9 comedy of wit: Arcadia

1 1660-1700 golden age of wit comedy

2 wit is less used bc emergence of sensibility of new anthropology, more sympathy, not good for the genre

3 other dramatic genres emerges (farce, melodrama)

4 wit has a comeback

TS is impressed/ influenced by OW

1 parody of ‘TIOBE’

2 OW adressed his homosexuality and AEH was repressed about it

stage direction: stage opens

romantic period

unity of place- stage stays the same

> no unity of time

>> 2 time levels - about 200 years apart (1809-1990 present)

link to the theme of intellectual discovery

> he studied physics, both are creative intellectuals

sociological fact: aristocratic family

different plot lines according to researches and what their goals are

1

found a document …

Lord! byron

spend a few days with the aristocratic family where he fought the duel with a minor poet

panning= bad review

friend of septimus (camebridge)

is a redharing (false clue)

> he does not kill Chater (duel does not happen because Lady croom kicks them byron out after finding out about him sleeping with ms Chater but she wanted to do so)

> the challange to the duel is to septimus hodge (Tutor) not to Byron

2

biologist using math

aristocrat

grouse = waldhühner

found game books (number of grouses shot) in family archive

3

Lady croom read her book, invited her

wants to solve an inegma (mystery)

hermitage = place where you live on your own (Einsiedler)

1 infant prodigy (Wunderkind)

mathimatical scientific mind

3 last dance situation

1 hannah found a document proving Chater was still alive after Byrons visit

2 too many factors for an algorithm

they discover the prodigy

1 one night stand

Mrs Chater = nymphomaniac

2 also sleeps with Septimus

3 in the present, Bernard is interested in Hannah but she is not responsive

Chloe = valentines sister (daughter of present lady croom)

4 sexually unfulfilled, attraction

point no 2: characters motivated by love/sex to help or hinder someone in their research

1 clearly artificial, formed by humans

geometrical principles

2 still manmade but more natural/irregular

landscaped by Lancelot/ Capability Brown

3 more rugged/ irregular/ natural

in favour of the italian garden, thinks they should have left it that way

geometry has gone

romantic wilderness

a source/ book Stoppard used

history of science is parallel to history of garden

> bluebell more irrelularly formed than a bell, even more than a rose

Thomasina is not content with this neutonian science that septimus inflicts on her

reads from thomasinas lesson book

she ist more into art, can’t understand this

Valentine says that she as schoolgirl in 1810 could never had said that, things that he does

anticipates innovative formulas

example

invents iteration (iterated algorithm)

> using the result of an equation as the starting point for another equation

second discovery

principle of entropy = 2nd law of thermodynamics

principle explained by valentine

Thomasina when she is discovering this in the play:

action of bodies in heat (sex) - pun by lady croom

love and sex are metaphors for the anti newtonian forces- chaos and disorder

forces of chance, chaos and irregularity are not only part of the world the characters talk about, they also are forces in the form and the structure of the play, inform the dialogue and the theme of intelecctual discovery

conversational realism (people interrupt/ misunderstand each other)

double entendre (misunderstanding)

After misunderstanding:

furtuitous (by chance/accident) wit- kind of a formula for the play

also characterizes intellectual discovery

one more example of that:

Here I am in Arcadia

reference to painting from Poussin and…:

argument of Panowsky

has history in paintings and literature

meaning shifted because speaker did

4 what lady croom meant

> It’s a mistake that creates meaning

> teaches it to Thomasina, meaning becomes true at the end

> disruption of meaning and logic

Arcadia can be seen as metaphor of the life she has with Septimus

> scientific companionship but outside forces enter the play

> interruption of sex carnival embrace and death

Destruction of Thomasinas scientific Arcadia

Butler interrupts lesson

Mr chater wants to talk to S

convo is echo of hannahs and Valentines tea situation (entropy)

chance interferes and creates moments of discovery

love and sex are desruptive but creative forces

double dance 180 years apart

Thomasina and septimus

Gus and Hannah

traditional ending (celebration of love/ harmony/ eroticism) overshadowed by the knowledge that H&G don't have a permanent relationship and that Thomasina will die in a few hours

speech by Septimus (when Thomasina talks about burned library)

encapsulates the sense of people from different times in history having a common project (procession)

describes what happens in the play (vorletzte Zeile)

things won’t be lost, they will be found again (entropy) > thats why the ending is not pessimistic but rather optimistic