Who is the speaker of “Dover Beach”? Is it Matthew Arnold or a character he created? What type of person do you think the speaker is?

While the speaker and his companion could be any two English lovers, it is supposed by many that the speaker of "Dover Beach" is the poet himself, Matthew Arnold, who, with his new wife, spent their honeymoon at the Straits of Dover near the time of the poem's writing (1851).

It seems apparent in this dramatic monologue, though, that the speaker is pensive and troubled as he gazes out to "where the sea meets the...

While the speaker and his companion could be any two English lovers, it is supposed by many that the speaker of "Dover Beach" is the poet himself, Matthew Arnold, who, with his new wife, spent their honeymoon at the Straits of Dover near the time of the poem's writing (1851).

It seems apparent in this dramatic monologue, though, that the speaker is pensive and troubled as he gazes out to "where the sea meets the moon-blanched land." He hears the "grating roar" of the sea as the pebbles of the beach are flung back by the sea's new waves after having been pulled off the beach. As he recalls how Sophocles heard in the sea's "tremulous cadence" the ebb and flow of "human misery," the speaker may well be anxious about how the societal changes made with the Industrial Revolution may affect English society.

In the fourth stanza, it is clear that the speaker is disturbed about the "Sea of Faith" which sounds 

Its melancholy, long withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.

Thus, challenges to traditional religious beliefs wrought by new evolutionary theories, as well as the social ills of industrialization that beset England seem reflected in the speaker's contemplation of the ebb and flow of the sea and the melancholy mood that the sea creates.