gipsy, Anorld’s poetic landscape, lost element, quest I. INTRODUCTION The unhealthy situation of Victorian life in Arnold’s poetic world is demonstrated this way: All his store of sad experience he Lays bare of wretched days; Tell us his misery’s birth and growth and signs, And now the dying spark of hope was fed. (“Scholar Gipsy” 185-8) They confess their inability to find their buried self because of their passive waiting: “yes, we wait it-but it still delays” (“Scholar Gipsy 181”). There is no active deed or a positive search for the buried self and consequently the result is useless like what Empedocles does in his fruitless waiting Whose insight never has borne fruit in deeds Whose vague resolves never have been fulfilled; From whom each year we see Breeds new beginnings, disappointments new; Who lose to-morrow the ground won to-day- (“Scholar Gipsy” 175-9) What seems strange to these men is a profound belief in hope, though they “never deeply felt, nor clearly willed” (“Scholar Gipsy” 175). According to Arnold’s note (1989) in the Yale Ms., “The misery of the present age is . in [men’s] incapacity to suffer, enjoy, feel at all, wholly and profoundly” (P. 300). “The Scholar Gipsy” is a call to renew the lost hopes and to search actively for the genuine self which is powerless to be born in the passive, solitary mood of Empedoclean life. It can be considered as Arnold’s second stage in finding the true self after experiencing his previous failure in the first stage of solitude. The earlier poems of Mathew Arnold up to ‘The Scholar Gipsy” represent a contemplative life, without any manifestation of Homeric characters who act and talk according to the genuine self without giving way to meditation and passivity. The social life in the “burning plain” for the most part does not allow men to act according their buried selves. Once they want to grasp it, a strong force of the arid desert pulls them down. The effort of Calliclean active life turns out to be Empedoclean disappointment just before it takes its appropriate productive shape. The aim of this essay is to show the changes in the passive, meditative mood of Arnold’s characters who begin the active life of the quest to find the genuine self. It can be considered as Arnold’s second stage in his way to discover the buried life. This quest begins with the story of “The Scholar Gipsy”. II. DISCUSSION Arnold’s 1853 Preface (1995) calls for a change in the continuation of suffering and contemplation. It is true that Arnold began his poetic career as a man alienated from his society in his first stage of his poetic career, but at some point he came to realize that the burden of isolation was too heavy to bear. He was convinced that he was better to get involved in his society than to repudiate it. As Madden says, “Unlike the early letters, in which he warned Clough that © 2015 ACADEMY PUBLICATION 1326 JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE TEACHING AND RESEARCH it was better to do and be nothing than engage in philistercy, . the later letters and criticism were firmly set against ‘quietism’” (P.135). A. H. Warren (1950) holds that it “was an attempt to alter the canon of English poetry” (p.159). Martin Corner (1973) also refers to it as “a call to the true path which directed the English poetry into a new course” (p.223). This new course seems to be, as S. M.B. Coulling (1969) believes,” Arnold’s refusal to be a mere spokesman for his age” (p.234). In Arnold’s earlier poems what dominates the whole atmosphere is his view expressed in the letter to Clough: “What you have to say depends on your age” (p.65). The poems are really a true representation of chocking atmosphere of his age without any trace of practical search to find the genuine self. But in the 1853 Preface, Arnold (1995) desperately talks about the great “confusion of the present time” (I, p. 8) and escapes from it by his invitation for the energetic quest. Arnold refused to publish Empedocles on Etna in his 1853 volume of poems for the reason expressed in the preface, because the poem depicts merely a contemplative and passive life which fails to find the buried self. Abjadian (1995-96) believes that Arnold wrote Empedocles on Etna since the topic was appealing to him and at last he suppressed it because it did not conform to the principles of the preface (p.25). Arnold could no longer agree with a drama in which “suffering finds no vent in action; in which a continuous state of mental distress is prolonged, unrelieved by incident, hope, or resistance, in which there is everything to be endured, nothing to be done” (CPW I, p.15). Evaluating his characters and being influenced by some social movements like Carlyle’s doctrine of work, Arnold attempted to activate his heroes and himself. He solved the moral malady of Victorian victims and helped them a step forward in finding their genuine selves. Arnold moved from subjectivity to objectivity. Stopford A. Brooke (1989) believes that Arnold found a way to find his true self in his escape from self-consideration (p.128).The main purpose of the 1853 Preface, according to Arnold, is to choose “A great human action, . an excellent action, noble and significant, some noble action of a heroic time” (CPW I, p.12). Although this action is by far different from what Aristotle recommends, it is considered as a escape from fruitless passive and alienated life which offers no help in finding the genuine self. In a letter to Clough, Arnold (1986) explicitly reveals the secret of which the Victorian victims were ignorant: “What men want is something to animate and ennoble them, such a feeling is the basis of my poetics” (p.146). The passive mind needs an ennobling force to make it active and lead it to find the buried self. Arnold in the second stage of his poetic career, around the year 1852 onward, felt the necessity of the unchained mind. Byron in the “Sonnet on Chillon” refers to this aspect as “the eternal spirit of the chainless mind.” It is the liberation of men’s buried capabilities and redirection of them towards salvation. According to Arnold the active working of mind, which is called imagination, makes men flee from the bondage’s and help them find their true beating selves. Wilson Knight (1955) refers to what Hamlet believes in this regard, that the destiny of man depends on what his active mind decides for him (p.58). Submission is no longer desirable; instead of looking backward to the realm of solitude, the active life of imaginative reason looks forward to the realm of self-recognition. The only things that are available to the inhabitants of the “darkling plain” are the endurance, sad patience, and despair. In “The Scholar Gipsy” Arnold points to the lack of real faith and activity in the world. Man’s life of troubles and trials wear out the energies; weariness soon overwhelms their spirits and frustrates their endless plans and efforts to find their buried selves: For what wears out the life of mortal men? ‘Tis that from change to change their being rolls; ‘Tis that repeated shocks, again, again Exhaust the energy of the strongest souls And numb the elastic power. (142-5) In “The Scholar Gipsy” Arnold tries to renew the only remaining hope to which the inhabitants of the “darkling plain” can trust to save their lives. It is a miracle to believe in the possibility of belief. The imagined Scholar seems to be that possibility who seeks to find his ignored self in an energetic quest. Roper (1969) says: The age is in a condition which precludes the recovery of hope and faith, it can at most, little as it in, hope to recover hope, but even that may be a delusion. (p.225) “The Scholar Gipsy” manifests the possibility of good dreams in a bad time, and if the poem somehow doubts the validity of such dreams, it is never against it and even pleas for it.