Tom Stoppard's Arcadia

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Throughout the text, Tom Stoppard's novel Arcadia makes a series of philosophical statements regarding the theme of determinism. These statements are developed largely through images and completely different time periods, particularly those of the Romantic and Enlightenment era¹s. Tom Stoppard uses the theme of determinism to show how the ideas of the Romantic era and the present day have gone in a circle. And that even though we get more and more advanced everyday, Stoppard shows us that despite our constant advancement, our basic ideas have remained unchanged. Author Tom Stoppard portrays this belief of a time cycle through the image of the apple juxtaposed with the image of the garden.

In Arcadia, Tom Stoppard uses a scientific view of determinism along with a religious view on determinism in order to allow the reader to see similarities in ideas between the Romantic era and the present day. Religious determinism in Arcadia is shown to have to do with God/fate, predestination, and the future whereas the scientific view has to do with Newton, and with biological determinism. Although both stories do use both aspects of determinism, it is usually the story from 1809 using the scientific determinism whereas in the present day, they use more of the religious view of determinism.

In the first story, a scientific view of determinism is shown through Septimus and Thomasina in order to introduce to the reader the basic ideas on determinism and science.

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