Arcadia, tom stoppard

arcadia5_katiriacolon

English

January 25, 2011

Arcadia (1993)

By

Tom Stoppard

Arcadia takes place during two different centuries, early nineteenth century and twentieth century. Characters of the past time (nineteenth century) are: Thomasina Coverly, a thirteen years old daughter of Lord and Lady Croom and she is possible in love with Septimus.. She discovered the mathematical theory of the chaos. Septimus Hodge, age 22 later 25, and Thomasina’s tutor, Septimus is in love with Lady Croom but he had an affair with Mrs. Chater. Ezra Chater, an unsuccessful poet staying at Sidley Park. Richard Noakes, middle age, a landscape architect. Lady Croom, middle thirties, she is Thomasina’s mother and have affairs with Lord Byron and Septimus. Jellaby, middle age, is the Croom’s butler at Sidley Park. Captain Brice, middle thirties, the brother of Lady Croom, who fails in love with Mrs. Chater. Augustus Coverly, seventeen years old and Thomasina’s trouble making young brother.

The characters of the present time (twentieth century) are: Hannah Jarvis, the author of a popular best seller on Byron’s mistress Lady Caroline Lamb. Hannah also is searching the elusive hermit of Sidley Park. Chloe Coverly, at eighteen years old, she is very perceptive and intelligent and likes Bernard Nightingale. Bernard Nightingale, late thirties, a don at Sussex University and is extremely literary. Bernard sleeps with Chloe but is more interested in Hannah. Valentine Coverly, around twenty five to thirty years old, a graduate student of mathematics and Chloe and Gus older brother, also he is in love with Hannah. Gus Coverly, is Valentine and Chloe younger

brother. Gus does not speak but he is in love with Hannah.

The plot takes place in the same drawing room where characters in the present time try to discover what happened to the characters in the past. There many references to science, mathematics, literature, and how they relate to sex. The play shows in depth, relationship between different characters and their sexual tendencies. By the end of the play the lives of the characters in the past and present have began to show parallels and similarities. One of the relationships involves Thomasina, a thirteen years old and her tutor Septimus Hodge. I will compare this relationship to the relationship between Hannah Harvis and Valentine Coverly in the present time.

Love and sex seems to be the driving forces in the play. People are attracted to those other than their spouses and seen unable to avoid the misfortune that often results. Tom Stoppard in this play, portrays humans as imperfect, who are driven by instinctual desires. The play, suggests that it is this desire that cause the disorder in an otherwise orderly world and this desire cannot be controlled. I read a book, “Great Dialogues of Plato”( The Symposium, The Banquet, 416 B. C), is about the nature of love and are evident in Stoppard’s play through his characters, pursuit of sexual pleasures within the inner workings and relationship of Arcadia.

The relationship between Thomasina and Septimus exemplifies the definition of love as given by Puasanias, in Plato‘s Symposium. He believes that there is two types of love, Heavenly and Common love. According to Pausanias, Common love is bad because it is the type of love that is directed towards bodies and not minds. Pausanias criticizes those who love purely for sexual gratification. Pausanias believes that there should be laws banning people from having sex for gratification. The appropriate way to love someone, or Heavenly Love, occurs when the lover makes the love one good and wise. The lover should teach virtue to the love one and in return receive gratification. The loved one should gratify the love in hopes of obtaining virtue and wisdom. (Plato’s Symposium, pg.123)

-In the play, Thomasina asked her tutor, Septimus what “carnal embrace” is? (Arcadia, act.1, scene1, pg.1). At that time Thomasina is thirteen years old and Septimus is nine years older than her. I learn later that Thomasina is a prodigy making her questions about “carnal embrace “seem very silly. Septimus is embarrassed by her questions and answers “carnal embrace is the practice of throwing one’s arms around a side of beef (Arcadia, act1.scene1 pg.1). Then he quickly remind her that she should be working on proving Fermat’s last Theorem. As Thomasina grows up throughout the play I was able to see a shift in her way of thinking. As a thirteen years old, she is interested on her science and mathematics studies, and as she matures she becomes more interested in her own sexuality. She begin ask Septimus about kissing and begs and asked Septimus to teach her hot to waltz. Thomasina and Septimus represent a typical relationship where the older man, tries to seduce the younger girl in this case. Thomasina love for Septimus is not driven by sexual gratification alone, but by her yearning to gain virtue and wisdom from her tutor. Similarly, Septimus is intrigued by Thomasina and spends his life trying to figure out her theorems. According to Pausanias, in Plato’s Symposium this type of relationships is acceptable love. These two people who are attracted to what the other has to offer in wisdom, not just sexual pleasure. (pg.123)

In the twentieth century the state Sidley Park is owned by Valentine Covertly, a descendant of Thomasina and occupied by himself, his sister Chloe and his mute brother Gus. Valentine is a mathematician who has discovered Thomasina’s notebooks and their disturbing revelation. As Valentine does most of the plays intellectual hard labor, he is joined by a guest historian Hannah Jarvis. Another relationship in Arcadia exists between Hannah Jarvis and Bernard Nightingale. Hanna Jarvis is also an author, who wrote a novel about Caroline Lamb, Lord Byron mistress. She is staying at Sidley Park researching exactly who live in hermitage. She is a hard worker young woman, who is very proud of what she has already accomplished. While working at Sidley Park she meets Bernard Nightingale, also an author. He is studying the life and death of Lord Byron in hopes of finding out what happened to the poet Ezra Chater. He, like Hannah is also proud of her work, but tends to draw conclusions from unproved information. Bernard is a different than all other living in the house at the present time.

He is driven by sex, and upset the social order and romantic equilibrium when he arrives. While visiting Sidley Park, he prepares the speech he will give at the lecture on the death of Ezra Chater. He has come to the conclusion that Sidley Park, was not only about science and math, but it was about sex and literature. When he proposes that Lord Byron killed Chater in a duel, Hannah, Valentine and Chloe disagree. They all began to argue and Bernard lashes out on science saying, “ Why does scientific progress matter more that personalities?. “There not rush for Issac Newton”. (Arcadia,.2.5 pg. 61)

One everyone has left the room and Bernard alone with Hannah, he begins to criticize her biography of Caroline Lamb, and proceeds to ask her to leave London with and have sex with him. He suggest that Hannah should let yourself go a bit. You might have written a better book, Hannah responds by saying “ sex and literature, literature and sex. your conversation, left to itself, does not have many places to go , one of them is always sex.(Arcadia,2.5, pg. 63)

“It is during this scene that Bernard’s sex drive is perceived, and I realizes that is not seeking virtue and wisdom, only sex gratification. In the Symposium by Plato, Socrates would not agree with Bernard’s actions regarding love. During a dinner party , Socrates, defines love by telling what he once learned from Diotima, a wise woman from Athena, Greece. Diotima, told Socrates that love does not have to be good, bad, beautiful, or ugly. When Socrates kept asking her what love was, Diotima explained that love does not have to be one thing to another. Diotima, also describes how one must come to love beauty in general and not the beauty of bodies. By loving beauty in general, one may then begin to love a particular mind. By loving mind, virtue and wisdom, and knowledge can be learned. If one see beauty, they can produce virtue itself. (the symposium, pg.143 to147) Bernard is only pursuing sexual pleasure, and is driven by pure last and desire for sex. It is clear that Bernard is not attracted to any of the women in this book for knowledge, especially since all his conversations end in sex.

Chloe Coverly made a good point in Arcadia about sex in the present time of the play. She is only eighteen and is constantly bringing up sexual phrases and interferences. While her and Valentine are having an argument about a mathematic problem, she suggest that the math formula will not work, because of sex. Chloe said, that’s I think the universe is deterministic all right, just like Newton said, but the only thing going is people facing people who are not supposed to be in that part of the plan” and Valentine said, Ah, the attraction the Newton left out. ( Arcadia, 2.7 pg.74). This can be related to ideas of Eryximachus. He will not agree with Chloe, because he believes that love remarks conflicting elements. He draws a connection between hot and wet and dry. He thinks that when these are reconciled in the body, life and love flourish. Conflicting elements equals perfect love. This ruins Chloe argument that the math formula will not work because sex. Eryximachus, would think the exact opposite and believe that these two conflicting elements would balance each other out and work together creating love. He sees order as a driving principle, for there is disorder, there can be no love. (Platos, Symposium, page, 128). I personally like Plato’s Symposium, because help me to understand the many definitions of love. Tom Stoppard in his play Arcadia, use themes and definitions to create relationships between different characters. All the relationships are different in the same way that each guest at the banquet party, has a different definition of the word love. Some of these relationships are solely sex and gratification, while others show an attempt to become virtuous by learning for love.

Now, I will cover the literature and summarize briefly the structure and content of the two acts and seven scenes of the play. Arcadia, takes place in the Sidley Park Mansion of Coverly family. (Act 1), (Scene1) (April 10, 1809), Septimus is trying to keep busy his pupil Thomasina and asking her to prove the Fermat’s Last Theorem, while he reads the last poem of Mr. Chater a guest at Sidley Park. Thomasina surprises Septimus with its argument about the irreversibility of time using the jam to mix into a cup of rice pudding. They interrupted Mr. Chater that is furious because his wife was discovered in carnal union in the arbor with Septimus. The tutor, Septimus gets flattering and reassuring to Mr. Chater extolling his poetic virtues. This ignores the fact that Septimus was the same who, in a literacy critic, ridiculed his previous work. Chater, elated by the blandishments of Septimus, is devoting to Septimus a copy of his book when Lady Croom, Captain Brice, and Mr. Noakes enter the room surprised by the scene, discuss the transformation of the classical garden of the picturesque style avant-garde commissioned to Noakes. When everyone leaves, Thomasina draw a refuge for a hermit in the design of the new garden, a fact that will cause some confusion in the twentieth century.

(Scene 2) (currently, 1993), in the same room, which almost remained unchanged since 1809. Hannah Jarvis is busy on a research project, looking at the mansion and its grounds in order to write a book about the hermit as symbols of the fall of Romanticism. Bernard who wrote a bad review of the last book of Hannah, arrived at Sidley Park to make enquires about Lord Byron. It is also in the room Valentine, a mathematical and biologist, who is studying changes in the population of small game on the grounds of the mansion. After exchanging some information, Bernard advances his theory: Byron visited Sidley Park in 1809 and killed Mr. Chater in a duel.

(Scene 3) (in 1809), Thomasina is taking Latin translation classes and lamented the irreparable loss of traditional knowledge of the Alexander Library. Septimus, believes that everything is lost re-appear again (as happens with ideas about the role of Thomasina interaction, which will be recovered in the twentieth century). Mr. Chater disrupts the class. Just found out that it was Septimus who wrote the devastating criticism of his poem and challenges him for a duel, which set for 5:00am the next day.

(Scene 4,) (in 1993), Hannah is reading the book Mathematics of Thomasina, discovers that she anticipated the concept of iteration in its self-proclaimed . “ Theories of irregular shapes of nature”. Valentine is impressed because he works with these ideas of iteration which have no more than twenty years of existence in their research. Valentine explained to Hannah the basic ideas of iteration of functions and chaos theory in connection with his work as population biologist.

(Act 2) (Scene5) (in 1993) Bernard rehearses in front of Chloe, Hannah, Valentine and the conference to make public its theory of murder by Lord Byron. Valentine and Hannah try to refute their arguments and made Bernard very furious, who ends up launching a vicious attack against science, in general Valentine’s work in particular. Hannah collects certain information that suggest that the hermit of Sidley Park was Septimus. Bernard goes to London to pronounce his talk there and give interviews to the press.

(Scene 6,) (in 1809), The duel is not celebrated. Mr. Chater and his wife are leaving for the West Indies with captain Brie, whose is in love with Mrs. Chater. There, Chater will be devoted to botany and die because of a fatal bite of monkey. Lord Byron left for Greece in a carriage before dawn. Septimus, who waited all night to their opponents, cased a rabbit for Thomasina. When he returns to the mansion is with Lady Croom who seeks clarification on two letters found in the tutor room: One of love, supposedly addressed to her, and another talking about rice pudding. Lady Croom invited Septimus to her room.

(Scene7) mixed characters in 1813 and 1993) Chloe read a newspaper reports related to Bernard theory about Byron. Valentine speaks with determinism, as did Thomasina with Septimus in the first scene. Valentine who was exploring the ideas of Thomasina on the computer assisted iteration, show a beautiful impressed Hannah Covertly set (the Mandelbrot set.) Valentine and Hannah talk about this and the concept of entropy wondering who was the real genius of Sidley Park: Thomasina or Septimus. Thomasina wants that Septimus teach her the waltz. Lady Croon enters the room complaining to Noakes of the noise of his steam engine. Thomasina explains that operate under the same laws that make the universe decline. Bernard arrives just in time when Hannah discovers a note that shows that Chater died in Martinique in 1810. This disrupts the theory of Bernard on murder by Lord Byron. Septum’s agree to teach dances to Thomasina. While waiting for the next room the music is right, he looks one of the diagram and understand its meaning. Finally, it sounds like a waltz and, while Bernard has to flee after being discovered with Chloe in the hermit’s cave. Gus, surprise Hannah, now, wanting to dance with her. The play ends. Thomasina die burned that night in her room. Arcadia is a true masterpiece and Stoppard a great writer. I love theater and I love this play, especially the character of Septimus Hodge, because he is clueless seductive, intelligent, witty, and funny. He also has an ironic humor that does not take anything serious and that give an air of being back around.

References:

Arcadia (1993), Tom Stoppard

Arcadia Play, Brookline, High School

The Symposium, Plato, Chapter2, The Greeks, Pausanias, Socrates, Diotima, Eryximachus