Tennyson’s In Memoriam as a Philosophical Elegy

Elegaic Musings of Rationality and Irrationality- The prologue throws light into comprehending the elegaic note of human knowledge and limitations. Tennyson is clearly highlighting the Victorian faith crisis where Marxism and scientific spirit of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844) contradicted Biblical understanding of God and Marxism subtracted religion from human life to deal with religious dilemma. Tennyson suggests in the prologue itself that man’s knowledge is limited to understand God and man can reach God only through faith and belief which is irrational to human logic and understanding. The prologue is a musing of rationality and irrationality of human knowledge which questions the existence of God and faith but Tennyson highlights that man cannot acquire the knowledge of God for he is permanent and infinite but man’s knowledge is finite and limited. He further goes on to say that man has a purpose on life created by God and man should use their conscious rationality to serve the purpose of God given to him and though the knowledge of human quest will increase over the years but man should also attribute a sense of respect and reverence to the unknown infinite existence of God which may appear irrational to human being due to their limited understanding of God but man has to compromise and unify both rationality and irrationality to co-exist. Tennyson gives this feelings with a grief note by constantly asking for forgiveness and demands his deceased friend Hallam to be wise enough to understand God and revere His existence which literally gives a prospects to such elegaic musics of rationality and irrationality.

Nostalgic Understanding of Life– There are the feelings of nostalgic understanding of life as such where Tennyson tries to philosophized the meaning of life. Critically, Tennyson is trying to highlight that the feelings of nostalgia and loss could trigger the questioning of God. One can clearly observe that he tries to rationalized the way of life and certain things (including Marxism and Scientific discovery) becomes vulnerable to mankind to question God when a person is suffering from someone’s loss and grief. In the state of grief and loss, the poet mourns over the idea of man who can rise above in life during uncertain times but the reality of grief makes it even more uncertain for the poet and the personified “Sorrow” comes and confronts him that nature moves on with meaninglessness and purposeless which reflects his faith crisis in God. Here , one can observe that nostalgia, depression and grief makes a man vulnerable to the reality ( Victorian temperament) and the uncertainty or irrationality becomes more to the poet who cannot live up to his “higher Selves” or certainty. Tennyson is philosophizing that when man cannot attain the level of certainty and when he is in a state of uncertainty then the uncertainty of life grips over their sorrow and the feelings of sorrow and loss and man starts to question and doubt God. The inner conflict of doubt and faith is a major philosophical elegy one can find in the poem and Tennyson is in search for the meaning out of such inner conflicts. He finds that nostalgia and melancholy or grief makes man weak enough and hence his uncertainty doubts the existence of God who has high power to resolve and bring comfort to one’s inner soul.

Melancholic Musings of Presence and Absence– The major philosophized elegaic musing can be seen in the famous line “Tis better to have loved and lost/Than never to have loved at all”. This lines sums up many of the elegaic musings of relationship between presence and absence. Tennyson has given many examples to substantiate the famous quote where death is the certain entity to all living existence but it does not make it any lesser to grief, Like when a father waits for his departed son to come back home when he knows that his son is shot and is dead or a mother who waits for his drowned sailor and a young woman who is waiting for her lover to come back to her despite knowing that he is drowned or fallen from the horse. The idea is that they all know that death is certain and the mere presence of their loved ones cannot exist to their sight anymore but there is still an urge of wait for their loved ones to come back home or return back to them. The lines clearly justifies that the experiences of loving someone at the cost of losing them in the future tragedy is worth enough since death is certain but the idea of love only happens for a moment of time so the poet suggests that one should love someone even though that they know the cost of love than never to experienced loved at all for love is a strong entity that keeps moving on even after the death of one’s loved one in memories and grief. The relationship between presence and absence is seen where a deceased may not be physically present to one’s sight but on can still remember their absence and love in memories and in grief.

Philosophical Reconciliation of Doubt and Faith– Though Tennyson philosophized the concept of life and death in response to the death of his friend Hallam yet he reconciles his faith in God in the poem. The reconciliation comes from understanding the idea of soul where the poet states that God has given him a soul and the soul moves on and lives on even after death for a person’s life on earth is temporal and is to seek and gain knowledge. Tennyson’s calmness and comfort is seen in the poem only when the Bible was able to soothe his nostalgia and Bible was able to bring forth the reconciliation since it is the only entity that soothes his aching heart and sorrow. He philosophized the notion of God and his attribution to human life while making his way to certainty out of uncertainty imagining his meeting his old friend again in the near future. This clearly reflects the philosophical reconciliation of doubt and faith in the poem.