religion were under attack from developments in natural science. Lyell had demonstrated by the use of fossil records that the earth was much older than the Bible's account would suggest. And, most famously of all, Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection called the biblical account of creation even further into question by showing how different species had developed and mutated.

In the midst of all this rapid change, Arnold recognizes that life will never be the same again. He doesn't seek to change the course of the outgoing tide and the receding of the old certainties it symbolizes; he's too much of a Victorian not to believe in the inevitability of human progress. Instead, he humbly enjoins his wife and his Victorian audience to hold fast to that which they love and be true to themselves as the storm of doubt continues to rage outside.

What's Victorian in "Dover Beach" is, of course, the sense of spiritual loss and doubt. However, in addition to those, several things make this Victorian. First, the mix of continuity and failure. By that I mean, Victoria was on the throne for a long time; this creates a sense of continuity. However, many of the institutions of British society are failing or changing. Second, the re-use of classical references to new ends, such as commenting on Arnold's own society. Third, Arnold's own poetic theories. Arnold argued for higher culture as a way to replace the lost faith he comments on in the poem. The poem itself is exchanged between two people who stand apart from the place "where ignorant armies clash by night," much as the bastions of higher culture must do for the ignorant clashes of mass culture."

What is most Victorian about this piece is its sense of spiritual doubt. While the Victorian Age (1830-1901) is primarily viewed as a time of great progress and the attainment of world power for England, there were also serious spiritual doubts beginning to take hold in the culture. Much of this can be attributed to the rise of scientific theories that no longer included a "creator" such as Darwin's theory of evolution (The Origin of Species was published in 1859). In the face of his doubt, the speaker in "Dover Beach" suggests that human love may be the only substitute for this kind of spiritual loss.

Living during the Victorian period, Matthew Arnold believed that Christianity's significance and power to unite people had faded. He thought that with a more critical historical account of the religion's history and a general (cultural) shift of interest from spiritual to material needs, the Victorian culture could no longer have much use for religious guidance. Arnold also saw the pre-modern (Victorian) culture as one more interested in science and industry. However, since he did not see these developments as unifying narratives of humanity either, he sought substitutes. In "Dover Beach," he offers a substitute of love. After having dismissed religion's unifying power (the "Sea of Faith"), the speaker (Arnold) also dismisses the new, pre-modern, Victorian world: 

Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

In the concluding lines, Arnold refers to armies clashing and this could refer to military conflicts of his time such as the 1848 revolutions in Europe. Thus, the Victorian period, in Arnold's analysis, was marked by industrialization, modernization, and even revolution. With such significant changes in culture and daily life, Arnold proposes a perspective in "Dover Beach" in which the speaker is disillusioned by the fading religion of the past and the superficiality of modernization of the future. In Culture and Anarchy, Arnold suggests how culture (an individual and social humanism with beauty and intelligence as its goals) could become a new narrative for society. Likewise, in "Dover Beach," Arnold suggested an emphasis on the individual's culture (love and appreciation) in the wake of fading religion and at the beginning of modernization. 

On the most elementary level, Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" is a Victorian poem because it was written and published during the reign of Queen Victoria, which lasted from 1837 to 1901. The poem was published in 1867 and probably composed in 1851.

If the reader did not know these facts about "Dover Beach," however, there are various factors which would lead them to identify the poem as Victorian, such as the use of classical references combined with a Romantic sensibility, a particularly Victorian combination of elements.

Most of all, however, "Dover Beach" is an expression of Victorian nihilism and the loss of religious faith which was a feature of the era. Throughout the nineteenth century, Christianity came under attack from a range of sources. Scientific discoveries—in fields such as geology and biology—made it more difficult for Victorian-era Christians to believe in the literal truth of the Bible. German textual critics pointed out the inconsistencies in the Gospels. Even increased mobility and faster modes of transport made people more aware of the wide variety of incompatible religious beliefs in the world. Arnold's expression of despair at his inability to believe in God—and at the cold, uncaring universe with which humanity is newly confronted—is uniquely Victorian.

In his poem “Dover Beach,” Matthew Arnold incorporates both classical and Victorian elements. Let's take a look at a selection of each.

As for classical elements, Arnold refers to Greek playwright Sophocles listening to the waves crashing against the shore and then drawing back. The waves once reminded Sophocles of the “turbid ebb and flow / Of human misery.” Yet Arnold sets himself in contrast to this classical reference. As he listens, he thinks of the “Sea of Faith” that used to flow all around the Earth but is now drawing back and leaving only “naked shingles” and night.

Herein lies the Victorian elements in the poem. Arnold wrote “Dover Beach” around 1851, in an era in which spiritual chaos and skepticism were prominent. People were losing their faith or at least relegating it to the private areas of their life. Philosophical controversies abounded as people disputed ideas and morals that were once held to be above dispute. Materialism threatened, and people sought pleasure in the things of the world. They could not, however, find it or keep it for very long, and this led to great misery.

The poem reflects these struggles in its melancholy tone and the speaker's assertion that there is no real joy or love or light or peace in the word. There is only struggle and flight and misery.