The first-person narrator of the poem is a contemplative individual standing high above Dover Beach at night. He observes the visual beauty of the coastline but experiences deep melancholy upon hearing the grating sound of pebbles drawn back and forth by the waves. Experiencing a profound crisis of belief as traditional religious faith recedes from the modern world, he actively searches for meaning and constancy in his personal life.

The silent auditor of the poem, she joins the speaker in the dark room overlooking the beach. While her own thoughts and responses remain unrecorded, she functions as the speaker's emotional anchor. He views their mutual fidelity as the sole remaining source of truth and comfort in an otherwise joyless and uncertain world.

An ancient Greek playwright famously known for writing tragedies like *Oedipus Rex*. Though not physically present in the room, he exists in the poem as a historical parallel to the speaker. The speaker imagines him standing beside the Aegean Sea centuries earlier, listening to the waves and contemplating the turbid ebb and flow of human misery.