Arcadia Blog Post
The play, Arcadia, by Tom Stoppard, begins in 1809, Thomasina Coverly, the daughter of the house and British aristocrat, is a precocious teenager with ideas about mathematics, nature and physics well ahead of her time. She studies with her tutor Septimus Hodge, a friend of Lord Byron, an unseen guest in the house. In the present, writer Hannah Jarvis and literature professor Bernard Nightingale arrive at the house, as she is investigating a hermit who once lived on the grounds and he is researching a mysterious chapter in the life of Byron. As their investigations unfold — with the help of Valentine Coverly, a student in mathematics — the truth about what happened in Thomasina’s life is gradually revealed. Tom Stoppard’s play Arcadia establishes the central concern of how sex becomes the basis of all knowledge and affects everything it touches. This central concern is established using literary devices such as satire, apophasis, and litotes.
Tom Stoppard utilizes litotes to depict Thomasina as a very smart individual, but doesn’t know much of the real world. In act 1 scene 1, Thomasina asks “Tell me more about sexual congress. SEPTIMUS: There is nothing more to be said about sexual congress. THOMASINA: Is it the same as love? SEPTIMUS: Oh no, it is much nicer than that.” In this quote Septimus tries his very hardest to avoid answering the question, as his affair with Mrs. Chater has been causing him real world repercussions. Thomasina fails to realize that sex has instead of basing Septimus’ knowledge, is causing him pain through the threat of dueling with Mr. Chater. This connects to the central concern as it reflects of how sex affects everything it touches, and how it affects thing both positively and negatively, in this case negatively.
Tom Stoppard utilizes satire to depict Thomasina as an extremely focused person, this due to her opinion of sex. In act 1 scene 3, Thomasina states “Everything is turned to love with her. New love, absent love, lost love — I never knew a heroine that makes such noodles of our sex. It only needs a Roman general to drop anchor outside the window and away goes the empire like a christening mug into a pawn shop. If Queen Elizabeth had been a Ptolemy history would have been quite different — we would be admiring the pyramids of Rome and the great Sphinx of Verona.” In this quote Thomasina views love, and by extension sex, as a failure of priorities, a distraction from the things that really count. This connects to the central concern as it reflects how sex affects all things and is the basis of all knowledge, in this case, Thomasina’s knowledge and priorities.
Lastly, Tom Stoppard utilizes apophasis to depict Thomasina as a genius and ahead of her time. Stoppard does this through an incredulous Septimus stating “This is not science. This is story-telling.” Septimus questions Thomasina’s essay about her heat exchange diagram that explains the theory of entropy, as her approach of including both sexual and academic knowledge is not the standard method. In this quote, the greatest example of sex becoming an individual’s basis of knowledge is demonstrated. This quote demonstrates how sex has caused Thomasina to have a groundbreaking discovery, one so far ahead of her time that it is immediately denounced. This connects to the central concern as it reflects how sex is the basis of all knowledge.
From the first pages of the book, Stoppard makes clear a dual purpose within Thomasina’s character — to discover the rules of life and love while also working out the rules of mathematics. Thomasina’s approach, including both sexual and academic knowledge, leads her to great success because she understands the principles of heat. Heat, which becomes equated with sexual knowledge, is the key to Thomasina’s theory. Specifically articulated by Chloe, Thomasina’s modern day counterpart, Thomasina’s theory holds that sex messes up the Newtonian Universe because it is completely random. This characterization of Thomasina’s demonstrates human growth and maturity, as a young teenager she had no sexual knowledge, then she believed sex and love were distractions, to sex being a key aspect of Thomasina’s chaos theory.
Tom Stoppard’s play Arcadia demonstrates how sex becomes the basis of all knowledge, specifically Thomasina’s groundbreaking discovery, and affects everything it touches, either negatively or positively. Stoppard’s play demonstrates how human growth and maturity cause individuals to see things differently at different points in their lives.
