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This is the English A1 Extended Essay I submitted to the IBO in 2009, entitled 'The juxtaposition of time in constructing the Classicism-Romanticism conflict in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia'. I am posting this up only because I feel that there is a dearth of commentary surrounding this play -- I personally had a hard time conducting my research, so I hope this will be of help to your analysis.The IB guidelines on academic honesty: http://production-app2.ibo.org/publication/19/part/3/chapter/8
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EXTENDED ESSAY COVER PAGE
Subject
English A1
Group
1 Language (group 1 or 2 subjects only) English
Title
The juxtaposition of time in constructing the Classicism-Romanticism conflict in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia
Word count
Essay 3999 Abstract 256
Candidate session number
0 0 2 3 2 9 3 5 8
Candidate name
Ada Yeo Ying Hua
Examination session
November
Year
2009
Candidate Name: Ada Yeo Ying Hua Candidate Session Number: 002329-358 Title: The juxtaposition of time in constructing the Classicism-Romanticism conflict in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia
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Abstract
This extended essay critically analyses the role played by the juxtaposition of time in
constructing the Classicism-Romanticism conflict in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia.
It is argued that the juxtaposition of time, as a dramatic structure, creates in the play
various sub-conflicts— Geometry v. Nature, Logic v. Intuition, Order v. Disorder, and Rationality
v. Sexual Impulse— from which the central Classicism-Romanticism tension stems. This is
achieved through four main mechanisms, each of which is examined systematically in the
investigation: (1) the juxtaposition of landscape, which subsequently lends itself to the
personification of the Classical and the Romantic temperaments, (2) the superior perspective
offered to the audience, (3) the centralisation of the setting, and (4) of the sexuality manifest in
the human interactions of the play.
The discussion aims to offer possible interpretations of the ways in which Stoppard has
created and developed the tension between Classicism and Romanticism in Arcadia. It will
consider not only the literary and symbolic functions of predominant motifs, themes, and
characters in contributing to this conflict, but also the root nature of this clash.
The course of this essay shows Stoppard’s juxtaposition of time to be the fundamental
impetus for the Classicism-Romanticism conflict: his circumvention of time’s linearity is what
allows him the polarisation of the antithetical elements present in the play. It is found that the
motif of dualism manifests itself strongly throughout Arcadia, as evidenced by dual symbols
such as fire and the piano. Further to this motif, the various sub-conflicts suggested are shown
to embrace essentially a tension of opposites.
Word Count: 256
Candidate Name: Ada Yeo Ying Hua Candidate Session Number: 002329-358 Title: The juxtaposition of time in constructing the Classicism-Romanticism conflict in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia
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Table of Contents
Abstract ..……………………………………………………………………………………………….…2
Table of Contents ……………………………………………………………………………………..…3 Essay:
Introduction ...……………………...………………………………………………….……….4-5
Geometry v. Nature ……………………………………………………………………………..5 Logic v. Intuition …………………………………………………………………….…………5-7 Order v. Disorder ……………………………………………………………………….……7-11 Rationality v. Sexual Impulse ……………………………………………………………..11-16
Conclusion ………………………...………………………………………………………..16-17
Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………………..……..…19-20 Appendix A: ET IN ARCADIA EGO (1637-39) by Nicolas Poussin ……………………………….21
Candidate Name: Ada Yeo Ying Hua Candidate Session Number: 002329-358 Title: The juxtaposition of time in constructing the Classicism-Romanticism conflict in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia
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Essay
The research focus of this essay, the juxtaposition of time in constructing the
Classicism-Romanticism conflict in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, calls for an exploration of the
following: where and how exactly juxtaposition of time is used in the play; whether there is
consistent pattern of such use; if so, how its usage creates the thematic implications achieving
and furthering such conflict. These focal points will be investigated by way of arguing that
Stoppard uses the juxtaposition of time to construct certain sub-conflicts, leading to the
overarching polarisation of Classicism and Romanticism. This is accomplished through four
mechanisms: (1) the juxtaposition of landscape and subsequently personification, (2) the
superior perspective offered to the audience, (3) the centralisation of setting, and (4) of the
sexuality manifest in the human interactions of the play. The aforementioned sub-conflicts are
Geometry v. Nature, Logic v. Intuition, Order v. Disorder, and Rationality v. Sexual Impulse—
each will be systematically examined in this essay.
The Classicism-Romanticism conflict is what Stoppard identifies as the clash between
“those who have particular respect for logic, geometry and pattern, and those with a much more
spontaneous, unstructured communion with nature.” 1 Significantly, this was his “original
impetus”2 for Arcadia, and is the central conflict around which the play revolves— the intention
of this essay is thus to discuss the juxtaposition of time as root of this dynamic. Accordingly, the
juxtaposition of time will be defined in context of the play’s dramatic structure: it is the
conscious, constant alternation of scenes in different time periods, namely between 1809-1812
and “the present day”3; however, all action is confined to “a room on the garden front”4 of Sidley
1 David Nathan, “In a Country Garden (If It Is a Garden),” in Tom Stoppard in Conversation, ed. Paul Delaney (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1994), 262. 2 Ibid., 261. 3 Tom Stoppard, Arcadia (London: Faber & Faber, 1993), 19. 4 Ibid., 1.
Candidate Name: Ada Yeo Ying Hua Candidate Session Number: 002329-358 Title: The juxtaposition of time in constructing the Classicism-Romanticism conflict in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia
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Park, a large country house in Derbyshire. The two historical periods alternate, scene by scene
in the same theatrical space until they converge inexplicably in the final scene, where the
characters transgress their temporal boundaries in an act of simultaneity.
Firstly, the juxtaposition of time is the fundamental driving force for the subsequent
juxtaposition of two different landscape movements experienced by Sidley Park in the play—
the changes brought about by 180 years on one piece of space is what is being explored. In this
way, Stoppard creates the conflict between Classicism and Romanticism by projecting their
respective inclinations onto the surrounding landscape. The existing Classical, geometrical
landscape of Sidley Park in 1809, where even “the right amount of sheep are tastefully
arranged,”5 has given way to Romantic wilderness and irregularity by 1812, the picturesque6
style of which the park still prevails in the present day. Although display of the landscape is
specified to be absent from the stage, its presence features significantly in the plot, often hinting
at a larger tension: the 1809 sequence relates the beginning imposition of the “modern style”7
on the Classical scheme of Sidley Park, while the present-day sequence is driven partly by a
historian’s (Hannah Jarvis) search for the identity of the Sidley hermit, her “peg for the nervous
breakdown of the Romantic Imagination.”8 Hence, the juxtaposition of landscape plays an
important role in the creation of the Classicism-Romanticism conflict, functioning as a direct,
metaphorically physical allusion to the clash between the Geometrical and the Natural.
However, a more compelling argument for the significance of this juxtaposition of
landscape may be in its representation of the different zeitgeists of each historical period, as 5 Stoppard, 16. 6 The picturesque is “an extreme application of the idea that art should imitate nature…it made great use of jagged irregular lines and represents the furthest possible remove from geometrical regularity.” [Tom Turner, Garden Design in the British Isles History and Styles since 1650 (Woodbridge: Antique Collectors’ Club, 1986), The Garden and Landscape Guide, ed. Tom Turner. Last Accessed 15 July 2009 <http://www.gardenvisit.com/history_theory/library_online_ebooks/tom_turner_english_garden_design/picturesque_style_of_planting_design>]. 7 Stoppard, 13. 8 Ibid., 33.
Candidate Name: Ada Yeo Ying Hua Candidate Session Number: 002329-358 Title: The juxtaposition of time in constructing the Classicism-Romanticism conflict in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia
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embodied by the characters living in them. This allows Stoppard to personify the Classical and
Romantic sensibilities— more specifically, the opposing archetypal inclinations of Logic and
Intuition— developing the Classicism-Romanticism conflict. For example, the mid-eighteenth
century character Septimus, an exemplar of the Enlightenment, is introduced into the play as a
“classical optimist...completely imperturbable.”9 Nevertheless, he spends the rest of his life as a
hermit, driven to madness over the untimely death of his gifted student, Thomasina. He iterates
her equations manually for 22 years despite them being calculable with only a computer, trying
desperately to disprove her instinctive discovery of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. In
doing so, he emerges ironically as his temperamental opposite, “a full-blooded Romantic”10
shrouded in a reconstructed wilderness, driven to “cabalistic proofs that the world was coming to
an end.”11 Here, the sudden inversion of the Classical and Romantic temperaments in a singular
character further exposes their incongruity.
In addition, the present-day historians Hannah and Bernard are established throughout
the text as foils to each other, escalating the tension between Classicism and Romanticism in
the play. Hannah, like the early Septimus, is depicted as a typical classicist. Her humanistic
inclination towards logic and her aversion to romantic attitudes are embellished in many
instances. From the outset, Stoppard has specified her appearance and behaviour to be
grounded and sensible: “She wears nothing frivolous. Her shoes are suitable for the garden”12;
she is distinctly characterised by her “classical reserve”13; the protagonist of her best-selling
book Caro, which ironically means “feminine” is reminiscent of Hannah, a “closet intellectual
9 Paul Edwards, “Science in Hapgood and Arcadia,” in The Cambridge Companion to Tom Stoppard, ed. Katherine E. Kelly (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 182. 10 Ibid. 11 Stoppard, 36. 12 Ibid., 20. 13 Ibid., 99.
Candidate Name: Ada Yeo Ying Hua Candidate Session Number: 002329-358 Title: The juxtaposition of time in constructing the Classicism-Romanticism conflict in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia
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shafted by a male society.”14 Most tellingly, she extols the Classical landscape of the past— she
calls it a “paradise in the age of reason” 15 — while demonstrating obvious distaste for
Romanticism, which to her is a “sham…a setting of cheap thrills and false emotion.”16 Hannah
often clashes verbally with Bernard, who represents the Romantic inclination of Intuition.
Stoppard has similarly specified Bernard’s “tendency to dress flamboyantly,” 17 and places
constant emphasis on his impulsiveness, what he calls the “part of you which doesn’t reason.”18
Hence, by personifying respectively Logic and Intuition in Hannah and Bernard, Stoppard is able
to exploit the rift between Classicism and Romanticism, providing the audience with additional
insight into each worldview and how they may conflict.
Secondly, Stoppard’s juxtaposition of scenes in alternate time periods confers upon us,
the audience, a perspective vastly superior to that of the characters. We are able to gain access
to the change in zeitgeist between the two historical periods: the mid-eighteenth century set of
characters demonstrate the “Enlightenment impression that Newton’s science can sort out the
universe; everything may eventually prove capable of being explained, and even predicted,”
while in the present day these Classical certainties have all but collapsed.19 Thus, our privileged
perspective allows us to observe this dissolution of order, in the process creating implicitly a
major antithetical theme in the play, Order v. Disorder— clearly a subsidiary conflict between
that of Classicism and Romanticism. I have termed Stoppard’s creation of this sub-conflict
implicit as I believe the superior perspective of the audience outside of the play to be the source
of its engendering. The gradual change from the original state of order in the Sidley Park of
1809 to the disorder present in the modern era is attributed to the one-way, post-Newtonian
14 Stoppard, 17. 15 Ibid., 36. 16 Ibid. 17 Ibid., 20. 18 Ibid., 66. 19 Jim Hunter, About Stoppard: The Playwright and the Work (London: Faber & Faber, 2005), 28.
Candidate Name: Ada Yeo Ying Hua Candidate Session Number: 002329-358 Title: The juxtaposition of time in constructing the Classicism-Romanticism conflict in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia
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Second Law of Thermodynamics20 associated with time’s arrow (i.e. linear progression)— the
consequential information loss is manifested throughout the play as a sub-theme.
This sub-theme of information loss is captured in a prominent episode in Scene 3, set in
1809, where Septimus and Thomasina are having a “‘Latin unseen’ lesson… [Thomasina being
described as] having some difficulty.”21 She is unaware that the text that Septimus has set her is
a Latin translation of the famous set-piece describing Cleopatra, from Shakespeare’s Antony
and Cleopatra— “The barge she sat in, like a burnish’d throne,” et cetera:
THOMASINA. …was like to – something – by, with or from lovers – oh, Septimus![…]
Regina reclinabat…the queen – was reclining – praeter descriptionem – indescribably –
in a golden tent…like Venus and yet more –
SEPTIMUS. Try to put some poetry into it.
THOMASINA. How can I if there is none in the Latin? (Stoppard, 46-7)
According to Edwards, the significance of Thomasina’s “stumbling version proves that
translation is a one-way process, and that what is once lost remains lost.”22 Therefore, we see
that Thomasina’s quest to restore order— to reclaim the “lost” poetry the text had once been in
English— has failed, creating a stark contrast between the original orderly state and the
“disorder” present after translation. This is a microcosm of the present-day situation underway in
Sidley Park, where modern characters Hannah, Bernard, and Valentine are struggling to
understand the past fully, but are unsuccessful for largely the same reasons. Stoppard
20 The Second Law of Thermodynamics “formulated in 1865 by the German physicist Rudolf Clausius…states that an increase in entropy [dispersal of heat into its surroundings] corresponds to a loss of information.” (Edwards, 180) 21 Stoppard, 46. 22 Edwards, 179.
Candidate Name: Ada Yeo Ying Hua Candidate Session Number: 002329-358 Title: The juxtaposition of time in constructing the Classicism-Romanticism conflict in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia
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foreshadows the eventual development of this sub-theme by establishing in the introductory
scene of the play the absurdity of trying to “stir backward.”23
As mentioned, much of the plot of Arcadia is founded on the basis of modern scholars
trying to ascertain fully the events of the past. The sub-theme of information loss appears
recursively when they fail in their attempts, the reason being the “noise” phenomenon— what
Valentine, a modern mathematician, explains as “Distortions. Interference.”24; it is the chief
problem in his research. He compares it a piano playing a tune, “very hard to spot the tune…it’s
playing your song, but unfortunately it’s out of whack, some of the strings are missing, and the
pianist is tone deaf and drunk – I mean, the noise! Impossible!”25 Significantly, Stoppard
employs the playing of an actual piano randomly throughout the play as an aural device
sustaining the motif of disorder stemming from the creation of “noise”. However, the piano music
is at the same time paradoxically representative of the creation of order, for “patterns [are]
making themselves out of nothing.”26 The duality of the piano as a symbol thus suggests the
singularity of Order vs. Disorder as a theme, for both elements are formally dependent on each
other for definition, as with Classicism and Romanticism. Indeed, as Stoppard remarks, the
antithetical nature of such conflicts often lends themselves “to play out in a sort of infinite
leapfrog.”27
In addition to the piano, the symbol of fire and its terminal corollary of ash are also
invoked in Arcadia as a manifestation of the thermodynamic effect of the Second Law, which
results in information loss caused by entropy as aforementioned. Fire comes to symbolise
irreversible loss, permanent destruction, and ultimately disorder. It appears in many instances,
23 Stoppard, 6. 24 Ibid., 60. 25 Ibid. 26 Ibid., 101. 27 Jim Hunter, Tom Stoppard: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead, Jumpers, Travesties, Arcadia (London: Faber & Faber, 2000), 17.
Candidate Name: Ada Yeo Ying Hua Candidate Session Number: 002329-358 Title: The juxtaposition of time in constructing the Classicism-Romanticism conflict in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia
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increasing the distribution of the sub-theme: Thomasina laments the burning of the great library
of Alexandria; Septimus’s and Lord Byron’s letters are burnt; the hermit’s writings were “made a
bonfire”28 of; the dialogue between the two sets of characters in the final scene bemoans the
inevitable heat death of the universe; most importantly, we learn that Thomasina was burnt to
death in a fire on the eve of her seventeenth birthday.
From here, it can be seen that the idea of irreversible destruction is also linked to the
motif of death, similarly a metaphor for disorder in Arcadia: the sound of sporadic gunshots
(again, the idea of “noise”) encapsulates Septimus’s declaration that Sidley Park has “a
calendar of slaughter”29; Ezra Chater challenges Septimus to a duel in an attempt to defend his
wife’s honour; the plot is partly driven by Bernard’s persistence in proving correct his theory that
Septimus’s schoolmate, Lord Byron, had seduced Chater’s wife and later killed Chater.
Furthermore, the Latin phrase from which the play takes its title, Et in Arcadia ego, serves as a
painful reminder of mortality against the backdrop of the paradisal English country house.
Translated unconventionally by Septimus as “‘Even in Arcadia, there am I!’,”30 Edwards remarks
that “the whole play can be seen as an exemplar of the inscription traced on the tomb by the
[Arcadian] shepherds in Poussin’s reflection on the traditional pastoral idyll: ‘Et in Arcadia
Ego.’31…it is death that is present, even in this aristocratic idyll.”32 Hence, it can be concluded
that the symbol of fire, alongside the motif of death, are appropriate representations of Disorder
intended to bring into contrast implicitly the much-idealised, but unattainable, state of Order.
Thirdly, Stoppard’s juxtaposition of time serves to emphasise the centrality of the play’s
setting, in the process underpinning again the same conflict between Order and Disorder, but
28 Stoppard, 37. 29 Ibid., 18. 30 Ibid. 31 Refer to Appendix A. 32 Edwards, 176.
Candidate Name: Ada Yeo Ying Hua Candidate Session Number: 002329-358 Title: The juxtaposition of time in constructing the Classicism-Romanticism conflict in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia
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this time round explicitly. This is achieved by introducing a physical and spatial awareness into
the audience’s consciousness as the play progresses. As specified in the stage directions, “the
action of the play shuttles back and forth between the early nineteenth century and the present
day, always in this same room…The general appearance of the room should offend neither
period.”33 This common minimalist theatrical space therefore becomes a “closed system” where
disorder tends towards a maximum, due to Stoppard’s deliberate assertion of power over the
Second Law of Thermodynamics. This chaos is reflected in many aspects of the play, some of
which have been discussed: the progressive loss of knowledge and truth; the manifestations of
fire and “noise”; the converging human interactions (addressed in the final point); the
overlapping of props on the table present in the setting.
Stoppard specifies that all props should be limited to the table in the room, which “during
the course of the play, collects this and that,”34 and by the end has become “an inventory of
objects.”35 Minor anachronisms become a “theatrical feature”36: books are made to “exist in both
old and new versions,”37 an apple and its leaf, a pet tortoise (Plautus/Lightning), and even an
actor playing the teenage sons of the Croom Family (Lord Augustus/Gus) in different historical
periods are doubled. 38 It is Stoppard’s intention that “everything becomes loud and
overlapped”39— the visual display of disorder and uncertainty reflecting that of the play’s
increasingly confused progression explicitly develops the tension between Order and Disorder,
and, by extension, Classicism and Romanticism.
33 Stoppard, 19. 34 Ibid., 19. 35 Ibid., 20. 36 Hunter, 2000. 193. 37 Stoppard, 19. 38 Hunter, 2005. 91. 39 Stoppard, 76.
Candidate Name: Ada Yeo Ying Hua Candidate Session Number: 002329-358 Title: The juxtaposition of time in constructing the Classicism-Romanticism conflict in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia
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Lastly, likewise the setting, the juxtaposition of time serves to emphasise the centrality
that sexuality occupies in the human interactions of Sidley Park. For despite both sets of
characters being 180 years apart, “the underlying scheme is as elaborate as in a farce: almost
every character is partly driven or perplexed by sexual feeling.”40 A few examples to illustrate
my point: Septimus is in love with Lady Croom in 1809, but has sex with Mrs Chater in an
attempt to be rid of his “agony of unrelieved desire”41; the wanton Mrs Chater sleeps too with
Lord Byron; Thomasina at 13 is eager to learn about sex, and at 16 is sexually attracted to
Septimus, inviting him to her room; Chloë is caught having sex in the cottage with Bernard by
her mother; Bernard invites Hannah to London with him for some casual sex nearing the end of
the play. It is important, amidst this chaos, to note that the focus here is not on sexuality per se,
but rather the irrationality of sexuality, wholly embraced by the Romantic sensibility. Hence, the
heightened emphasis placed on this intricate web of sexual relations foregrounds the inherent
incompatibility between rationality and sexual impulse, which in turn serves the construction of
the Classicism-Romanticism conflict. This thematic concern is manifested in the play mainly
through the use of two central symbols: once again fire, and that of the apple.
In addition to the irreversible destruction suggested earlier in the essay, fire also comes
to symbolise passion, “the action of bodies in heat.”42 Here, the symbol of fire is imbued with the
quality of unpredictability— uncontrollable once ignited. The allure causing this impulsive
irrationality is personified chiefly in Mrs Chater, who had an illicit affair with Septimus in 1809,
triggering the subsequent chain of events driving the sequence. Mrs Chater’s notoriety, as
described by Septimus, is for “a readiness that keeps her in a state of tropical humidity as would
40 Hunter, 2000. 181. 41 Stoppard, 95. 42 Ibid., 111.
Candidate Name: Ada Yeo Ying Hua Candidate Session Number: 002329-358 Title: The juxtaposition of time in constructing the Classicism-Romanticism conflict in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia
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grow orchids in her drawers in January”43; the idea of heat and fire here is invoked as being
highly symbolic of sexual energy and fecundity.
The pervasiveness of this sexual energy is underpinned in the play by an aural motif
(similar to the piano music) in the 1809-1812 scenes— a constant thumping sound, coming from
landscape architect Noakes’s new steam engine. This link is established in a subtle stage
direction in Scene 7, where Lady Croom is offstage playing a duet on the piano with her latest
conquest, Count Zelinsky44: “The piano music becomes rapidly more passionate, and then
breaks off suddenly in mid-phrase. There is an expressive silence next door which makes
Septimus raise his eyes....The silence allows us to hear the distant regular thump of the steam
engine….”45 Here, the sound of heat has twofold implications. On one hand, it symbolises heat
energy, which gives “the power to drive Mr Noakes’s engine.”46 On the other, it acquires a
sexual agency of its own, infusing the play with an erotic urgency compelling the characters
towards each other, until both historical periods converge into one. The emphasis on the
Romantic, sexual impulses experienced by almost all of the characters— most of whom are
highly intelligent— brings into question their apparent rationality, heightening the tension
between Classicism and Romanticism.
Next, an apple— “the same apple from all appearances”47— surfaces sporadically in the
play: at the end of Scene 2, Valentine’s teenage brother, Gus, who is infatuated with Hannah,
offers her an apple; at the start of Scene 3, Septimus, in the mid-eighteenth century, eats the
same apple; Thomasina, engaged in discovering a “Geometry of Irregular Forms,”48 tries to plot
43 Stoppard, 9. 44 Hersh Zeifman, “The comedy of Eros: Stoppard in love,” in The Cambridge Companion to Tom Stoppard, ed. Katherine E. Kelly (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 188. 45 Stoppard, 108-9. 46 Ibid., 116. 47 Ibid., 46. 48 Ibid., 56.
Candidate Name: Ada Yeo Ying Hua Candidate Session Number: 002329-358 Title: The juxtaposition of time in constructing the Classicism-Romanticism conflict in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia
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an apple leaf and deduce its equation; we observe a parallel when her modern successor
Valentine examines the apple leaf as “a mathematical object.”49 Hannah’s acceptance of Gus’s
apple may be interpreted as a symbolic attempt by Stoppard to show the inescapability of
sexual attraction even in Classicists such as Hannah— she finally concedes near the end of the
play, “like two marbles rolling around a pudding basin. One of them is always sex,”50 soon after
that accepting Gus’s invitation to dance at “a decorous distance.” 51 Similar to the
aforementioned singularity of Order v. Disorder as a theme, the contradictory elements of
Rationality and Sexual Impulse are shown as being inextricable from each other— Hunter
comments that Hannah “sums up the tension in 1809 between the Classical and the Gothic-
Romantic.”52
In a more complex analysis, Anne Barton argues that the apple is “an object that
gradually comes to symbolise…the perils of sexuality, any paradise that is lost, and the
introduction of death into the world after the Fall.”53 In a biblical reading, the apple may be
interpreted traditionally as a symbol of desire, the sweetness of flesh forbidden. In Genesis,
both Adam and Eve (Adam being tempted by Eve) ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good
and Evil despite knowing of God’s prohibition. The modern historian Bernard draws an allusion
to this biblical symbolism in his rhetoric, positing that there exists a lost letter from Lord Byron to
Septimus Hodge confirming his theories about the past, “it was the woman who bade me eat,
dear Hodge! – what a tragic business.” 54 The symbol of the apple can thus be said to
encapsulate, paradoxically, the tension between sexual impulse as a force, and the rationality
expected from the characters as logical beings in Arcadia.
49 Stoppard, 62. 50 Ibid., 84. 51 Ibid., 130. 52 Hunter, 2000. 189. 53 Anne Barton, “Twice Around the Grounds,” The New York Review of Books Vol. 42, No. 10 (1995). Last Accessed 16 July 2009 <http://faculty.uccb.ns.ca/philosophy/arcadia/library1.htm>. 54 Stoppard, 76.
Candidate Name: Ada Yeo Ying Hua Candidate Session Number: 002329-358 Title: The juxtaposition of time in constructing the Classicism-Romanticism conflict in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia
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Such a reading of the play entails that we too examine the concepts of free will and
determinism, in context of both the play and the biblical. The idea of free will stems from the
Judeo-Christian concept of an all-powerful God wanting us to choose good over evil, whereas
belief in determinism may be attributed to faith “in a dictatorial God…or in ‘laws’ of physical
science.”55 In Arcadia, the deterministic, Classical certainty of Newtonian physics is constantly
pit against Romantic disorder, the latter caused by the collision of free will and sexual attraction:
CHLOË. …The universe is deterministic all right, just like Newton said, I mean it’s trying
to be, but the only thing going wrong is people fancying people who aren’t supposed to
be in that part of the plan.
VALENTINE. Ah. The attraction that Newton left out. All the way back to the apple in the
garden. (Stoppard, 97)
Apart from the symbolic function of the apple, what this dialogue affirms is the apparent
irreconcilability of determinism— an entirely Classical strand of thought— and free will, a
progressive, Romantic notion which allows for sexual desire to run unchecked by one’s intellect.
This sense of irreconcilability thus serves the construction of the Classicism-Romanticism
conflict by dramatising the clash between Sexual Impulse and Rationality.
However, to read the symbolism of the apple purely in the theological terms of Man’s
Fall and Original Sin would be to mark sexuality as a cause of decline, not divide. Alwes
contends that such an interpretation is insufficient, remarking, “Sexuality is not only literally
creative of life; it also gives meaning and value to life lived under an inescapable death
sentence.”56 It can even be argued that this sexual energy provides the play with an uplifting
55 Hunter, 2000. 174-5. 56 Derek B. Alwes, ‘Oh, Phooey to death!’: Boethian Consolation in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia” (Thesis, South Illinois University, 2000), 4. Papers on Language and Literature, FindArticles.com. Last Accessed 18 July 2009 <http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3708/is_200010/ai_n8921902/>, 4.
Candidate Name: Ada Yeo Ying Hua Candidate Session Number: 002329-358 Title: The juxtaposition of time in constructing the Classicism-Romanticism conflict in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia
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resolution, despite the tragic death of teenage Thomasina. This is evidenced by an exchange in
the final scene, where Septimus tells Thomasina the meaning of death shortly before her own
fatal accident, “When we have found all the mysteries and lost all the meaning, we will be alone,
on an empty shore.”57 She responds by saying, “Then we will dance. Is this a waltz?”58 This
shows that “Dance, in addition to other forms of carnal embrace, is the only adequate response
to death.”59 Furthermore, it is suggested that Stoppard himself does not endorse such a reading
of the play:
Stoppard raises the possibility of reading the apple symbolism in familiar biblical terms,
but only to reject it. There are three rather subtle references in the play to Adam and Eve
and their apple, but the context works against our taking them as serious theological or
moral allusions.60…”knowledge” is not a “sin” in the world of the play, in which the most
attractive characters are highly educated, if not geniuses. (Alwes, 2)
Hence, it can be concluded that sexuality is more so a force of divide than decline; the two
historical periods surely exist as parallel worlds. Sexual Impulse is portrayed as being
antithetical rather than subservient to Rationality, the apple symbolism partly effecting the
invocation of the wider conflict between Classicism and Romanticism.
In conclusion, the role played by the juxtaposition of time in constructing the
Classicism-Romanticism conflict in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia is fundamental, and should
not go understated. Stoppard’s circumvention of time’s linearity allows him to alternate scenes
in different historical periods, polarising various sub-conflicts through the four mechanisms.
Firstly, the juxtaposition of the geometrical and the picturesque landscape of Sidley Park in
57 Stoppard, 126. 58 Ibid. 59 Alwes, 4. 60 The three references may be found on p. 7, 76, and 97 of the primary text; the latter two instances have been cited and used for supplementation in p. 10-11 of this essay.
Candidate Name: Ada Yeo Ying Hua Candidate Session Number: 002329-358 Title: The juxtaposition of time in constructing the Classicism-Romanticism conflict in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia
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different time periods functions as a direct allusion to the conflict between the Geometrical and
the Natural. Accordingly, the landscapes, which are representative of their zeitgeists, allow
Stoppard the personification of opposing archetypal inclinations such as Logic and Intuition
within a single character (Septimus), and amongst characters (Hannah and Bernard). Secondly,
the superior perspective of the audience creates an implicit conflict between Order and
Disorder, the impetus for revelation being our observing the transformation undergone by Sidley
Park in the span of 180 years. Thirdly, the centrality of the setting is emphasised, creating a
visual display of disorder and invoking explicitly the same conflict of Order v. Disorder. Lastly,
the irrational influence of sexuality manifest in the human interactions of the play is likewise
centralised by the juxtaposition of time, foregrounding the inherent tension between Rationality
and Sexual Impulse within the characters. These antithetical themes serve in the polarisation of
Classicism and Romanticism, hence constructing the overarching conflict and tension in the
play.
It is perhaps apt that the abstract motif of dualism pervades Arcadia at every turn. On
closer reading, symbols such as fire and the piano, as well as the antithetical themes discussed,
embrace essentially a tension of opposites. However, this is not to say that Stoppard attempts
the reconciliation of these various contrasting ideas— he is much more interested in observing
their complex interplay. He remarks revealingly, “None of us is tidy; none of us is classifiable.
Even the facility to perceive and define two ideas such as the classical and the romantic in
opposition to each other indicates that one shares a little bit of each.”61 Indeed, Stoppard’s
usage of the juxtaposition of time in Arcadia as a literary and dramatic device has captured
Man’s essence as both a sentient and logical being; it is the existence of one element that
defines the other, much like Classicism and Romanticism.
61 Nathan, 263.
Candidate Name: Ada Yeo Ying Hua Candidate Session Number: 002329-358 Title: The juxtaposition of time in constructing the Classicism-Romanticism conflict in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia
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Word Count: 3997
Candidate Name: Ada Yeo Ying Hua Candidate Session Number: 002329-358 Title: The juxtaposition of time in constructing the Classicism-Romanticism conflict in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia
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Bibliography
Print Sources:
Edwards, Paul. “Science in Hapgood and Arcadia.” In The Cambridge Companion to Tom
Stoppard, edited by Katherine E. Kelly. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press,
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Zeifman, Hersh. “The comedy of Eros: Stoppard in love.” In The Cambridge Companion to Tom
Stoppard, edited by Katherine E. Kelly. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press,
2001.
Hunter, Jim. About Stoppard: The Playwright and the Work. London: Faber & Faber, 2005.
---. Tom Stoppard: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead, Jumpers, Travesties, Arcadia.
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Nathan, David. “In a Country Garden (If It Is a Garden).” In Tom Stoppard in Conversation,
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Stoppard, Tom. Arcadia. London: Faber & Faber, 1993.
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<http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3708/is_200010/ai_n8921902/>.
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Barton, Anne. “Twice Around the Grounds.” The New York Review of Books Vol. 42, No. 10
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edited by Emil Kren and Daniel Marx. Last accessed 23 July 2009
<http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/p/poussin/2a/23arcadi.html>.
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Candidate Name: Ada Yeo Ying Hua Candidate Session Number: 002329-358 Title: The juxtaposition of time in constructing the Classicism-Romanticism conflict in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia
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Appendix A
ET IN ARCADIA EGO (1637-39) by Nicolas Poussin (Musée du Louvre, Paris) Picture taken from:
Nicolas Poussin, 1637-39. Et in Arcadia Ego. Web Gallery of Art. Last accessed 23 July 2009
<http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/p/poussin/2a/23arcadi.html>.