Define this quote in your own?

Question

Literature is “ at bottom a criticism of life” - poet Matthew Arnold

Answer 1

Since I have not read the poem and you gave the only a single statment, I understand it as:

Generally, speaking, Literature give stories, true or false, of the sorrows, pains, and hurts of human life. Generally, again, you live, hurt and die.  To Love is to live, hurt and die.

I keep this simple.