Question

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. Which one of the following statements best characterizes Arnold's view of the world? A. The world is a confusing and hostile place. B. The world is made for lovers. C. The world is just a dream. D. The world is not a beautiful place.

Answer 1

Arnold’s view of the world is that the world is confusing and hostile place. This was clearly characterized in this passage since he was describing how beautiful the world is to his lover but it was distorted by the fights and clashing of armies which makes the world so confusing and hostile.

Answer 2

This is a last stanza of Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach. The stanza has such a contradictory quality in a way that first lines show how the world is beautiful, various and new, at the same time the author condemns it being so dark, confused and bleak. The author shows that the world is a hostile and confusing place. The correct answer is A.