"A highly amusing and entertaining play with a serious intention.
How does Stoppard successfully achieve this combination?.
Arcadia by Stoppard fulfils the requirements for a successful play, which is the ability to entertain the audience while at the same time stretching the audience's mind. Stoppard utilises various amusing theatrical technique such as wit, slapstick humour and comic situation to dramatise deep philosophical ideas. The idea of enlightenment versus romanticism dominates the play as the differences between the two movements are displayed throughout Arcadia. Other ideas that are dramatised in Arcadia include discoveries from various eras and significance of nature. .
Arcadia has a single setting with a dual time frame which leads to clever plot devices. For example, many elements of the play are parallel to each other. The room in which the action takes place, the interchangeability of the furniture and the props, the way the characters parallel each other and the way the concerns of one time frame are elucidated in the other all positively contribute to the unity of the play. Stoppard cleverly establishes the plot where one sets in the nineteenth century and the other in the twentieth century. By utilising a structure where the twentieth century characters are trying to gain knowledge of the action taking place in the nineteenth century Stoppard allows the characters to indirectly interact with each other. Later the interaction of characters is explicitly shown when the play is resolved with characters of both time frames sharing the stage dancing to the music at the same time. The characters and their relationship from the different time frames also parallel each other. Septimus in the nineteenth century parallels Bernard in the twentieth century while Thomasina parallels Valentine and Hannah. Both Septimus and Bernard are discovered to have written reviews criticising the books written by Mr Chater and Hannah.