Arcadia in Classic Greek Literature
“But Sidley Park is already a picture, and a most amiable picture too. The
slopes are green and gentle. The trees are companionably grouped at
intervals that show them to advantage…it is nature as God intended, and
I can say with the painter, ‘Et in Arcadia ego!’” (1, 1, 16)
Arcadia is actually a regional district in Greece, which is located on the
Peloponnesian peninsula. In Greek mythology, it was the home of Pan, the god of
pastoralism and hunting. He was known for seducing goddesses and nymphs. He
wandered the hills and mountains of Arcadia, chasing after such nymphs. Arcadia
was meant to be a form of paradise, one that all supernatural creatures inhabited
(and not one for the deceased).
This allusion to Greek mythology obviously redefines the
play’s meaning; Arcadia is an untouched, uncivilized
paradise, much like the garden at Sidley Park that was
meant to look romantic, i.e. aesthetically natural . This play
is not only about scientific inquiry and chaos theory; rather,
an uncivilized land like Arcadia invokes the Late-Renaissance
idea of the “noble savage,” a virtuous and unperturbed
figure. The impulsive natures of the inhabitants of Sidley
Park parallel the uncivilized side of these Arcadian “savages,”
delving into century-old intrigue and falling into traps of
intrigue and romance themselves (a la Septimus and
Bernard, in their respective trysts).
Friedrich August von Kaulbach’s depiction of Arcadia
Sources: http://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/Pan.html , Stoppard, Tom: Arcadia
Images: http://www.maicar.com/GML/Arcadia.html , http://www.fineartlib.info/gallery/p17_sectionid/24/p17_imageid/1338
Paul Shapturenko, Pd. 5
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
1772-1834
An important English Romantic
poet, often grouped together
with Lord Byron and William
Woodsworth for their level of
importance in the movement.
Presentation by Serhiy Hvirtsman
“No, no . . . However, Coleridge died in
1834.” – Bernard, p. 29.
- This is a response to Hannah’s statement that
the hermit she is studying died in 1834.
- He is only mentioned once throughout the
entire book.
Purpose of his inclusion:
• As a way to prepare both Hannah and the reader
for the reveal that Bernard is at Sidney Park to
study the connection with Lord Byron.
• As a way to demonstrate to Hannah that Bernard
is knowledgeable in the field of literature,
allowing her to speak more freely. (Her tone is
described as “softening”).
• To make a connection between Septimus, the
hermit who Hannah is studying, and Coleridge.
Coleridge is a hermit?
The following regards the last point on the
previous slide. Coleridge became an opium
addict late in his life, and moved in with Dr.
James Gillman in Highgate hoping to cure his
addiction. Colerdige continues publishing some
works, but he almost never leaves the house,
like a hermit. Perhaps Tom Stoppard is
comparing this to the behavior of the hermit
who lives at Sidney Park, Septimus Hodge.
Chaos Theory in Biology (Population)
Kevin Peng
xn+1=rxn(1-xn)
Fixed – population approaches a stable value
Stable – population bounces between two or more
different values
Chaotic – no pattern; the population will eventually
visit every point on the interval (0,1);
Small changes in initial condition will have large effects
in the future
a. Fixed
b. Periodic
c. Periodic
d. Chaotic
Valentine's Research
•“This year there are x goldfish. ... Nature
manipulates the x and turns it into y. Then y goldfish
is your starting population for the following year. Just
like Thomasina. Your value for y becomes your next
value for x” (45).
•“Each drip sets up the conditions for the next, the
smallest variation blows prediction apart... The future
is disorder”(48).
Z. Kaczmarek Arcadia and The Butterfly Effect
The butterfly effect is a phenomenon in which a small change in initial conditions makes a significant
difference in the outcome of a situation. It is called the butterfly effect because Edward Lorenz, who came
up with the idea, used the image of flapping butterfly wings as having a noticeable effect on the weather to
summarize his ideas.1 The butterfly effect is part of chaos theory, in which outcomes determined by their
initial conditions are nevertheless not predictable because they vary greatly from tiny changes in initial
conditions.2
start
•We see an example of this in Arcadia, where Thomasina's death is
accident, caused simply by the placement of her candle next to her
essay. Or so we assume, as the fire is not explicitly described. The
only references to it are Septimus' warning, “Be careful with the
flame,” and the stage directions, “She puts the candlestick and the
essay on the table” (100-101). As with all cases, the butterfly effect
can only be examined theoretically. We hypothesize that some small
unpredictable event—a small breeze combined with the risky
placement of the candle—caused the fire. Perhaps if had she been
more careful, or had Septimus come up to her room with her, she
would not have died. And, if she hadn't died, would she have made
any important discoveries? Thomasina's death alone is a huge
consequence for something as tiny as a breeze, but one also has to
consider the rest of her life. Maybe she would have continued her
work and found something great. Or maybe she would have stopped,
Septimus would not have done all his work in the hermitage, and
Hannah would not have even been looking into him later.
1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theor
y
2Images
from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8e/Chaos_Sensitive_Dependence.svg/500pxhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_eff
Chaos_Sensitive_Dependence.svg.png
ect
E60X Pd 5 Mini Research Project 2.6.12
and http://kateevangelistamovies.blogspot.com/2010/03/butterflies-and-fluttering-wings.html
Waltzing in Arcadia
•The waltz was considered a scandalous dance. Dance
partners held each other very tightly. The dance can be
thought of as carnal embrace.
•Thomasina predicts eminent disaster because she knows
that infatuation only leads to disaster, using Cleopatra as a
prime example.
•“Everything is turned to love…and away goes the empire like
christening mug into a pawn shop” (42)
•The steps of the waltz can change according to which beat
of the three the music puts emphasis on. The style is
consistent, the steps vary.
•The play is supposed to end when Thomasina dies. It was the last event we know happened
in the past. But it actually ends on this dance, which introduces entropy. The middle may as
well be the end, and vice versa. The order of events is as arbitrary as the steps of the waltz.
•Valentine proposes that “the future is disorder” (52). The world is going to end up in
entropic disarray, but Stoppard suggests that one should just savor the moment. We as
readers know that disaster occurs after the dance, but the characters enjoy themselves in
the moment.
The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics
Energy spontaneously tends to flow only from being concentrated in one
place
to becoming diffused or dispersed and spread out.
"But the heat equation cares very
much, it only goes one way. That is
the reason Mr. Noakes's engine
cannot give the power to drive Mr.
Noakes's engine." (91)
rice
pudding
cannot
be stirred
backwards
Septimus and Thomasina's relationship starts
with concentrated passion and disperses with
her death and his hermitage.
Garden of Eden
In the story of Adam and Eve, the
Garden of Eden is a utopia in which
there is no sin or corruption. The
prominence of the garden in the
setting of Arcadia is an allusion to
the Garden of Eden – a simple world
that can be defined by a formula.
The apple in this biblical story represents sin, often in the form of passion and
sexuality. In Arcadia, there is an apple used by several characters in different
scenes and time periods that is also an allusion to this idea. Thomasina
recognizes sex as a sin in her criticism of Cleopatra, for whom “everything is
turned to love” (Stoppard 42). However, when Thomasina succumbs to her love
for Septimus, she tastes the forbidden fruit and ends up dying in a fire that
destroys much of her work and acquired knowledge as well. Love and sex destroy
the possibility of a mathematically structured universe by adding in unplanned
“heat”, in the same way that Eve taking a bite out of the apple supposedly filled
our world with evil.
Free Will
• The ability to make choices free from certain kinds of
constraints.
• The constraint is usually determinism.
• There are two prominent opposing positions that address the
philosophical positions related to the problems of free will
and determinism :
– the claim that determinism is false and free will exists
– the claim that determinism is true and free will does not
exist.
Apples and Free Will
• Newton’s Law of Motion was inspired by a falling apple.
– Suggests that everything is predetermined
– However, because one can use Newton’s equations of motion to
obtain accurate results or determine the events one wants to happen,
the laws can be taken as a form of free will.
• “If you could stop every atom in its position and direction, and if your
mind could comprehend all the actions thus suspended, then if you were
really, really good at algebra you could write the formula for all the future”
(9-10). – Thomasina
• Because one can use Newton’s equations of motion to obtain accurate
results and determine the events one wants to happen, they can be taken
as an illusion of free will.
Apples and Free Will
• “Time must needs run backward, since it will not, we must stir our way
onward mixing as we go, disorder out of disorder into disorder until pink is
complete, unchanging and unchangeable, and we are done with it forever.
This is known as free-will or self determination” (12). – Septimus
• Septimus believes that free will and fate are not mutually exclusive and
that, even though the end result may be determined already, the way to
get to the end result is up to us.
• This is reinforced in scene four, when Valentine conducts his experiment
on goldfish.
• As Valentine uses iteration to study how the population of goldfish
changes, he notices a paradox. Although the population of his goldfish is
highly sensitive to local conditions, it seems to follow a universal pattern.
His results seem to support the fact that free will and determinism may
both exist.
Chaos Theory and Arcadia
A chaotic model is a system which is deterministic, non linear
and most importantly displays sensitive dependence, the
concept that a minute change in conditions can propagate
through the system over a period of time and come to have
major effects1. It is this principle that is most notable and
which gives the theory its name. This notion that a single
change in a system can cause chaos is also quite prominent in
Arcadia. The first suggestion of chaos theory is from
Thomasina, who suggests that the world is deterministic:
“If you could stop every atom in its position and direction, and if your
mind could comprehend all the actions thus suspended, then if you
were really, really good at algebra, you could write the formula for all
the future; and although nobody can be so clever as to do it, the
formula must exist just as if one could.” (Stoppard, 9-10)2
This hypothesis is quite impressive coming from the teenage
Thomasina, and shockingly similar to an omniscient being
theorized by Pierre Simon Laplace eleven years later that
would come to be known as “Laplace’s demon”3:
Cluttered table6
Pierre Simon Laplace 5
“An intellect which at a certain
moment would know all forces that
set nature in motion, and the position
of all items of which nature is
composed, if this intellect were also
vast enough to submit these data to
analysis, it would embrace in a single
formula the movements of the
greatest bodies of the universe and
those of the tiniest atom; for such an
intellect nothing would be uncertain
and the future just like the past would
be present before its eyes” (Pierre
Simon Laplace, A Philosophical Essay
on Probabilities)4
Another important occurrence of chaos in Arcadia
comes from the relationship between the modern
and nineteenth century settings. The characters in the modern era are trying to
uncover the mystery of what happened in the past, in part by finding artifacts
and documents left by the actors of the earlier period. Gradually, random items
coalesce and appear to the modern characters as distributed without sense or
order, but through investigation and with the help of a chaotic table, the
underlying order which lies behind the apparent chaos is revealed.
Citations
1,3 Smith,
Leonard A. Chaos: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford UP, USA, 2007. Print.
Stoppard, Tom. Arcadia. London: Faber and Faber, 1993. Print.
4 Laplace, Pierre S. "A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities." The Information Philosopher. Web. 06 Feb. 2012.
<http://www.informationphilosopher.com/freedom/laplaces_demon.html>.
5 Madame Feytaud. Pierre-Simon Laplace. 1842. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 06 Feb. 2012.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Simon_Laplace>.
6 Google Images. Photograph. Google. Web. 06 Feb. 2012. <http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en>.
2
Lord Byron:
The Phantom
of Arcadia
AP Metaphysics
Pd. 5
Xinni Liu
Where Art Thou, Lord Byron?
Although Byron is never physically
present in any of the scenes in Tom
Stoppard’s Arcadia, he plays a
Romantic role in both time periods of
the play. Simply put, Byron embodies
the same characteristics of the Byronic
hero, which he created.
The Ghost of Byron: The Past and
The Present
•
The rampant gossip of Byron’s misdeeds has Byron labeled as a mysterious,
arrogant, and womanizing intellectual.
Thomasina says, “Mama is in love with Lord Byron…[he] was reading to her from his satire,
and Mama was laughing, with her head in her best position…He paid you a tribute,
Septimus…it concerned a book called ‘The Maid of Turkey’ and how you would not give it
to your dog for dinner” (Stoppard 40).
•
Despite the fact that the chronology of events in Byron’s life seemed
unclear, Bernard recreates the story of Byron’s life by once again, imposing
traits of the Byronic hero on the poet.
Trying to make sense of Byron’s presence in a game book on Lady Croom’s estate, Bernard
declares that “the first thing [Byron] des is seduce Chater’s wife. All is discovered. There is
a duel…[The story] dropped from sight but we will write it again” (Stoppard 54).
Batman, The Phantom of
Gotham City?
• Since the 18th century, the
concept of the Byronic hero
has transpired through many
different mediums of
entertainment; one example
being comics. The
characterization of Bruce
Wayne in the the comic
series Batman, by Bob Kane
and Bill Finger, is similar to
Byron’s character in Arcadia.
Newton’s Apple
• Background
– One day, Issac Newton was sitting under an apple
tree and an apple fell onto his head. He figured
that the Earth attracts the apple, and the apple
attracts the Earth, in proportion to its quantity
(mass).
– From this, the universal law of gravitation came
into being.
𝑚1 𝑚2
𝐹𝑔 = 𝐺
𝑑2
Newton’s Apple in Arcadia
• “The future is all programmed like a computer.” (77) Chloe
• “The only thing going wrong is people fancying people who
aren’t supposed to be in that part of the plan.” (78) –Chloe
• “Ah. The attraction that Newton left out. All the way back
to the apple in the garden.” (78) -Valentine
• Main forces that make a system unstable
– Gravity
– Unplanned sexual attractions
• The formula for the world is predetermined (determinism)
– Except these two forces can make it turbulent.
– Relates to chaos theory; a mysterious force.
“the
attra
ction
that
newt
on
left
out.”
•
Chloe: 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.
•
The theme of human attraction manifests itself in two ways:
As
sa
id
in
th
What it means:
e
• Valentine: Ah. The attraction
pl
that Newton left out. All the way
back to the apple in the garden.
ay
(78)
:
– Romance: As represented by Cleopatra, and
– Sex: As represented by Septimus and his wild sexcapades.
•
Chloe posits that human interaction defies determinism.
•
Sex juxtaposed with academia, striking a contrast.
– Hannah: Oh, your lecture.
– Bernard: No. no, bugger that. Sex. (67)
• Found in the Book of Genesis
• God creates Adam and Eve, and puts them into a paradise garden
• They have no knowledge, and are forbidden by God to eat from the
Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
• A talking serpent, representing the Devil, tempts Eve to eat the
fruit, and Adam follows her
• The two gain the understanding of their nakedness, and cover
themselves before God discovers their disobedience
• The consequences are that Adam and Eve are banished from Eden,
the snake must crawl on its belly, women must suffer the pain of
childbirth, and man must work the ground.
Sidley Park
• Its initial Romantic look is described by Lady Croom as “nature as
God intended” (16).
• Noakes, who introduced many more irregularities into the garden
is “in the scheme of the garden, … the serpent” (8)
The Apple; The Forbidden Fruit
• Chloe’s theory that sexual attraction disproves a deterministic
universe: “Ah. The attraction that Newton left out. All the way back
to the apple in the garden” (78).
• Gus gives Hannah’s an apple as a sign of attraction.
• Thomasina’s idea of iteration is inspired by the leaf of an apple.
The Consequences of Knowledge and Attraction
• Thomasina discovers that thermodynamics suggest that the
“Universe must cease and grow cold” (98). Septimus’s (the hermit’s)
hut is filled with “cabalistic proofs that the world is
coming to an end” (31).
• Septimus’s “carnal embrace” with Lady Chater
nearly results in a duel
• Thomasina’s attraction for Septimus ends with
her death.
The Steam Pump
Kori Porosnicu-Rodriguez
“The Emperor of Irregularity!”
-Thomasina, pg.89
“…the slopes are green and gentle…”
-Lady Croom, pg.16
William Matthews, Arcadia (pre-1809 garden)
“…an eruption of gloomy forest and towering crag…”
-Lady Croom, pg.16
William Matthews, Arcadia (post-1812)
"You do not suppose, my lady, that if all of
Archimedes had been hiding in the great
library of Alexandria, we would be at a loss for
a corkscrew? I have no doubt that the
improved steam-driven heat-engine which
puts Mr. Noakes into an ecstasy that he and it
and the modern age should all coincide, was
described on papyrus.“
-Septimus, pg.42
Pg. 85:
Septimus: A prize
essay of the
Scientific
Academy in Paris.
The author
deserves your
indulgence, my
lady, for you are
his prophet.
Thomasina: I?
What does he
write about?
The waltz?
Septimus:
Yes. He
demonstrates the
equation of the
propagation of heat
in a solid body. But
in doing so he has
discovered heresy- a
natural contradiction
of Sir Isaac Newton.
Thomasina: Oh!- he
contradicts
determinism?
Septimus:
No!...Well, perhaps.
He shows that the
atoms do not go
Joseph Fourier:
On the Propagation of Heat in Solid Bodies according to
Newton.
“Septimus: Why does it mean Mr. Noakes’s engine pays
eleven pence in the shilling?
Thomasina: Nowhere. I noticed it by the way. I cannot
remember now.
Septimus: Nor is he interested by determinismThomasina: Oh…yes. Newton’s equations go forwards and
backwards, they do not care which way. But the heat
equation cares very much, it goes only one way. That is the
reason Mr. Noakes’s engine cannot give the power to drive
Mr. Noakes’s engine.
Septimus: Everybody knows that.
Thomasina: Yes, Septimus, they know it about engines!”
-Pg. 91
Works Cited
1.
http://www.cherwell.oxon.sch.uk/arcadia/outline0.htm
2.
http://www.tim-thompson.com/entropy2.html
3.
http://www.robertnowlan.com/pdfs/Fourier,%20Joseph.pdf
4.
http://www.todayinsci.com/F/Fourier_JBJ/FourierPoliticianScienti
stBio.htm
5.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7155/6707002471_aa9f0c61cd_o.jpg
6.
http://www.arionpress.com/images/matthews/gallery62.html
Brideshead Revisited -- G. Chau
• Novel by English writer Evelyn Waugh (1945)
• “Yes, I met him. Brideshead Regurgitated.” -Bernard (27)
• Brideshead was the name of the estate (like
Sidley Park), also the name that referred to a
son living there, who was often seen as distant
and cold
• Both works shared a common theme: Et in
Arcadia Ego
Et in Arcadia Ego (The Shepherds,
1637)
Examples in the Text
• “…I can say with the painter, ‘Et in Arcadia
Ego!’ ‘Here I am in Arcadia,’ Thomasina.” –
Lady Croom (16)
• “A calendar of slaughter. ‘Even in Arcadia,
there am I!’” – Septimus (17)
• “Oh, phooey to Death!” – Thomasina (17)
Et in Arcadia Ego
• Painting referred to the fact that Death was
always present – even in the utopia Arcadia was
supposed to be
• Represented the idea that nothing would last
forever – not the happiness that Septimus and
Thomasina enjoyed nor the universe
• Death clearly plays prominent role, as Thomasina
dies after the play ends (even though we never
see any of the deaths that happen)
• Also plays with the clash between Classical
(Arcadia) and Romanticism (Noake’s new garden)
FERMAT’S LAST
THEOREM
Fermat’s last theorem
"To write the cube of a number as a
sum of two cubes, or the fourth
power as a sum of two fourth
powers, or any power above 2 as a
sum of two like powers, is
impossible. I have a truly wonderful
proof of this fact, but the margin is
too narrow to contain it."
n
A
+
n
B ≠
n
C
"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 numbers alone. This margin
being too mean for my purpose, the
reader must look elsewhere for the New
Geometry of Irregular Forms by
Thomasina Coverly."
FRACTALS
James Chu
Fractals
•
•
•
•
•
Fractals are basically figures that have complex and irregular formations at all scales
of measurement.
The term was coined by Benoit Mandelbrot when he observed coastlines. Fractals
were developed to study nature.
Self Similarity: Fractals exhibit the property of Self-Similarity, in which parts of the
object bears resemblance to the entire object (Perfect, Approximate, Brownian)
Iteration: Fractals are produced through repeating certain steps, which creates a
pattern. This process is called iteration. In order to create a true fractal, you would
have to iterate an infinite amount of times.
Iteration may seem chaotic and disorderly at times, but the resulting fractal is orderly.
The Sierpinski
Triangle
Mandelbrot Set
Naturally Occurring
Fractal
Fractals In Arcadia
•
•
•
•
•
Both Thomasina and Valentine utilize fractals and iteration for their respective studies:
Thomasina: What a faint-heart! We must work outward from the middle of the maze. We
will start with something simple. (She picks up the apple leaf.) I will plot this leaf and
deduce its equation. (Pg 41)
Valentine: The Coverly Set.
Hannah: The Coverly Set! My goodness, Valentine!
Valentine: …In an ocean of ashes, islands of order. Patterns making themselves out of
nothing. I can’t show you how deep it goes. Each picture is a detail of the previous one,
blown up. And so on. For ever. (Pg 80)
The multiple parallels between the two different eras demonstrate the property of selfsimilarity (certain aspects of the plot and characters). Furthermore, in Scene 7, the presentera and past-era characters are wearing Regency clothing. Stoppard attempts to portray
a key concept of fractal: within the chaos that is iteration, there is an underlying order
(evident in The Chaos Game) Here, self-similarity between periods contrasts the chaos of
time.
The entire structure of Arcadia is that of a fractal. Each scene undergoes iteration, in which
the plot of the previous scene feeds into that of the next scene, producing unpredictable
results (i.e. Thomasina’s death, Chloe + Bernard). This culminates in the final scene, where
the two eras blend. Despite this disorder, the structure of the play remains orderly. There
three scenes in the past, three in the present, and the seventh scene which has six subscenes: two in the past, two of the present, and two where the characters of both eras
appear.
Fractals in Arcadia Contd.
•
•
•
If you were to plot Scene Seven’s changes in periods, the result would be the following:
This may exhibit certain aspects of fractality.
Furthermore, fractals can also represent the shift from Romanticism into Classicism, as
nature becomes entwined with Euclidean geometry.
Works Cited
Aronov, Dmitriy, Mikhail Radomyselskiy, and Ming J. Po. "Fractals Unleashed." Library.thinkquest.org. Web. 6
Feb. 2012. <http://library.thinkquest.org/26242/full/>.
"Tom Stoppard's Arcadia - John Patrick Fleming." Google Books. Web. 06 Feb. 2012.
<http://books.google.com/books?id=IsOlMchQzRUC>.
"Tom Stoppard's Arcadia." Classes.yale.edu. Web. 6 Feb. 2012.
<http://classes.yale.edu/fractals/panorama/Literature/Stoppard/Stoppard.html>.
GOTHIC GARDEN
STYLE
AND
CAPABILITY
BROWN
Gothic Garden Style
• Garden - one of bridges between past and
present
• Background for characters’ motives
• Noakes’ design – elements of Gothic literature
and art:
– Gothic – part of Romantic period
– Horror, dread, deterioration
– “gloomy forest… towering crag… ruins… water dashing
against rocks… haunt for hobgoblins… fallen obelisk
overgrown with briars” (16)
• Noakes – changes in tastes
Capability Brown
•
•
•
•
Various references (29-30, 31,
53, 87)
Head Gardener at Stowe
Lady Croom – traditional
– Refers to Noakes as “‘Culpability’ Brown” (87) –
pun on Lancelot Capability Brown’s name
– Hannah: “English landscape was invented by gardeners imitating
foreign painters who evoked classical authors. The whole thing was
brought home in the luggage from the grand tour. Here, look—
Capability Brown doing Claude, who was doing Virgil. Arcadia! And
here, superimposed by Richard Noakes, untamed nature in the style
of Salvator Rosa. It’s the Gothic novel expressed in landscape.
Everything but vampires” (30)
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
Background:
• English Romantic poet
• joint publication Lyrical Ballades with Coleridge initiated the Romantic
Age
• “Wordsworth has an insight into permanent sources of joy and
consolation for mankind which Byron has not; his poetry gives us more
which we may rest upon than Byron's” (Arnold)
“They read a damn sight more like Byron than
Byron’s review of Wordsworth the previous year”
Bernard asserts (Stoppard
his point that
34).the copy of “The Couch of Eros”
belonged to Byron, since“all underlined passages, word for word, were
used as quotations in the review of [it]” (34). Bernard mentions
Wordsworth to stress that Byron review of “The Couch of Eros” was a
should
be
ridicule, just as how Byron“You
mocked
Wordsworth
in Piccadilly. If Byron
proud
to be in
was not on friendly terms with
Chater,
the author of “The Couch of
theon
company
Eros,” just as how he was not
friendlyofterms with Wordsworth,
Stewart McGowan as Ezra Chater.
Rufus Sewell as Septimus Hodge.
Rogers
and
Bernard uses
this
as
evidence
that
Byron
had
killed
Chater.
Lady Croom states this to Chater to suggest
that it is an honor
Moore and
to be insulted by Byron in his English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, just
The allusions
ofWordsworth—
Wordsworth
always
used Chater
in the context
as how Rogers,
Moore, and
Wordsworthwere
were.
However,
retorts
ah!”
(44).
of Chater’s
Throughout
the play,
Bernard
asserts
that Lord
that
“[it] is apoetry.
doggerel
aimed at Lord
Byron’s
seniors
and betters”
(44).
Byron
had
killedLady’s
Chater
becauseadmiration
of the similar
treatment
This
also
shows
Croom’s
towards
Byron.he had given
towards Wordsworth. This misconception ultimately brings mystery to
References
the play, where the negative acts Septimus had committed were
thought
to be doneByron’s
by LordPoems.
Byron,New
simultaneously
giving
Septimus
Arnold, Matthew.
York, Thomas
Y. Crowell
& Co., 1884.
characteristics
of a Byronic Hero. This is critical to the plot, as it
Print.
Gardens of the Enlightenment
Longleat Estate before it was redesigned by "Capability Brown"
Longleat Estate after it was redesigned by "Capbility Brown"
"Capability Brown" in Arcadia
Lancelot Brown, known as "Capability Brown" designed English
gardens and landscapes. As described by Hannah, "English
landscape was invented by gardeners imitating foreign painters
who were evoking classical authors. The whole thing was
brought home in the luggage from the grand tour. Here, look Capability Brown doing Claude, who was doing Virgil. Arcadia!"
(29). Sidley Park was redesigned during the Enlightenment:
"smooth, undulating, serpentine - open water, clumps of trees,
classical boathouse" (29).
Designs of Gardens of the Enlightenment
During the Enlightenment, gardens were neatly trimmed, with
"only useful or decorative plants allowed to grow, and every
weed meticulously uprooted. The trees would be planted
according to mathematical models for harmonious spacing, and
the shrubbery would be pruned into geometric shapes such as
spheres, cones, or pyramids." Nature was "something to be
shaped according to the dictates of human will and tamed
according to the rules of human logic."
Designs of Gardens of the Romantic Era
The orderly gardens of the Enlightenment were redesigned by
Romantic artists. Hannah describes the Romantic landscape as,
"untamed nature in the style of Salvator Rosa. It's the Gothic
novel expressed in landscape. Everything but vampires" (30).
During Romantic period, fruit trees replaced shrubbery and
"wild ivy [were] encouraged to grow along picturesque, roughhewn walls." The Romantics got rid of human design imposed
on nature, and created gardens that served to imitate the
forest.
Sidley Park: Enlightened to Romantic
Hannah calls the Romantic period a "sham" (31). She describes
the shift from Enlightened to Romantic thinking as a "century
of intellectual rigour turned in on itself" and Romanticism as a
"setting of cheap thrills and false emotion" (31). By 1760,
Sidley Park lost its "topiary, pools and terraces, fountains,
avenue of limes" and instead, had "grass [that] went from the
doorstep to the horizon" (31). According to Hannah, it was a
shift from thinking to feeling.
Phoenix
Origins
• The Phoenix is a mythological creature
that is mentioned in many different
cultures: Greek, Arabian, Persian, Roman,
Egyptian, Chinese, Japanese, and a
number of others.
Symbolism
• The phoenix is a symbol of rebirth. It is said
that every 500 to 1000 years the phoenix
builds a nest and then ignites. From the ashes,
the phoenix is reborn.
Important Pages in Book
• Page 9 /10– Thomasina tells Septimus of her
theory, (chaos theory). Formula exists to
predict everything in life
• Page 42 – The burning of the great library at
Alexandria.
• Page 48 – Valentine rediscover’s Thomasina’s
iteration technique.
• Page 77/78 – Valentine discusses determinism
with Chloe
Entropy increases because heat
flows from hot to cold
ENTROPY
ΔS = Q / T
Entropy measures the dispersion of energy in a
system. Note that this is not the same thing as
disorder. Modern textbooks are moving away
from describing entropy as disorder, because
students confuse order and disorder as used in
the context of thermodynamics with order and
disorder as used in everyday speech.
This slide is so messy on
purpose. It's an
entropy/disorder reference.
ΔS = Q / TA - Q / TB
TA < TB, Therefore
Q / TA > Q / TB, Therefore
ΔS > 0
Though Entropy and disorder are
technically not the same thing,
Stoppard presumably didn't know that,
so I will give the references he makes
to entropy and/or disorder.
DETERMINISM
•
•
•
•
The philosophical doctrine that every state of affairs, including every human event, act, and decision is the
inevitable consequence of antecedent states of affairs.
In Arcadia: (p. 9-10) "Thomasina: If you could stop every atom in its position and direction, and if your mind could
comprehend all the actions thus suspended, then if you were really, really good at algebra you could write the
formula for all the future, and although nobody can be so clever as to do it, the formula must exist just as if one
could.
In Physics:
o Thomasina's observation depends on the world of Newtonian physics which we now know not to be correct
on the atomic level. We now know quantum physics to be true. This forces us to reevalutate Thomasina's
statement. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle states that we can only actually determine the paths of objects
in a probabilistic way (for example, our ability to accurately measure the position of an election varies
inversely with our ability to accurately determine its velocity). This means that the scenario Thomasina
describes is impossible. This results in a different type of determinism than Thomasina describes. Quantum
determinism is probabilistic in nature with each possible scenario having a certain probability of occurring.
o But there are more compelling arguments for determinism in modern physics. Take for example
Stuyvesant's own Brian Greene's explanation of one of the implications of Einstein's discovery of the
relativity of space and time: "Imagine time-space as a loaf of bread, and the present time of each man in
different places and velocities in space (relative to earth) as slices of the bread cut in different angles...Now,
the collection of all these now-slices fills out a substantial region of the spacetime loaf. In fact, if space is
infinite – if now-slices extended infinitely far – then the rotated now-slices can be centered arbitrarily far
away, and hence their union sweeps through every point in the spacetime loaf." One possible implication of
this is that entirety of spacetime has already occurred, thus pointing out a different kind of determinism.
Philosophical implications: Free-will no longer exists because our actions are predetermined. This also
puts a wrench in discussions of morality (e.g. can we call Hitler immoral if his egregious actions were
predetermined to happen).