Culture and Anarchy : Matthew Arnold

CULTURE AND ANARCHY

MATTHEW ARNOLD

Matthew Arnold was born at Laleham on the Thames on Dec. 24, 1822. His father, Dr. Thomas Arnold, one of the worthies whom Lytton Strachey was to portray somewhat critically in Eminent Victorians, became the celebrated master of Rugby School, and his ideals of Christian education were influential. As a young man, Matthew Arnold saw something of William Wordsworth, Robert Southey, and other veterans of English romanticism. Educated at Rugby and then at Balliol College, Oxford, he early began to write poetry. The closest friend of his youth was Arthur Hugh Clough, a poet and sometime disciple of Dr. Arnold, whose death Matthew Arnold would later mourn in his elegy "Thyrsis."

In 1844 Arnold took a second-class honors degree at Oxford, and the following year he was elected to a fellowship at Oriel College. After some teaching he became private secretary to Lord Lansdowne, who eventually had him appointed to an inspector ship of schools, a difficult, demanding job which required Arnold to do a good deal of traveling and which he held for most of his life.

CULTURE AND ANARCHY

Culture and Anarchy, major work of criticism by Matthew Arnold, published in 1869. In it Arnold contrasts culture, which he defines as “the study of perfection,” with anarchy, the prevalent mood of England’s then new democracy, which lacks standards and a sense of direction. Arnold classified English society into the Barbarians (with their lofty spirit, serenity, and distinguished manners and their inaccessibility to ideas), the Philistines (the stronghold of religious nonconformity, with plenty of energy and morality but insufficient “sweetness and light”), and the Populace (still raw and blind). He saw in the Philistines the key to culture; they were the most influential segment of society; their strength was the nation’s strength, their crudeness its crudeness; it therefore was necessary to educate and humanize the Philistines. Arnold saw in the idea of “the State,” and not in any one class of society, the true organ and repository of the nation’s collective “best self.” No summary can do justice to Culture and Anarchy, however; it is written with an inward poise, a serene detachment, and an infusion of subtle humour that make it a masterpiece of ridicule as well as a searching analysis of Victorian society. The same is true of its unduly neglected sequel, Friendship’s Garland (1871).

TOPIC	KEY POINTS	HOW DO I UNDERSTAND IT
Culture	Study of perfection .	Culture is the study of perfection, a harmonius perfection, developing all sides of our humanity and as a general perfection developing all parts of socirty.idea of knowning and becoming works here, not only having and resting but growing and becoming is the major goal of culture. It develops sense of beauty and light which leads to an unified socity.
Sweetness and Light	Sense of beauty Active intelligence	Through the sense of beauty,  and light, active intelligence on can create better society.To see everything with more than one side of a thing so that a person can know more about something clearly without any prejudices. Seeing the things as they are. For the perfection of culture both are necessary .
Doing as one likes –Anarchy	Chaos	Age of Arnold was becoming slave of machinery due to industrialism therefore he finds that a  most important thing for a man is to do as he likes. But the misinterpretation of liberty leads to chaos and amarchy .Doing as one likes may become an anti social activity, and in organised society anarchy breaks out. One ill calculated action brings chaos in society.anaarchy represents the absence of a guiding principle in one’s life which prevents one from striving to attain perfection.
Barberians ,Philistines ,  Populace	Privileged , aristocratic class, Materialistic , middle calss Poverty-stricken ,left down, lower class	Arnold calls the upper, aristocratic the barbarians ,they have personal liberty, money,maily involved in archaic traditions and gluttony ,irresponsible towards other class .FOR EXAMPLE: MISS HAVISHAM in Chrles Dickens Great Expectations. Arnold calls the philistines as materialistic, money minded . Populace are the disenfranchised, poverty- strikesn lower class who have been let down by the negligent Barberians and greedy philistines.
Hebranism and Hellenism	Resolute actions , Clear thinking	Hebraism subscribe to a strict, narrow-minded method of moral conduct and self –control which does not allow them to visualize Utopian future of belonging to an enlightened community.which we can say leads towards chaos and anarchy. Hellenism  signidies the open minded, spontaneous exploration of classical ideas and their application to contemrory society which leads to an ideal society.there must be a perfect balance of Hebranism and Hellenism in culture.
Porro Unum est Necessarium	One thing necessary	Middle class will be attracted towards Hebraism because of anarchy and to stop the anarchy they go to Hebraism , obedience.
Our Liberal Practitionaras	Close to the ground comman facts	One has to see both the sides of a thing to come to an conclusion  of any judgement.