The Sea Within Matthew Arnold's "To Marguerite-Continued"

Matthew Arnold's, "To Marguerite-Continued" uses intense imagery to describe the estrangement of the sea within the estrangement of a relationship. Arnold uses his techniques in figurative language to represent the aspects of the sea and it's surrounding landscape to enhance the realization of the isolation that the sea can cause. Arnold's theme within "To Marguerite-Continued" is one of separation and hopelessness. He is personifying the landscape and in doing so illustrates the separation that the sea can cause, whether it's wanted or not. He is exhibiting the despair within himself through the sea and its surrounding landscape. Furthermore, Arnold's techniques in describing the theme of separation and isolation within "To Marguerite-Continued" are of personification, metaphorical language, and imagery, which he uses in order to portray the true elements of isolation and separation that the sea can cause or represent.

Arnold reveals a theme of separation and despair within "To Marguerite-Continued." His main focus is to prove the isolation that the sea can indeed cause through its distance, solitude and massiveness. For example, one of the ideas used within the idea of the sea, is that of endlessness. There is not only a focus on the seemingly endlessness of the ocean in general, but also the endless feelings of hopelessness and despair that is portrayed to the readers through Arnold's writing, "We mortal millions live alone. / The islands feel the enclasping flow, / And then their endless bounds they know." (ln 4-6) The sea stretches from shore to shore, or from continent to continent, and more often than not a person is unable to see the shoreline. This inability to see any kind of shoreline or any land whatsoever evokes a feeling of isolation. Furthermore, Arnold is not only representing the loneliness within a person, but also representing the loneliness within these solitary continents as well, "Oh! Then a longing like despair / Is to their farthest caverns sent; / For surely once, they feel, we were / Parts of a single continent!" (ln 13-16) Furthermore, in adding emotions to the continents Arnold is personifying the continents, and thus making them real. The theme of loneliness and isolation is therefore expanded on through the personification of the continents, and Arnold proves that this feeling of isolation and despair is so acute that even the continents are able to feel it through their own separation from each other.

Arnold is able to make the connection between the theme of isolation and the personification of the continents because these continents were once a solid land mass. Arnold links the fracturing of the continents with his own fracturing relationship. Over time, the continents drifted and broke apart, as did his relationship with Marguerite, who was a love interest of his while he was Switzerland. Therefore, both of these comparisons represent a unity that was once there, but was ripped apart without allowing a choice in the matter for Arnold or the continents. Arnold makes the continents into beings of feeling like himself in order to display the severity of the separations. Furthermore, through the metaphorical representation of the continents Arnold also allows a longing to appear within himself as well as within the continents, "Now round us spreads the watery plain- / Oh might our marges meet again!" (ln 17-18) He is revealing the longing that both carry for a reunion of sorts. Arnold carries the hope that he will one day reunite with Marguerite. However, his is portraying this notion of longing and hope through the continents and the hope that they will one day reunite as a single land mass. Each is longing for their other half. Arnold is longing for Marguerite who he feels is his other half, and in doing so uses the continents to illustrate his own longing by the fact that the continents are longing for their other half, so that they may once again be single and united, just as Arnold wishes to be. Thus, Arnold personifies the continents in order to enhance the depth of his own feelings of despair and longing for a relationship that once was, but was ripped apart, just as the sea ripped the continents apart.

The sea is therefore used as a symbol for the loneliness and despair a person may feel after a important relationship breaks apart, whether that break is wanted or not. The massiveness and seemingly never ending miles of water that the sea consists of allows the feelings of desolation that a person may experience after the loss of a relationship to surface. This is brought about if not only by the silence and solitude that the sea brings about, but also by the fact that the sea is isolated and lonely in itself, just as Arnold is after the loss of Marguerite. Furthermore, although the reality of the sea is harsh, cruel and unpredictable, so is any human relationship. Neither can be predicted in advance and nothing can be done to prevent the outcome of either, which just further proves the association between the two as a comparison between the separation of a relationship by the separation that the sea may cause. Therefore, Arnold describes a loss of unity within "To Marguerite-Continued." Arnold lost the completeness that Marguerite brought about in him and the continents lost a single complete landmass by the fact that the sea fractured this landmass into multiple smaller landmasses. Thus, Arnold uses the sea as a metaphor for the estrangement of a relationship and the loss of completeness and unity, which the relationship evoked.

Works Cited

Arnold, Matthew. "To Marguerite-Continued." The Broadview Anthology of VictorianPoetry and Poetic Theory. Ed. Thomas J. Collins & Vivienne J. Rundle, et al. Ontario, Canada: Broadview, 1999. 699-700.