the window and enjoy the sweet night air But very soon this calm beauty changes When Arnold listens carefully he hears the sound of the waves pulling pebbles back and forth This sound brings sadness He calls it The eternal note of sadness This shows that behind the beauty of nature there is deep sorrow In the same way behind the bright Victorian age there was fear doubt and loss of faith Human Suffering Is Not New Arnold then connects his feeling to the past He remembers the Greek writer Sophocles Long ago Sophocles also heard the sound of the sea and thought about human misery Arnold says that human suffering has always existed He writes that Sophocles heard the same sound and thought of The turbid ebb and flowOf human misery This shows that pain and sorrow are not new But in Arnold s time suffering feels worse because people have lost religious faith The Sea of Faith Is Withdrawing The most important image in the poem is the Sea of Faith Arnold compares religious faith to a sea that once covered the whole world In the past faith was strong and comforting He says The Sea of FaithWas once too at the full But now that sea is going away Faith is no longer strong Arnold can only hear its sad sound as it moves away from the world This clearly shows the Victorian crisis of faith Science doubt and modern thinking have weakened religion As a result the world feels empty cold and unsafe Arnold describes the world as naked It means the world has lost spiritual protection A Dark Place Arnold then explains what happens when faith disappears The world may look beautiful but in reality it has no true happiness or peace He says the world has Neither joy nor love nor light nor peace nor help for pain This shows a spiritual wasteland People feel lost and confused Life becomes like a battlefield where people fight without knowing why Arnold describes it as a darkling plain Love as the Only Consolation At the end of the poem Arnold turns to love Since religion has failed to give comfort only human love for each other can help people survive Arnold speaks directly to his beloved and says Ah love let us be trueTo one another Love becomes the only source of truth peace and support Arnold does not say love can solve everything but he believes it can give emotional strength and comfort in a broken world In fine Dover Beach clearly presents the Victorian crisis of faith Arnold shows how religious belief has faded leaving the world empty and uncertain Finally Arnold suggests that love is the only consolation in this modern spiritual wasteland Thus the poem is both sad and deeply meaningful