Discussion Topic
Bradbury's choice of "Dover Beach" and Ecclesiastes in Fahrenheit 451
Summary:
Bradbury's choice of "Dover Beach" and Ecclesiastes in Fahrenheit 451 highlights themes of loss, change, and hope. "Dover Beach" reflects the world's disillusionment, while Ecclesiastes emphasizes the cyclical nature of life and the search for meaning. Both works underscore the novel's exploration of human experience and the quest for knowledge in a dystopian society.
In Fahrenheit 451, why did Bradbury choose "Dover Beach" as the poem Montag reads?
Montag's recitation of Arnold's “Dover Beach” is appropriate here because it encourages readers and listeners of the poem to look around them at the society in which they live and realize that the only thing of permanence and value is love.
The message of the poem may fall on deaf ears, but it's an important one all the same. Mildred and her friends live in a world where almost nothing has value, where books are routinely burned and people kept in a state of ignorance and cultural impoverishment, the better for the government to control them.
In such a depressing environment, the one thing that those who do not accept society and its warped moral values can do is to be true to those they love, as recommended by the speaker of “Dover Beach.” Love provides some kind of shelter from a harsh, ever-changing, and unforgiving world.
The problem in...
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this society, however, is that love and the feelings with which it is associated have been largely suppressed. That explains Montag's inability to shake Mildred and her friends out of their ignorance and narrow-mindedness by reciting to them this great poem. To these "ignorant armies," love means about as much to them as books.
Ray Bradbury selected “Dover Beach” as an appropriate poem for Guy Montag to read aloud in Fahrenheit 451 because its themes resonate so closely with Montag’s concerns at that moment. In this instance, Montag is not only trying to communicate with his wife, Mildred, but is also sharing with her friends. Although Montag is taking a risk in revealing to the other women that he has even one book, he feels that it is vital to try to present deeply felt perspectives. He later admits to Faber that he wanted to “scare them” out of their complacency.
Throughout the novel, Montag is becoming increasingly aware of the growing gap between him and his wife, and he wants to assert the value of love. He has also grown ever more concerned that Mildred has succumbed to the many distractions and consumer products that their society makes readily available. Her friends are her constant companions in viewing the “family” on the television-like walls.
Matthew Arnold’s poem raises several key points that fit with Montag’s state of mind. One central element is the crucial importance of true love.
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another!
In referring to the apparent “land of dreams” that people see all around them, the poem’s speaker could almost be talking about the illusions on the house’s walls:
The world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light.
The poem goes on to question the lack of genuine remedies for pain, which resonate with Mildred’s abuse of sleeping medications. Ultimately, the world Arnold presents lacks peace, just like Montag’s society. The fireman's world could be Arnold’s “darkling plain,” with the constant warfare as “ignorant armies clash by night.” Montag has come to understand how critical books and their contents are to correcting such ignorance.
In the poem "Dover Beach," Matthew Arnold paints a bleak image of humanity, which is void of joy, love, and beauty. The startling, moving images of a barren, distant sea with waves endlessly crashing against the shore provoke a melancholy mood that reflects the "turbid ebb and flow / Of human misery." In the fourth stanza, Arnold projects another negative image concerning "The Sea of Faith," which is no longer hopeful and has been reduced to a "melancholy, long, withdrawing roar." The entire poem presents a pessimistic view of humanity and ends with the lonely, violent image of "ignorant armies" clashing in the night.
Bradbury chose to have Montag read the poem "Dover Beach" to Mildred and her group of shallow, ignorant friends because the poem directly reflects the nature of their dystopian society. Matthew Arnold's depiction of a faithless, barren world corresponds to the superficial, materialistic, violent society that Mildred and her friends value. By reading the poem, Montag forces the ladies to confront their grim reality, which makes them cry.
In Fahrenheit 451, why does Montag read "Dover Beach" aloud to the women?
The novel opens with Montag becoming more and more disillusioned with the life of a fireman he has previously been proud of. The various "drips" of meeting Clarisse, Mildred's attempted suicide, and watching a woman commit suicide rather than live without her books begin to dampen Montag's enthusiasm for book burning.
Montag wants to read, and he wants to live on a deeper level than his society allows. However, he also longs for Mildred to be part of this new life. He would love for her to be a reading companion, especially as he knows, even if she does not, that her suicide attempt was her way of trying to escape an empty, vacuous existence.
Montag is angered by the inane and violent television watching Mildred and her two women friends are doing as they gaze at the parlor screens. He shuts the screens off, and after some attempts at conversation, pulls out a book of poetry. Mildred, nervous about this exposure of an illegal item, says firefighters are allowed to take home a book a year to reacquaint themselves with how silly reading is. She opens the book to "Dover Beach," which she ridicules, and tells him to read it aloud. He does so because both this is the particular poem Mildred has pointed him toward and because he wants to expose the women to something deeper and more meaningful than television. However, the words he reads also speak to his desire to invite Mildred into his world and express what he finds wrong with his society:
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain....
In Part Two, Montag leaves Faber's home and communicates with him via the green bullet in his ear. When Montag walks into his home, he interrupts Mildred and two of her friends watching the interactive parlour televisions. Montag then unplugs the televisions and asks the women if they'd like to talk. Mildred, Mrs. Phelps, and Mrs. Bowles proceed to have a disturbing conversation that reveals their shallow, superficial lifestyles and ignorance. Montag is utterly disgusted at their lack of sensitivity and wants to make them aware that they are selfish, ignorant women.
Since he is holding a book of poetry, Mrs. Phelps attempts to ease the tension in the room by suggesting that Montag read them a silly poem. Before Montag reads the poem "Dover Beach," Faber begs him not to read anything and asks Montag what he is trying to prove. Montag responds by telling Faber,
"Scare hell out of them, that's what, scare the living daylights out!" (47)
Essentially, Montag wants the women to confront the harsh reality of their situations and examine their selfish, callous personalities. He hopes the poem with make them realize they are living meaningless, superficial lives, which will terrify them.
Montag is angered by the shallow nature of the women; he says, "did you hear these monsters talking about monsters?", referring to how glib their discussions about real people and issues are. He is prompted to show them the extent of their callousness, how deadened they are to emotion and beauty. So, he busts out poetry-the language of the profundity of life.
The poem is also symbolic of their society. It talks about how faith used to be full but is now "retreating, to the breath of the night wind" leaving only "naked shingles of the world" and how this life has "neither joy nor love nor light" anymore. It's a great representation of what their life has become.
The impact is powerful. Mrs. Phelps starts crying, the rest are bewildered, and Mrs. Phelps accuses Montag of wanting to make her miserable. They are so unused real emotion, that they can't handle it. This is also reflected in Mildred's suicide attempts. Their society is doing such a good job of stifling emotion that it doesn't teach them how to deal with it.
"Dover Beach" is a poem about the instability of life. It speaks of loss of faith and trust. Montag had previously read it to his wife. When he brought the book out in the open in front of Mildred's friends she tried to excuse his having a book. She told the ladies that once a year the firemen were allowed t bring a book home to share with their families and remind them how silly the words were. Mildred took the book and said, "Here read this one. No, I take it back, Here's that real funny one you read out loud today. Ladies, you wonn't understand a word. It goes umpty-tumpty-ump. go ahead, Guy, that page, dear." So he read part of "Dover Beach" to the ladies. He read,
"Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night."
They had been talking about the coming war and the ladies were making light of it. Montag had been trying previously to get his wife to understand the poem so all this collided and the same poem was read to the ladies. Montag was frustrated and angry. Faber kept telling him not to do it, but he could not stop himself.
In Fahrenheit 451, why did Bradbury choose "Dover Beach" and Ecclesiastes?
In Ecclesiastes, a lot of its main theme focuses on how worldy pleasures, vanity, material goods, and worldly pursuits are worthless, meaningless, and empty. Pursuing the world, filling your life with pursuits of money and pleasure will leave you without anything of real import in the end. That theme represents the society that Montag lived in, and how it is empty and meaningless, despite its full and busy schedule as it pursues worldy pleasures. That is a significant book in the bible, and Montag memorizes it, and becomes its guardian as they go to help rebuild the city. It contains important lessons on how to rebuild a society that is based on real, meaningful values instead of emptiness.
"Dover Beach" is also symbolic of their society. It talks about how faith used to be full but is now "retreating, to the breath of the night wind" leaving only "naked shingles of the world" and how this life has "neither joy nor love nor light" anymore. It's a great representation of what their society has become. Faith, love, and real meaning are gone, and they are left alone, and they must "be true to one another" at the end to rebuild and survive. As Montag quotes this poem to the women, they are very upset when faced with the truth it presents them, and is symbolic of the sadness that exists in their society.