Tom Stoppard's Arcadia
CARNAL EMBRACE, THE GARDEN OF EDEN, AND CYCLICAL HISTORY:
A CRITIQUE OF TOM STOPPARD’S ARCADIA
WORKS CITED
Alives, Derek B. “’Oh, Phooey to Death!’: Bohemian Consolation in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia.” Papers on Language and Literature, V. 36 Issue 4, 2000.
Guspari, David. Antioch Reivew STOPPARD’S ARCADIA, Spring 1996, Vol. 64, Issue 2.
Gussow, Mel. “Happiness, Chaos, and Tom Stoppard.” American Theatre, V.12 Issue 10, 1995.
Krammer, Jeffery. “Stoppard’s Arcadia: Research, Time, Loss.” University of Toronto Press. 1997.
McKinney, Ronald H. “Comedy, Chaos, and Casuistry.” Philosophy Today, V. 47, Issue 4, 2003.
Meisel, Martin. “The Last Waltz: Tom Stoppard’s Poetics of Science” Wordsworth Cicle, V. 38, Issue 1, 2007. …show more content…
In short, it is suggested that Arcadia offers a characterization of the course of
history that has been analyzed so far in connection with the idea of the linearity of
time. The concept of time is discussed in relation to the development of
knowledge, and it is this development of knowledge that relates to the plays
conceptualization of history. Additionally, the concepts of history, time, and
knowledge are inextricably linked within the play to the idea of sex and the
symbols, the garden and fire, which bolster the plays sexual ideas. It is with these
concepts aforementioned that this piece will construct its literary critique of
Arcadia. To begin this discussion we will first engage the symbols associated with
sex, fire and the gardens of Sidley Park. When the play first opens this exchange
takes place between Septimus Hodge and his thirteen year old pupil, Thomasina
Coverly:
THOMASINA: Septimus, what is carnal …show more content…
The scene is as follows:
THOMASINA: … I hate Cleopatra! SEPTIMUS: You hate her? Why? THOMASINA: 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. SEPTIMUS: God save us. THOMASINA: But instead, the Egyptian noodle made carnal embrace with the enemy who burned the great library of Alexandria without so much as a fine for all that is ... Oh, Septimus!--can you bear it? All the lost plays of the Athenians! Two hundred at least by Aeschylus, Sophhocles, Euripidies--thousands of pawns-- Aristotle’s own library bought to Egypt by noodles ancestors! How can we sleep for
A CRITIQUE OF TOM STOPPARD’S ARCADIA
WORKS CITED
Alives, Derek B. “’Oh, Phooey to Death!’: Bohemian Consolation in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia.” Papers on Language and Literature, V. 36 Issue 4, 2000.
Guspari, David. Antioch Reivew STOPPARD’S ARCADIA, Spring 1996, Vol. 64, Issue 2.
Gussow, Mel. “Happiness, Chaos, and Tom Stoppard.” American Theatre, V.12 Issue 10, 1995.
Krammer, Jeffery. “Stoppard’s Arcadia: Research, Time, Loss.” University of Toronto Press. 1997.
McKinney, Ronald H. “Comedy, Chaos, and Casuistry.” Philosophy Today, V. 47, Issue 4, 2003.
Meisel, Martin. “The Last Waltz: Tom Stoppard’s Poetics of Science” Wordsworth Cicle, V. 38, Issue 1, 2007. …show more content…
In short, it is suggested that Arcadia offers a characterization of the course of
history that has been analyzed so far in connection with the idea of the linearity of
time. The concept of time is discussed in relation to the development of
knowledge, and it is this development of knowledge that relates to the plays
conceptualization of history. Additionally, the concepts of history, time, and
knowledge are inextricably linked within the play to the idea of sex and the
symbols, the garden and fire, which bolster the plays sexual ideas. It is with these
concepts aforementioned that this piece will construct its literary critique of
Arcadia. To begin this discussion we will first engage the symbols associated with
sex, fire and the gardens of Sidley Park. When the play first opens this exchange
takes place between Septimus Hodge and his thirteen year old pupil, Thomasina
Coverly:
THOMASINA: Septimus, what is carnal …show more content…
The scene is as follows:
THOMASINA: … I hate Cleopatra! SEPTIMUS: You hate her? Why? THOMASINA: 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. SEPTIMUS: God save us. THOMASINA: But instead, the Egyptian noodle made carnal embrace with the enemy who burned the great library of Alexandria without so much as a fine for all that is ... Oh, Septimus!--can you bear it? All the lost plays of the Athenians! Two hundred at least by Aeschylus, Sophhocles, Euripidies--thousands of pawns-- Aristotle’s own library bought to Egypt by noodles ancestors! How can we sleep for