Differences between the Arnoldian and Paterian view of modern literature.

Find a painting or read a poem? What do you see? What do you think? Have you just glanced at the piece and not given it a second thought? Accepting it for face value? Or perhaps you have you re-read it thinking about the hidden meanings in between the versus or brushstrokes? As a critic, William Pater feels that the job of the critic is to “distinguish and analyze.” The critic should look at a piece analyzing it from his personal perspective. If you simply looked at the piece and accepted it for what it was you would be much like the critic Henry Arnold. Arnold believed that “the whole life of intelligence; practice is everything, a free play of the mind is nothing.” He felt that the main job of a critic was to simply see an object as it was. The Lady of Shallot can be interpreted in many different ways or simply as the poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote it.
The Lady of Shallot tells of a woman that is cursed due to her beauty in order to protect Sir Lancelot from falling ...