# Philistine — Culture and Anarchy character guide

> Philistine in Culture and Anarchy by Matthew Arnold.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** the Philistine, Philistines, the British Philistines

**First appearance:** 0002-culture-and-anarchy

## Snapshot

The prosperous middle-class Englishman whose defect in delicacy of perception makes him mistake mechanical rule and stock maxims for the law of his own humanity.

## Who they are

He is the solid, liberty-loving, chapel-going man of business whom the narrator neither scorns nor flatters, but seeks to perfect by cultivating in him a delicacy that can be a law to itself. His tragedy is that he narrows his spiritual and intellectual life for the satisfaction of his ordinary self, remaining insensible to the finer shades of feeling in love and marriage while trusting external rule to govern what only inward tact can. He matters because the whole argument turns on whether his best self can be developed, not merely his ordinary self liberated.

## In the story

### [Culture and Anarchy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/culture_and_anarchy_se/chapters/culture-and-anarchy)

The middle class, described as the stronghold of Puritanism and narrow-mindedness.

### [Sweetness and Light](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/culture_and_anarchy_se/chapters/i-sweetness-and-light)

Described as the 'aphyēs' or one lacking sweetness and light, representing the opposite of the cultivated ideal.

### [Doing as One Likes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/culture_and_anarchy_se/chapters/ii-doing-as-one-likes)

Representing the middle class, with its focus on trade and Dissent.

### [Barbarians, Philistines, Populace](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/culture_and_anarchy_se/chapters/iii-barbarians-philistines-populace)

Described as the middle class, with a defect of helpless inaptitude for great works and lack of self-satisfaction.

### [Porro Unum Est Necessarium](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/culture_and_anarchy_se/chapters/v-porro-unum-est-necessarium)

Represented by the middle class, exemplified by Mr. Smith's dual concerns of poverty and eternal loss, and by the narrow mechanical conception of life.

### [Our Liberal Practitioners](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/culture_and_anarchy_se/chapters/vi-our-liberal-practitioners)

Represented by the British Philistine who celebrates population growth as divine, and by free-trading Liberals who mechanically pursue wealth and population increase.

### [Chapter II: Doing as One Likes and the Real Estate Intestacy Bill](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/culture_and_anarchy_se/chapters/ii)

The Philistines (middle class) are described as being misled by the false ideal of wealth and station.

### [Chapter III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/culture_and_anarchy_se/chapters/iii)

Described as having a defect in delicacy of perception; the target of Arnold's critique.

### [Chapter IV: Hebraism, Hellenism, and the Social Question](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/culture_and_anarchy_se/chapters/iv)

The Philistine middle class is addressed as being complicit in mechanical thinking about population and prosperity.

### [Conclusion](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/culture_and_anarchy_se/chapters/conclusion)

Represented as the middle class that seeks to inherit the heritage from the Barbarians, but whose ordinary self also falls short of the best self.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/culture_and_anarchy_se/characters/philistine
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/culture_and_anarchy_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/culture_and_anarchy_se/characters