"Plotting the Apple of Knowledge": Tom Stoppard's Arcadia as Iterated Theatrical Algorithm

Abstract

Valentine Coverly's explanation of the new mathematics of chaos theory points to a central metaphor for the dramatic structure of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia: the non-linear story and plot unfold from the interaction of the unpredictable and the predetermined. Science provides metaphors that Stoppard applies to this play's structure as a way of knowing and in order to underline its theme of knowledge. While scientific models are necessarily inexact when applied to a dramatic work of art, they nevertheless provide clues to understanding this play of ideas. Just as Valentine is careful to explain that the apple leaf plotted (drawn) by the iterated algorithm (a feedback equation) is not a real leaf but "a mathematical object," so too is Arcadia no imitation of real-world space and time, but a self-consciously artistic creation — an aesthetic object.

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