Dec 22, 2009

Arcadia | Topics for Further Study

Like many playwrights who write about ideas, Stoppard relies on symbolism to convey deeper levels of meaning. In Arcadia, one of the more important symbols is the landscape of Sidley Park, which undergoes several changes in the course of the play and is talked about by all the characters, past and present. Examine the ways the landscape at Sidley Park is viewed by the people who stay there and explain how it becomes an important symbol in the play.

One of the principal themes in Arcadia is a collision between passion and reason, the heart and the head. The Romantic...