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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.

Altafsheikh1988@gmail.com
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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.scribd.com

Altafsheikh1988@gmail.com
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