Assignment On Arnold's Concept Of Culture

Altaf Ahmed Sheikh

1

B.A (Hons.) English Part-III

Assignment on;

Mathew Arnold’s Concept of CULTURE in “Culture and Anarchy”

Submitted to:

Madam Ishrat Ranjhani

Submitted by:

Al t a f A hme d She i kh B.A (Hons.) Part - III Roll No. 10 Institute of English University of Sindh, Jamshoro.

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Altaf Ahmed Sheikh

2

B.A (Hons.) English Part-III

Arnold’s Concept of Culture “Art, literature, music and other intellectual expressions of a particular society or age” is definition of Culture given in Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary. An Encyclopedia may vary with this definition or may comply, but Mathew Arnold has a totally different concept of Culture. He writes in his book Culture and Anarchy about culture that; “Culture, however, shows its single minded love of perfection, its desire simply to make reason and will of God prevail.” Arnold’s opinion is that culture is study of perfection, general perfection, and harmonious perfection, perfection which consists in becoming something and not in having something in an inward condition of the mind and spirit, not in an outward set of circumstances. Culture has a very important function to fulfill for the mankind. Culture teaches us characters of perfection. He adds further to it by mentioning two very essential elements of culture which makes a man truly cultured. According to Arnold; ‘Culture is not satisfied till we all come to a perfect man, it knows that sweetness and light of few must be imperfect until the raw and unkindled masses of humanity are touched with sweetness and light.’ The flexibility bestowed by sweetness and light, is one of the rewards of culture pursued in good faith, enables a man to see that a tendency may be necessary, and even, as preparation for something in the future, salutary, and yet that the generations or individuals who obey this tendency are sacrificed to it, that they fall short of the hope of perfection by following it; and that its mischiefs are to be criticized, lest it should take too firm a hold and last after it has served its purpose. Thus he considers sweetness and light to be the two noblest things as well as characteristics of perfection of an individual and of society as whole. According to Stefan Collini; “Culture is an ideal form of human life, a standard of excellence and fullness for the development of our capacities, aesthetic, intellectual and moral.” Culture involves an active personal quest to forsake egocentricity, prejudice, and conservativeness and to embrace an equally balanced development of all human talents in the pursuit of flawlessness. It is a process of self discipline which initiates a metamorphosis from self interest to conscientiousness and an enlightened understanding of one’s singular obligation to an all inclusive utopian society. For Arnold, the myopic emphasis on egocentric self assertion has a devastating impact on providing for their needs of community; indeed, it can only lead to a future of increased anarchy without instilling among people the need for culture.

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Altaf Ahmed Sheikh

3

B.A (Hons.) English Part-III

Arnold further strengthens his faith in culture by universalizing his concept of culture when he says; “Culture is in making endless additions to itself, in the endless expansion of its powers, in endless growth in wisdom and beauty, that the spirit of the human race finds its deal. To reach this ideal, culture is an indispensable aid, and that is true value of the culture.” Culture begets a dissatisfaction which is of the highest possible value in stemming the common tide of men’s thoughts in a wealthy and industrial community, and which saves the future, as one may hope, from being vulgarized, even if it can not save the present. Arnold openly abolishes the class complexities on the basis of culture. His basic aim is to spread the essence of true culture to the society. He has quite vividly mentioned in his book that when culture is truly cultivated, the social class gets destroyed. Arnold is of the opinion that culture is one’s integral part and can not be separated with impunity. He suggests that culture is not a badge that only some people or a particular class of society has got while others remain deprived of it. Rather, he condemns such narrow minded and biased beliefs of conservative people who remain dormant in their excessive pride. The men of culture are Meanwhile, conclusion can be driven out of yet once more an other Arnold’s own interpretation of an ideal culture. He states; “Culture may with advantage continue to uphold steadily its ideal of human perfection in an inward spiritual activity, having for its characters, increased sweetness, increased light, increased life and increased sympathy.” In a nutshell, the pursuit of perfection then becomes the pursuit of sweetness and light. And, he who works for sweetness, in the end, does something for light as well. He who works light, advances towards sweetness also. But, the one who works for both sweetness and light simultaneously, struggles to make the reason and will of God prevail, which is the essence of culture in Arnold’s eyes.

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Altaf Ahmed Sheikh

4

B.A (Hons.) English Part-III

Bibliography & Web Resources: ± "Culture and Anarchy" by Mathew Arnold ± "History of English Literature" by Legouis and Cazamian. ± "Literary Criticism" by Penguin Publication.

http://www.classics.com/Arnold http://www.sparknotes.com/prose http://www.pdfcoke.com

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