The function of Matthew Arnold's criticism: Resolution and independence

Sara van den Berg has argued that object-relations theory provides a tool for analyzing the pre-oedipal content in Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams. She finds in Freud's interpretive strategy "the pre-oedipal mother who models interpretation as nurturing care and merging," and the same model for nurturing might be found in Matthew Arnold's understanding of the critical function. While critics have paid ample attention to Marguerite and other feminine personae in Arnold's poems, the metaphorical allusions to nursing and nurture that characterize the role of the critic in Arnold's prose have not been analyzed. The attributes of the "good nurse" help to define both the nature of the critic and the nature of culture for Arnold. In Culture and Anarchy, culture becomes an instrument for the transformation and perfection of character. Characterized by "sweetness and light," culture guides both the individual and collective character toward the development of a "best self." I have used Christopher Bollas' understanding of the transformational object to shape a claim that culture, for Arnold, is a rationalized maternal function.