Dr Farida Yasmin Panhwar

Assistant professor
Institute of English language & Literature,
University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Pakistan
Mathew Arnold As A Critic
 Mathew Arnold As A Critic
 Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), the eminent, prose, poet
and most influential force among the Victorians, was 'the
first modern critic' and could be called 'the critic's critic',
being a champion not only of great poetry, but of literary
criticism.
 The purpose of literary criticism, in his view, was 'to
know the best that is known and thought in the world, and
by in its turn making this known, to create a current of
true and fresh ideas‘.
 In the time of Arnold uses the term ‘criticism’ it has a
wider application upon society, religion, politics and life
in general.
 Mathew Arnold As A Critic

 He was the founder of the sociological school of

criticism, and through his touchstone method introduced
scientific objectivity to critical evaluation by providing
comparison and analysis as the two primary tools of
criticism.
 He believed that literature is a criticism of life and the
functions of criticism is to promote literary culture.
 The Function of Criticism at the Present Time is the
finest of Arnold’s essays.
 He did not merely criticize books himself but taught
others how to criticize who laid down principles and
brought criticism to stand on a solid ground.
 Mathew Arnold As A Critic

 He defines criticism as a disinterested and propagate the

best that is known and thought in the world.
 A critic should avoid narrow-minded so that he can
discover the best and the noblest.
 Arnold suggests his well-known touchstone method to
guide the critic.
 Arnold suggested this method to overcome the drawbacks
of the personal and historical estimates of a poem.
 In Arnold’s view the most useful method to discover the
real excellence is to have in mind lines and expression of
the great masters such as Dante, Shakespeare Milton etc.
which may be applied as touchstone to other works.
 Mathew Arnold As A Critic

 Arnold a critic is a social benefactor and believes

that a critic is the creative artist, who not only
cares for the beauties and defects of works of art,
but critic chose to be the educator and guardian of
public opinion and propagator of the best ideas.
 In The Function of Criticism at the Present Time
(1864) he writes that when assessing a particular
work, the goal is ‘to see the object as in itself it
really is’.
 Mathew Arnold As A Critic

 It is in Arnold that English literature could have a critic of

real nature, who laid down certain principles following
which poetry could be criticized.
 He advises critics to “give themselves great labor to draw
out what in the abstract constitutes the characteristics of a
high quality of poetry.
 He sees two dangers in the way of the real estimate: the
historical estimate and the personal estimate and warns
critics to shun them because their duty is to find out the
real classic, and these two ‘estimates’ make them overrate
a poet and the way therefore foil his project.
 Mathew Arnold As A Critic

 And our personal affinities, likings and circumstances

have great power to sway our estimate of his or that
poet’s work.
 Matthew Arnold perceived the critic quite different from
any other before him.
 According to him, criticism did not come from the
branch of philosophy, it was not even a craft; it was a
form of art, the art of judgment.
 He says that a critic should belong to no party whether
intellectual, religious or political.
 He should learn to think objectively, he should
demonstrate that this is better than that.
 Mathew Arnold As A Critic

 Criticism ought to be a ‘dissemination of ideas, an

unprejudiced and impartial effort to study and spread
the best that is known and thought in the world’.
 To pursuit for the best, it should not only restrict or
limit himself to the literature works of his own country
but should draw on foreign literature.
 Arnold says criticism is nothing if it is not related to life
so his criticism of literature, society, politics, and
religion all tends towards being a criticism of life.
 He defines criticism as “the endeavor, in all branches of
knowledge, theology, philosophy, history, art, science,
to see the object as in itself it really is.
 Mathew Arnold As A Critic

 The critic’s part in this procedure necessitates that he

disinterestedly identifies the greatness in writing and use
his critical powers to communicate this greatness to
the common man.
 Arnold makes an effort to demonstrate that criticism in
and of itself has several significant functions and should
be observed as an art form that is as high and important
as any creative art form.
 It is said that when the poet in Arnold died, the critic was
born; and it is true that from this time onward he turned
almost entirely to prose.
 Mathew Arnold As A Critic
 The first essay in the 1888 volume, “The Study of
Poetry,” was published as introduction to T.H. Ward’s
anthology, The English Poets (1880).
 It contains many of the ideas for which Arnold is best
remembered.
 More and more, we will “turn to poetry to interpret life
for us, to console us, to sustain us.”
 Therefore we must know how to distinguish the best
poetry from the inferior, the genuine from the
counterfeit; and to do this we must steep ourselves in the
work of the acknowledged masters, using as
“touchstones” passages exemplifying their “high
seriousness,” and their superiority of diction and move
 Mathew Arnold As A Critic

 Arnold confident that poetry has a great pleasure and

play a dignified role in the life of mankind.
 The function of criticism, he preaches “disinterestedness
endeavour to learn and propagate the best that is known
and thought in the world, and thus to establish a current
of fresh and true ideas.”
 It is in fact that he foster, the spirit of an awakened and
informed intelligence playing upon not “literature” only
but theology, history, art, science, sociology, and politics,
and in every sphere seeking “to see the object as in itself
it really is.”
 Mathew Arnold As A Critic
 As a critic Arnold is essentially a moralist, and has very
definite ideas about what poetry should be.
 He states that a poetry of indifference to moral ideas is a
poetry of indifference to life.
 Arnold even censored his own collection on moral
grounds and omitted the poem Empedocles on
Etna from his volume of 1853 on grounds that poem is
too depressing in its subject matter, and would leave the
reader hopeless and crushed.
 There is nothing in it in the way of hope or optimism,
and such a poem could prove to be neither instructive
nor of any delight to the reader.
 Return to Classical values

 Arnold believed that a modern writer should be aware that

contemporary literature is built on the foundations of the past,
and should contribute to the future by continuing a firm tradition.
 He urged modern poets to look to the ancients and their great
characters and themes for guidance and inspiration who possess
pathos, moral profundity and noble simplicity, while modern
themes, arising from an age of spiritual weakness, are suitable for
only comic and lighter kinds of poetry, and don't possess the
loftiness to support epic or heroic poetry.
 Arnold seeks to revive the Classical values of objectivity,
urbanity, and architectonics.
 He denounces the Romantics for ignoring the Classical writers
for the sake of novelty, and for their allusive.
 Three functions for the critic
 Arnold states that tthe task of a critic is threefold.
1. The first task is the critic’s duty to learn, and for that
he must “see things as they really are”.
2. The second task is to hand on this idea to others, to
convert the world, to make “the best ideas prevail.”
3. The third task requires the critic to create a
favourable atmosphere for the creative genius of the
future, by promoting “a current of ideas in the
highest degree animating and nourishing to the
creative power.” Without the prevalence of best
ideas, there will be a cultural anarchy.
 Arnold As A Critic
 Arnold also observes that to recognize the greatness of a
literary work, one has to look beyond the social ideas and
influences that cast shadows and opinions.
 He indicates that two powers must converge to create a great
piece of literature: the power of man and the power of moment.
 Arnold believed that one must not confine himself to the
literature if his own country, but should draw substantially on
foreign literature and ideas because the propagation of ideas
should be an objective endeavor.
 Scott-James says that Arnold places the critic “is the position of
John the Baptist, preparing the ways for one whose shoe he is
not worthy to unloose”.
 Thus, Arnold has a high conception of the vocation of a critic.