GGeeoorrggiiaa SSttaattee UUnniivveerrssiittyy SScchhoollaarrWWoorrkkss @@ GGeeoorrggiiaa SSttaattee UUnniivveerrssiittyy Theses and Dissertations Spring 5-2011 ""AA RReevvoolluuttiioonn bbyy DDuuee CCoouurrssee ooff LLaaww"":: MMaatttthheeww AArrnnoolldd,, GG..WW..FF.. HHeeggeell,, aanndd tthhee SSttaattee''ss RReevvoolluuttiioonnaarryy RRoollee Shannon N. Gilstrap Georgia State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/theses RReeccoommmmeennddeedd CCiittaattiioonn Gilstrap, Shannon N., ""A Revolution by Due Course of Law": Matthew Arnold, G.W.F. Hegel, and the State's Revolutionary Role." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2011. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/theses/1 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “A REVOLUTION BY DUE COURSE OF LAW”: MATTHEW ARNOLD, G.W.F. HEGEL, AND THE STATE‟S REVOLUTIONARY ROLE by SHANNON N. GILSTRAP Under the Direction of Dr. Paul Schmidt ABSTRACT This dissertation examines Matthew Arnold‟s belief in the role the State must play in actualizing the ideals of the French Revolution in Victorian England by exploring parallels between Arnold‟s development and implementation of this belief and similar elements present in G.W.F. Hegel‟s philosophy. Beginning with Arnold‟s early engagement with the Bhagavad-Gita, moving into the preface to his 1853 volume of poems, and finally ending with his more mature religious, political, and social works, this dissertation traces the sources and development of Arnold‟s criticism of what he perceives as a widely held and dangerous antipathy towards State interference in the civil sphere in Victorian England. Believing this trajectory wrongheaded, Arnold asserts his belief in the connection between a strong State power and the emergence of true subjective freedom within a polity. By placing Arnold‟s texts and ideas alongside selections from Hegel‟s work, including On the Episode of the Mahabharata Known as the Bhagavad-Gita by Wilhelm von Humboldt, the preface to The Philosophy of Right, and some of Hegel‟s early theological writings, one realizes that Arnold‟s belief in both subjective freedom and a strong State power demonstrates a sustained and parallel engagement with Hegel‟s own commitment to both the ideals of the French Revolution and the role that a strong State power plays in realizing those ideals. INDEX WORDS: Matthew Arnold, Victorian Literature, G.W.F. Hegel “A REVOLUTION BY DUE COURSE OF LAW”: MATTHEW ARNOLD, G.W.F. HEGEL, AND THE STATE‟S REVOLUTIONARY ROLE by SHANNON N. GILSTRAP A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2010 Copyright by Shannon N. Gilstrap 2011 “A REVOLUTION BY DUE COURSE OF LAW”: MATTHEW ARNOLD, G.W.F. HEGEL, AND THE STATE‟S REVOLUTIONARY ROLE by SHANNON N. GILSTRAP Committee Chair: Paul Schmidt Committee: Michael Galchinksy Paul Voss Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University May 2011 iv DEDICATION For the family members and friends who passed away before this dissertation‟s completion. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I offer grateful thanks first to the committee. Thanks to Dr. Paul Voss, who stayed committed to my scholarly development, even as my interests shifted from the Renaissance to the Victorians, and who remains an inspirational teacher. I thank Dr. Michael Galchinsky for the sincerity of his engagement with my ideas and his enthusiastic recommendation of many avenues for further pursuit. Finally, I cannot thank Dr. Paul Schmidt, my director, enough for his unfailing optimism about the project and faith in me as a student. If I can achieve half of that which he feels I am capable, I will consider myself a successful scholar, teacher, and person. Thanks to my entire family, but especially to Dad, Mom, Cayce, Wes, and Wyatt for their unfailing support, their consistent confidence, and for never asking what took so long. Several friends deserve special mention, including Jennifer Basye, Dr. Chris Bell, Dr. Tim Lytle, Aaron & Tracy Rathbone, Wade & Deanna Schuler, and Matthew Strickland. Thank you for encouraging me in the project and, when appropriate, helping me to forget about it. I also extend thanks to the colleges that have employed me during this endeavor. The faculty and staff at Georgia Military College in Fairburn, Georgia, and Gainesville State College in Gainesville, Georgia, have encouraged me as a teacher and scholar, and provided an environment conducive to this project. Finally, thanks to my dog, Aslo, who often patiently waited to play. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………..……………...v CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION………………………………..……………………….1 2 SELECT CRITICAL RESPONSES TO ARNOLD, THE STATE, AND REVOLUTIONARY IDEALS…..………………………….…………...50 3 THE BHAGAVAD-GITA, HEGEL, AND SUBJECTIVITY……....…….77 4 THE POETICS OF LIMITATION: MATTHEW ARNOLD'S PREFACE TO POEMS (1853) & HEGEL'S PREFACE TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF RIGHT…..…………….…………………………………………..…….126 5 A "REVOLUTION BY DUE COURSE OF LAW"……………..……..173 6 CONCLUSION….……………………………………………………...246 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………272 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION I. Arnold and Hegel “Hegel,” William Madden writes, “was the significant philosophical figure of the century because, Arnold wrote, he had seized Heraclitus‟ single pregnant sentence and „cast it with a thousand striking implications into the world of modern thought‟” (146). Though scholars have this from Matthew Arnold‟s own pen, G.W.F. Hegel‟s sustained influence on Matthew Arnold, especially insofar as it can help explain Arnold‟s commitment to the ideals of the French Revolution, has received comparatively little extended treatment in Arnold scholarship. Not that Hegel‟s impact on Arnold has been entirely neglected. Most extended scholarly works on Arnold mention Hegel‟s importance. Classics in Arnold scholarship all reference Hegel. William Robbins‟s The Arnoldian Principle of Flexibility ties Arnold‟s mental elasticity with Hegel‟s dialectic. Lionel Trilling‟s intellectual biography Matthew Arnold remains by far the most Hegelian approach to all of Arnold‟s work, seeking to expose the dialectical movement of Arnold‟s thought over his life. William Madden, too, in his Matthew Arnold: A Study of the Aesthetic Temperament in Victorian England, recognizes Arnold‟s indebtedness to the great philosopher, evidenced by the opening quote. Park Honan‟s recent biography of Arnold also traces the influence of German philosophy in general, and mentions Hegel in particular. These touchstones of Arnold scholarship, however, often contain understated or qualified references. Although in Trilling‟s work, for instance, Hegel, in the words of another critic, “appears as an intellectual precursor of Arnold‟s,” Trilling references Hegel and Arnold together only six times in 369 pages (Joseph 34 n. 26). Hegel appears