Principles of Narrative, and Principles of Mathematics and Science, in Stoppard's 'Arcadia' Anonymous College

Arcadia, written in 1993 by Tom Stoppard, is concerned with the relationship between order and disorder, past and present, and certainty and uncertainty. The action is split between two timelines unravelling in a room of an English manor house, Sidley Park, almost two hundred years apart. The first narrative depicts the bright daughter of the estate, Thomasina Coverly, who is tutored by Septimus Hodge in 1809. Whilst, in 1933, scholars Hannah Jarvis, Bernard Lightingale, and Valentine Coverly try to piece together the history of the estate from Thomasina’s annotations. Stoppard alternates between both these narratives as well as two timelines. This non-linear narrative tackles a vast array of scientific subjects, including thermodynamics, fractals, and chaos theory.

First of all, it is my stance that Mathematics and Science play a fundamental role in Arcadia. Stoppard takes contemporary Science as his subject matter. This can be seen through the fact that the characters’ lives revolve around Science. For instance, Thomasina’s scientific curiosity is shown from Scene 1. Even while eating her rice pudding she attempts to find scientific explanations for the world around her. In fact, something similar happens to Valentine when he...