Arcadia Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia": The Term Paper

But ultimately the plays suggests no one can reject science, nor poetry altogether. Even the mathematics scholar Valentine whose worldview is seen as incommensurate with the literature scholars, finds a connection in the past between the 19th century young woman's Thomasina's work and his own, when he discovers her notebook. The laws of thermodynamics and its relation to poetic creation, the 'correct' way of seeing Byron, as opposed to "Bernard's Byron," as Chloe calls him (Act II, Scene 7) are all connected in the physical presence of the house. Ultimately Byron provides the connective, emotional thread between both science and math. And later in the play when Bernard returns after his appearance on "The Breakfast Hour," Hannah discovers a note that proves that Chater died in Martinique in 1810. The note destroys Bernard's argument completely and Hannah sees it as just revenge for his bad review of her last book, the kind of review that nearly drove Thomasina's tutor Septimus to a duel. Thus although the viewer never gets to know Byron the way he or she gets to know the depicted characters, the viewer can never forget Byron throughout the play's duration, as Byron's portrayal is as complex and varied as it is persistent.….....