‘The old unquiet breast’: Matthew Arnold, Heartsickness, and the Culture of Doubt
‘The old unquiet breast’: Matthew Arnold, Heartsickness, and the Culture of Doubt
This chapter examines the use of the heart in religious discourse. In Evangelicalism, Roman Catholicism, and the emerging culture of doubt, appeals to the heart and to the truth of feeling were relatively commonplace, whereas Anglican writers were suspicious of such appeals and sought to control and contain over-emotional expressions of faith. Poetry by writers with High Church sympathies, such as John Keble, Richard Trench, and Frederick Faber, seek to regulate the heart, though not always successfully. Arnold's poetics were strongly influenced by Tractarianism, and equally affected by his belief that he suffered from dangerous heart disease. His poems, particularly ‘The Buried Life’ and ‘Empedocles on Etna’, are anxious about the production and regulation of feeling, particularly in relation to religion, and display this through imagery of heartsickness.
Keywords: religion, faith, doubt, Tractarianism, Arnold, Faber
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