Arcadia: A Masterpiece of Commercial Success
Arcadia is one of the most commercially effective works of art to have ever been produced. Even though this was not Tom Stoppard's first piece of art, the book has received a great deal of praise from readers who value excellent writing. The play requires that elements from the past and present, like the large table, stay. An old but still alive tortoise has been used as a symbol for someone who has suffered for a long period but eventually finds salvation or experiences change. This essay aims to comprehend how the author was able to successfully highlight a character who may be one of the major characters as having excellent leadership skills. In this case, the central theme of mathematics, fate, and nature takes much emphasis. The argument in my view seems to have taken center stage in the book not forgetting subjects such as; emotion versus intellect, sex and many more. “When your Thomasina was doing the math, it had been the same math for a couple of thousand years. Classical. And for a century after Thomasina. Then math left the real world behind, just like modern art. Nature was classical; math was suddenly Picassos. But now nature is having the last laugh. The freaky stuff is turning out to be the mathematics of the natural world” (Stoppard, 57). Tom has used this quote to show the difference between the two centuries in the play. The topic of mathematics talks of a character who is the chief mathematician of the book. The book also has so much about nature and how it reveals itself to the different characters in the play. Finally, every character has the destiny to see it come to pass and that is why the author found it prudent to employ this theme to give the reader a plot which is undisrupted and which develops a particular character to the end.
The Role of Mathematics in Arcadia
The Simple English Algebra and mathematics are both found in the book Arcadia. Great truth about humanity and the entire families are some of the mysteries which are revealed by mathematics (Dektar, 20). The author has also brought out an idea of how math is a source of pride for the chosen few who were the mathematicians of the time. However, these mathematicians have a selfish character towards ensuring that others also have a glimpse of what they do go through. Valentine who is the chaos mathematician is so hesitant to share Thomasina’s theory with Hannah. The lessons of Thomasina on algebra and geometry only stood to confirm that she was a genius with more knowledge of chaos theory and the law of thermodynamics. According to her, the fate of all characters on stage is solely dictated by the law of thermodynamics, and upon realization of such useful ideas, fate eventually terminates the play. Thomasina herself is ironically dead through a tragic fire incidence. Hannah, Septimus, Gus, and Thomasina can succumb to the very law of thermodynamics, and through their irresistible fate, they hold together. “God’s truth, Septimus, if there is an equation for a curve like a bell, there must be an equation for one like a bluebell, and if a bluebell, why not a rose? Do we believe nature is written in numbers?” (Stoppard, 15). Thomasina tries to convince Septimus who has a different opinion from that of hers. Thomasina has a very ambitious project which she wants to see to it that it comes to pass and this is cut short by her tragic death. She has a plan to come up with a unique formula which will not only be used for expressing say lines and other geometric shapes but express the nature in its natural form. She firmly believes that upon succeeding in getting this formula, she will be in a position to read the signs of time and give the future expectations of nature.
Thomasina's Unique Character and Discoveries
Thomasina seems to have a unique character in the sense that she can make various discoveries even without using her mathematical knowledge. “I, Thomasina Coverly, have found a truly wonderful method whereby all the forms of nature must give up their numerical secrets and draw themselves through number alone” (Stoppard,30). Thomasina ensures that she stays put to her ideological inclination. She boasts of one breakthrough which is her understanding that hot things are capable of cooling to room temperature whereas room temperature things do not heat up (Stoppard, 34). Thomasina further cannot hold this to herself because she has this new idea that Newton did not consider this idea in his laws of physics. Valentine who represents the second part of life which is modern and learned interprets the discoveries by Thomasina and relates it to one aspect of equilibrium. She argues that energy does not arrive but tends to leave and that it would be hard for her just to predict. Arcadia focuses on the old – age fate versus the free will argument from a scientific angle such that if we can take one system and predict the outcome of the system through physics, a question which seems challenging of why we cannot do the same to our brains needs answers. This whole issue gets so complicated when it comes to human minds, but this is not any worry to Thomasina since for her all this seems so natural. Arcadia just portrays science as an attempt to map out fate whereas literature comes in as the main protagonist of the predetermination rhetoric. Many of Thomasina’s ideas independently emerge after her demise however much she did not make it see them published and develop (Stoppard, 57). The genius aspect of Thomasina has been used to show that it was not important having met her death before bringing her work into play.
Essential Themes Unfolded in Arcadia
Bernard’s paper consolidates essential themes while giving reference to the Latin phrase on death in Arcadia. Chloe also joins some play threads breeding a new and a more emotional theory about how to make future predictions and as well suggesting that love is a complete force of nature. Scene 3, which is complex generally, shows how the current and the past do concern each other. The Scene links the monologue by Septimus about how lost and ignored discoveries will have their place in the future. Valentine, on the other hand, connects death to the truths of the prominent physics lawmaker Isaac Newton. The universe is said to move in the wrong direction, the direction of the end which currently Thomasina is on. The two characters have not lost hope but still hold onto it that their discoveries will at long last come to pass notwithstanding the unpredictable future. There now exists more than enough theories on the future from different characters who know that they are right and will come to pass. Newton’s idea was that every happening has a predetermined outcome, but Valentine and modern scientists have it that the future will not have any order at all (Stoppard, 15). Thomasina gets courage and shows her changed understanding of the world by ensuring that her theory bears a new object which is the steam pump. She fully understands that technological progress is limited by physics whereas Lady Croom has an entirely different opinion about the pump because of the noise from it.
Tom Stoppard's Masterpiece
Tom has been termed as one of the smartest authors whose works have credit from all corners of the literature fraternity. He has been viewed to be witty and to have possessed a winning masterpiece which is the Arcadia. Mr. Stoppard’s funny tragicomedy has helped him bring out the dominant character traits of the characters he employed as well as the themes of the book. In the last scene, characters from both the 20th and the 18th centuries meet at the stage and occupy the same stage (Haney II, 230). They are not in a position to see each other, yet they are perceived to be speaking to each other as the implications of Thomasina’s projection come out. As the play music slowly escalates, Thomasina and Septimus dance together for the last time. The sound of the approaching fire gradually rises, and the dancing partners bounce away from each other, showing how they are slowly fading away. Chaos in the play has been formalizing both in mathematics and in the literature (Stoppard, 90). The human mind can discover the new order of nature behind the very apparent disorder. In Arcadia, death exists as said by the motto to which the play title alludes, but again, it would be correct to say that in the midst of death therein lies life. The next rule is that we must then struggle to ensure there is an order emanating from the chaos and nature’s art. Arcadia has been beautifully blended up with various theoretical modes, which have been brought out most artistically to suit the need of a modern century reader and that of the reader in the previous centuries. We are served with themes revolving around characters who did not know that what had been existing since the time before they were there cannot be changed. The characters stuck to what they believed in, of which the conflict of interest guarantees a suitable plot of the events of the play. Characters who have a flexible mindset tend to have their life in the play continuing compared to those whose hard lines would stay put at any cost.
Tom's work can be termed as a success considering that almost all characters played out their expected roles in the most adorable manner and that the message with which they got that position passed. We get to learn that nature has its events predetermined just as Isaac Newton had put it. Most characters found it so hard to accept this fact yet it was the center of almost all the unfolding s of the play. Once they came to know that this point was actually making sense, most of them had already lost all that they had been advocating for such as the discoveries they had made as well as the partners with which they had teamed up with to ensure that they stick to their mission of creating a revelation of the future. The theme of education did take center stage with the play having two sets of education systems, one of the current century and another of the previous one which too helped to build up the plot of the play.
It is evident to say that the use of mathematical analogy as well as the scientific allusions has helped in nurturing the mood of the play from its onset up until the end of it. The use of two sets of historical times also played a crucial role in proving the different mindset within which the societies thrived. Tom’s works have been backed up by several literature figures who have given him credit for his recent actions, especially the play. His stylistic approach to issues and has received praise for its uniqueness and its clear way of conveying the message.
Works cited
Dektar, Molly. “Arcadia Act 2, Scene 7.” Lit Charts. Lit Charts LLC, 9 Jun 2014. Web. 7 Dec 2017.
Dektar, Molly. "Arcadia Themes: Mathematics, Nature, and Fate." Lit Charts. Lit Charts LLC, 9 Jun 2014. Web. 8 Dec 2017.
Haney II, William S. "Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia." VIRTUALITIES (2015): 230
Stoppard, Tom. Arcadia: a play in two acts. Samuel French, Inc., 1993.1-26
