Point of View

Arcadia is told from a semi-omniscient, third person point of view. The reader or audience of the play knows the answers to the riddles of the mystery the present day inhabitants of Sidley Park are attempting to solve. While Hannah and Bernard struggle to form their theories and conclusions, the audience knows it was Septimus Hodge who was supposed to duel with Ezra Chater and the hermit was a girlish drawing of Thomasina rather than a real character. At the same time, the audience also recognizes the validity of Septimus’s words when he tells Thomasina every discovery and creation will be rediscovered and remade as time goes on, because they see Valentine comes to the same mathematical conclusions as Thomasina around a century later. Watching the events of the play unfold from a distant observatory perspective, the audience can see for themselves the cyclical...