Editing Arcadia (play) (section)

==Language==
The language of ''Arcadia'' switches between the [[colloquialism]]s of early 19th-century England and those of modern England. Stoppard's language reflects his periods, historical and modern, and he uses speech patterns and lexicons in keeping with his characters.

But his is a stylised dialogue, conveying the "look and feel" of the past as perceived by the modern audience.{{sfn|Fleming|2008|p=95}} Still, it has sufficient latitude in [[Register (sociolinguistics)|register]] to make plain the relationships between the characters. For example, Septimus, after failing to deflect a question from Thomasina with a joke, bluntly explains to his pupil the nature of "carnal embrace"{{sfn|Stoppard|1993|p=4}} – but this bluntness is far removed from that with which he dismisses Chater's self-deceiving defence of his wife's reputation (which, Septimus says, "could not be adequately defended with a platoon of musketry"). With Lady Croom, in responding to his employer's description of Mrs. Chater as a "harlot", Septimus delicately admits that "her passion is not as fixed" as one might wish.{{sfn|Stoppard|1993|p=9}}{{sfn|Stoppard|1993|p=95}}

In the modern sequences, the dialogue is more realistic.{{sfn|Fleming|2008|p=45}} But Bernard consciously assumes some stylisation of language: He rehearses his public lecture in heightened, flamboyant rhetoric;{{sfn|Stoppard|1993|p=70}} and he unleashes a polemic against Valentine's scientific thought (describing the concept as no more than "performance art"), not from spite but for "recreation".{{sfn|Stoppard|1993|pp=80–82}}{{sfn|Fleming|2008|p=64}}

The play's scientific concepts are set forth primarily in the historical scenes, where Thomasina delivers her precocious (or even anachronistic) references to [[entropy]], the [[deterministic universe]] and [[Iteration|iterated equations]] in improvised, colloquial terms.<ref name=Edwards>{{cite book|last=Edwards|first=Paul|title=The Cambridge Companion to Tom Stoppard|editor=Kelly, Katherine E |publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, England|year=2001|pages=178–183|isbn=0-521-64592-1}}</ref> In the modern era, Valentine explains the significance of Thomasina's rediscovered notebook with careful detail, reflecting Stoppard's research into his play's scientific materials.{{sfn|Stoppard|1993|pp=56–63}}{{sfn|Fleming|2008|pp=48–51}}

Consciously echoed phrases, across the time frames, help to unify the play. For example, Chloe asks Valentine if "the future is all programmed like a computer", and whether she is the first to think that theory discredited "because of sex".{{sfn|Stoppard|1993|p=97}} Thomasina has been there before: "If you could stop every atom in its position and direction ... you could write the formula for all the future," she tells Septimus, then adds, "Am I the first person to have thought of this?"{{sfn|Stoppard|1993|p=66}} The difference is significant: Chloe's intuitive version allows for the effects of [[Chaos theory|chaos]], illustrating Stoppard's theme of the interdependence of science and art, and between professional and amateur thinking.{{sfn|Fleming|2008|pp=65–66}}