Arcadia Essay Research Paper Throughout the play — страница 2

saying that Bernard ignores the information which disproves his theory and only focuses on that which does prove it. This is completely unscientific and illogical if you want to have limited doubt in your theory. Also in this scene Valentine shares his opinion, ?Actually, Bernard, as a scientist, your theory is incomplete.? (59) Valentine, the main character who has a large scientific background, also states that Bernard does not have enough evidence to proceed in publishing his theory. Valentine tries to tell Bernard that although he does have some evidence that he does not have nearly enough to proceed in publishing. Despite the advice of others Bernard decides to precede with this theory and publish it no matter now much evidence might be out there to prove it wrong. This

decision proves to be a big mistake. It is proven wrong just days after it is published. Not only was he proven wrong but it was proven wrong by science as well. It was discovered that Chater did not die in a dual but of a monkey bit in Martinique. Bernard?s haste to be famous caused him to make a mistake which could not be erased. His purposeful carelessness and irrational behavior cost him his credibility forever. Thomasina is another character that shows the dangers of becoming irrational and illogical. Thomasina is 13 years old when the play begins. She is a brilliant young woman especially in the field of mathematics and science. Most of her time is spent working on different problems and theories with her tutor Septimus Hodge. For the most part she is purely scientific with

little knowledge of the irrational world. She bases her thoughts and ideas on logical and plausible evidence. She is constantly using logic and other techniques to prove various solutions to theories. She never concludes anything without an explanation. She wasn?t interested in love and didn?t want to study anything that didn?t pertain to mathematics. Septimus asks Thomasina why she hates Cleopatra and her response is, ?Everything is turned to love with her. New love, absent love, lost love-I never knew a heroine that makes such noodles of our sex.? (38) Here Thomasina proves how she dislikes those which deal too much with love and emotion. She feels there is more satisfaction in mathematics and science. Towards the end of the play and especially in the last scene Thomasina gives

in to her romantic and irrational side. In the last scene Thomasina and Septimus are talking about her theory of how the world is doomed and then they begin to waltz. This shows the mixture of science and pleasure and at the same time rational and irrational thinking. In the beginning they are rationally talking about Thomasina?s theory but by the end they are acting impulsively waltzing and even kissing. This scene we know precedes her death. We learned earlier that she died that night before her seventeenth birthday in a fire. In this scene we get an idea of why the fire started. Thomasina truly gives herself up to irrational behavior. Her self-control is lost and lets herself become the opposite of what she was determined in the beginning to be. This scene give an idea of why

an explanation why never found on her theory. ? Take your essay, I have given it an alpha in blind faith. Be careful with the flame.? (96) This suggests that the essay, which could possibly have contained her explanation, was the cause of the fire which took her life. When Thomasina became reckless with her emotions she was doomed. For the most part, Thomasina has always been logical and once she became irrational it turned into a disaster that could never be reversed. Science was the root of the disaster as well. Her essay, which was filled with her scientific explanation, was what in the end what caused her death. It can be suggested that because she deviated from her usual rational behavior that the tragedy occurred. In the play Arcadia there is a distinct split between those

characters that act rationally and those who do not. For the most part this split can be seen on the basis of scientific background of each character. Those characters with little science knowledge act more irrationally and those with science background act rationally. It even showed how those characters that usually act rationally can those that rationality with the lose of science.