The Hermitage


A veritable cowshed of cabalistic ravings...


Welcome to the random fan-page of a devoted lover of Tom Stoppard's masterpiece, Arcadia. Here is some basic information, and a few links to some excellent sites about the play.
Character ListSynopsis
Favorite Lines and QuotesLinks
My Paper/Speech on Arcadia




 Character List

THOMASINA COVERLY
SEPTIMUS HODGE
JELLABY
EZRA CHATER
RICHARD NOAKES
LADY CROOM
CAPTAIN BRICE, RN
HANNAH JARVIS
CHLOE COVERLY
BERNARD NIGHTINGALE
VALENTINE COVERLY
GUS COVERLY/AUGUSTUS COVERLY

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Synopsis
(from MIT Community Players Website)

Tom Stoppard's Arcadia takes the audience back and forth through time, illuminating the mysteries of mathematics, Romantic poetry, the second law of thermodynamics and chaos theory, as well as the chaos of the human heart and the "attraction that Newton left out".

In 1809 at Sidley Park, the orderly classicism of Lady Croom's Capability Brown grounds is being turned into picturesque romantic chaos under the direction of her new landscape gardener. In a room overlooking the garden's renovation, Lady Croom's adolescent daughter, Thomasina Coverly, discusses Fermat's theorem, Newtonian physics, and the definition of carnal embrace with her tutor Septimus Hodge. They are interrupted by, among others, the amorous Lady Croom and Ezra Chater, a cuckold and minor poet, determined on satisfaction. 195 years later, in the same room, a group of modern day academics try with some difficulty to unravel the events of 1809.

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Favorite Lines and Quotes

"It's wanting to know that makes us matter"
-Hannah Jarvis

Brice: As her tutor it is your duty to keep her in ignorance!

Lady Croom: Do not dabble in paradox, Edward. It puts you in danger of fortuitous wit.


"Yes, Septimus, they know it about engines!"
-Thomasina Coverly

Thomasina: You did not like my discovery?
Septimus: A fancy is not a discovery.
Thomasina: A gibe is not a rebuttal.


"My technique when lecturing is to free associate within and infinite regression of parenthesis."
-Tom Stoppard



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Links

Michael Berry�s Arcadia Page

�They Know it About Engines�

Steven Winn SF Chronicle Review



This page created by Cori Proctor 9/14/2004
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