| Significant images related to maternal objects in Matthew Arnold's poetry reappear in his prose rationalized as theoretical prescriptions for the critic. A psychoanalytic method of interpretation based on object-relations theory, coupled with some references to Arnold's early relations with his parents, facilitates an exploration of internalized maternal and paternal object relations in his images, in his literary moods and attitudes, and in his modes of discourse.In Empedocles on Etna, speeches about frustrated desire repeatedly draw upon nursing metaphors that suggest unresolved conflicts with the primary nurturer. Melanie Klein's object-relations theory, which focuses upon the preoedipal, or mother-child, relationship, provides a key for examining Arnold's feminine images and the feelings of isolation and frustration they convey in the context of the work. In addition, some of D. W. Winnicott's concepts offer an understanding of the possible unconscious motivations Arnold may have had for depicting a literary suicide. Winnicott's identification of the False Self--the infant's early defense mechanism of over-intellectualization in response to external impingement--makes Empedocles's self-destruction less enigmatic.In his formulation of the functions of criticism and culture, Arnold uses a rationalized maternal object, which resembles Christopher Bollas's transformational object, to move from regressive mood states associated with the preoedipal mother to an intellectual meliorism. The transformational object is first represented in the persona of Merope, and then in the concept of culture in Culture and Anarchy. On the other hand, Arnold's literary essays, such as "Maurice de Guerin" and "Eugenie de Guerin," seem to provide a safe context for the expression of latent fantasies and a return to earlier mood states. Furthermore, his unresolved conflicts with maternal and paternal objects influenced his characterization of the Celts and Teutons in On the Study of Celtic Literature and some of his essays on Irish affairs. |
