Throughout ‘Arcadia’, Stoppard uses the motif of the garden to explore the differences between classical and Romantic characters, and the change from strict order into specially designed chaos that the garden goes through, is reflected both in Hannah, Bernard, Thomasina and Valentine, as well as the play as a whole. Indeed, the fact that Stoppard called his play ‘Arcadia’, that is a garden idyll: paradise on earth, indicates how significant the garden is and how …showed first 75 words of 930 total…

…showed last 75 words of 930 total…the last detail, so patterns emerge in real life. The ending of the play too, with its image of ashes thrown up into the air, dispersed yet intricately linked, contains patterns within the chaos of past and present intertwined. In this way, the motif of the gardens extends throughout ‘Arcadia’, into the characters, the themes and the very structure, and forming as it does a web of links between past and present, is highly significant.