Real estimate and fallacious estimate in Matthew Arnold's "The Study of Poetry"

In his “The Study of Poetry”, Matthew Arnold emphasized on poetry and said that poem is very much necessary for human society and the importance of literature, especially poetry, will never diminish rather increase in the future. He also said that we should give importance to all poems but those that are of good and high standard. Now the most important question is how we would be able to understand that a poem is good or bad, and the more important question is, how we would be able to remove bad poems. Matthew Arnold, while discussing about these issues, mentioned real estimate and fallacious estimate.

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Real estimate refers to that estimate that would help us to understand and appreciate a good poem. It would help us to understand a poet and his poems. Matthew Arnold also mentioned that not all works of a good poet are of greater value. In this regard, he said that all the works of Shakespeare are not equally good. He has both good writings and bad writings. So, real estimate is a very important matter for it helps us to differentiate good poems from bad poems.

Real estimate is important because if we do not give importance to real estimate or we do not possess real estimate then we would never be able to appreciate good poems. This will do more harm than good to us. For this reason, having real estimate is very important for us.

On the contrary, fallacious estimate refers to that estimate which hampers our understanding and appreciation of good poetry. According to Arnold, fallacious estimate happens for two reasons. The first reason is historical estimate. While reading the history of literature, we would often come across poets who were quite famous in their lifetimes. Everybody liked them and appreciated their work but that poet was not so talented and he did not compose great poems. However, due to his fame, we often read his poems and think that he is a great poet.

Aside from historical estimate, there is another type of fallacious estimate and this is personal estimate. We often become influenced by our personal likes or dislikes, which lead us to like certain poets or playwrights. We read all his works and this also creates a problem. We also get to like literature that has similarities with us. In case of Bangladesh, we can say that one’s emotional attachment with one’s hometown affects his or her choice. A person from Noakhali likes the work of a poet or author who hailed from Noakhali. In the same way, an inhabitant of Barishal would prefer the works of poets or authors who were born and brought up in Barishal. Arnold warned us not to be influenced by such personal estimate. Arnold thinks that fallacious estimate is very dangerous for it deviates us from the true path and if we do not appreciate good literature, we will jeopardize our lives. Arnold wrote “The Study of Poetry” at a time when everyone was saying that poetry is useless and it does not profit us in any way. So, Arnold tried to show that poetry will be highly beneficial to us only if we learn to understand and appreciate good poetry.

However, Arnold’s thoughts and ideas are quite complex. It is natural to be influenced by our personal opinion or emotion while reading a particular literary piece. It is also true that poets who became famous must have produced some good literary piece. Otherwise, people would not like them for no reason.  The most important matter is what we should understand by real estimate. It is a complex process. Arnold talked about touchstone method where he compared poems of a few classic poets with popular poets of different ages. It is a complex process and there is no guarantee how much it would help us to gain real estimate. Many people have doubts about this process.

Arnold wrote “The Study of Poetry” at a time when people were about to forget the importance of literature in human society. So, his effort is praiseworthy.

Political Satire in Gulliver’s Travels

Gulliver’s Travels is one of the finest examples of political satire and political allegory in English literature. It was written by Jonathan Swift and he was an idealist person. He was not satisfied with the current situation of England. So, he strongly criticized the political system of his time. However, he did not criticize the system and its leaders directly. He used allegory as a literary device. 

 

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Allegory is a widely used literary technique to present something in disguise. For example, Jonathan Swift is criticizing England and its political leaders but he is doing through Lilliputs and its people. It should be noted here that during Jonathan Swift’s time England did not have a high level of democracy and freedom. Writing a political satire directly was risky. Even Jonathan Swift could have lost his head if he criticized the king and his ministers directly. So, allegory was a safer option and even was more entertaining. Swift could give his message in a very effective way.

In book 1, Gulliver traveled to Lilliput. The people were divided on a very simple issue- which ends of the egg to break. It was a very nonsense matter, but this was enough to keep the people of Lilliput busy in the situation of almost like a civil war. The condition of England was like this. In the past 150 years (1550-1780), people of England were divided about which version of Christianity to follow- Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism or Puritanism. People belong to one sect used to hate others despite the matter that all of them were Christians. Even there was a bloody civil war during 1642-1660.

The king of England and his ministers had the same authority like the king of Lilliput and minister. At that time, there were two large parties in England- Tory and Whig. They also used to differ on everything. As a result, there was no political stability in the country just like Lilliput.

Jonathan Swift used to live in Ireland. For many years, Ireland had been a colony of England. Although Jonathan Swift was an English man, he was against this kind of colonialism.

In book 4, we can see that Gulliver traveled to Houyhnhnms. There, Houyhnhnms (Horses) considered Yahoos (human) inferior, ugly and uncivilized. The English people had the same attitude towards the people of Ireland. They used to believe that the Irish people were unfit to rule themselves just like the Yahoos. Jonathan Swift did not like this idea because he could clearly understand that the Irish people were suffering from exploitation. However, criticizing England could have been dangerous. So, Jonathan Swift used allegory to criticize England’s rule on Irish people.