While in China, the research on Arnold’s thoughts has always been weak。 Until the beginning of twenty-first century, the domestic research on Arnold’s cultural thought and theory has been paid more and more attention。 In home, the two scholars, Han Minzhong and Yin Qiping, had made great achievements in Matthew Arnold’s poem。 They all made a very fair assessment on the culture view of Arnold 。

In Culture and Anarchy, Han Minzhong, made a more pertinent evaluation to Arnold。 He gave a brief summary of the main contents of Arnold’s cultural thoughts。 He believes that Arnold’s culture view should include literature and art。 The most excellent ideological and cultural accumulation。 This broad, profound ideological and cultural foundation should become the strength of the cohesion of the era of change; it admits that transformation pays more attention to authority and rank order。 Culture should reflect beyond the class, sectarian and inpidual interests。 Arnold focuses on the elucidation of the thought in poetry and literary criticism apparently later。 Han Minzhong believes that Arnold is absolutely advocated for change, but he would like to see the changes and progress which do not break away from the past, not away from the roots of history and culture。 Arnold has a wide field of vision and profound ideological and cultural background, his thinking is open。 His deep introspection of cultural position and cultural attitude stand for the current and all the force of habit to criticize。 The question he raised during the transition about modern society in Britain is still a major problem that cannot be passed around。 

Committed to Yin Qiping, a scholar who did research in British society transition problem also pointed out: this transformation leads to a series of problems of the ideological and cultural aspects, including material progress and spiritual civilization left behind and the old and the new society do not match。 It comes down to two main reasons: firstly, the development of natural science has broken the religious myth, especially the development of astronomy and the theory of biological evolution。 Secondly, with the development of the industrial revolution, the material life was increasingly rich, and the human society goes into a addictions and the era of abundance。 Material enjoyment and money worship greatly impact the traditional religious beliefs。 God is forgotten。 

In Victorian period, the capitalist population represented by the middle class became the dominant force in society。 They advocated free trade, no control of the competition, built the industry and made a big fortune。 Middle class liberalism had become the mainstream of the British society at that time。 They pursued wealth。 

Wang Zuoliang once commented on Arnold’s criticism of liberalism。 

In fact, Arnold is inherited the Carlyle’s condemnation of capitalism。 This is the domestic research in recent years, and has a new breakthrough。

Whether at home or abroad, Dover Beach is the most studied in Arnold’s poetry。 This poem uses night scene of sea tide, beach, moonlight, pebble to contrast industrial civilization prosperous appearance under the decline of human spiritual civilization。 This paper intends to integrate achievements on Arnold’s cultural theory research in the domestic and foreign, and combine with the historical background of Arnold’s cultural theory derived, for social illnesses and the insights in-depth to explore and discover the Victorian Britain。 It criticizes many problems, such as letting freedom, industrial civilization, the supremacy of material prosperity。

3。 The Analysis of the poem

When we are going to analyze the poem, we should take the background of the Victorian Period into consideration firstly, and at the same time, we also discuss the poem from its interpretation and figures of speech。 So with that analysis, we can have a clear acquaintance with Dover Beach。文献综述