Arcadia: Split Significance Ryan Rusin 12th Grade

The parallel and overall relation of time is a phenomenon that has been explored from both creative and philosophical perspectives. By forming a connection between the impacts of action, in hand with the various possible outcomes, Tom Stoppard creates a dramatic piece that challenges the very basis of human life itself. Stoppard’s thrilling drama, Arcadia, primarily serves to discuss the relationship between science and the progress of life…proposing that the past is significant, but only in moving us forward. The story exemplifies that time must still move on from what is already tangible, and civilization must persist to expand the limits of knowledge, otherwise time will be doomed to repeat itself.

In Arcadia, Stoppard accentuates the concept of ambiguity within human knowledge, furthering the idea that a fair amount of what is known to be is still questioned. By incorporating the dichotomy into the play between the past and present, this ambiguity is able to flower into a conjectural nightmare for the characters in the play, initially. Drawing into the theory of determinism, Stoppard proves the chaos that is to arise out of attempting to know what can’t truly be ever known, which in turn formulates an ingenious...