Postmodern Theme in Tom Stoppard's Arcadia

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Arcadia by Tom Stoppard is written as a typically postmodern play, it explores this movement throughout the play with the use of features of postmodernism, and by its open ended ending. A few of the key features used during Arcadia which demonstrate the postmodern theme include: characters overlapping at the end, shifts in time from past to present, parallel characters during both eras, similar sets of props used during both eras, and the textual references. Its open ending and satirical style combine to make it a new, fresh play. The play begins with a brief introduction to the student-tutor relationship between the gifted young lady Thomasina and her genius teacher Septimus. Stoppard begins by setting the tension with Thomasina's statement of curiosity, "tell me more about sexual congress." Septimus quickly attempts to turn Thomasina’s attention elsewhere towards Fermat's theorem. Opposites like sexual curiosity and aspiring intellect happen numerously throughout the course of the play as Stoppard also contrasts things like, female intuition with male arrogance, free will and ...

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