The Function of Criticism at the Present Time by Matthew Arnold

Matthew Arnold’s essay “The Function of Criticism at the Present Time” is a timeless exploration of the role of criticism in intellectual and cultural life. As a Victorian Age critic, Arnold tried to understand the role of criticism amid social, political and other literal changes prevalent in the nineteenth century. What for them is criticism as a process of regulating and striving to perfect the public consciousness of truth, beauty, and culture, he defined as a mode of social activity.

Matthew Arnold defines criticism as being “a disinterested endeavour to know and make known the best that is to be known and thought in the world.” He says that by disinterested he wants to stay away from personal views, political opinions, and selfish desire to achieve a goal on the presentation of criticisms. It should be positively biased and not politically aligned, actively striving to objectively rate the literature and ideas as contributing and helpful to one’s mind development.

According to Arnold one of the premises of criticism is that criticism should precede creative production. He insists that good idea and creativity come from clear headed environment and vibrant culture. Critics are therefore important in maintaining such a climate of ideas since they go through them, develop them and present them to society. In absenting a critical basis, Arnold decries, the literature threatens to descend into mediocrity or simply drift away from the main stream of intellectual life.

Moreover, Matthew Arnold also condemns the limitations of the contemporary criticism in his time that it was political and self-seeking. He therefore appeals for expansion of the debate and critique to a more general one and suggests that critics should draw on different worldviews. 

Another great concept presented in essay is Arnold’s notion of the critic’s role. He does not view the critic as someone who is just passing judgment on one’s work but a person that leads society, stimulates the desire to learn and assists the society to gain insight into the place and importance of literature in the society. To Arnold criticism is all about relation, the historical relation, the ethnic relation, and the aesthetic relation of art to life.

More importantly, he raises the status of criticism as a cultural activity. His vision develops sort of a fact that criticism when done with passion, intensity and balance, can provoke creativity, lead to a better understanding and enhance the overall quality of society’s knowledge.