Septimus: When we have found all the mysteries and lost all the meaning, we will be alone, on an empty shore."

Discuss the importance of knowledge within Arcadia in light of the above quotation.

Knowledge is of importance to all of the characters in Arcadia, the pursuit of which lies at the root of many of their actions. Although their motives may be the same, what they seek is invariably different: the diverse range of information they search for, and the manner in which they do so, can be ordered into something of a hierarchy. But what should rightfully be at the top, and which the bottom? Whether it is Thomasina's intuitive understanding or Hannah's cautious, but well-grounded, speculation ultimately does not matter: "It's all trivial," as both Valentine and Hannah say. That's not to say that the information is unimportant as much as claiming that the process of finding out is, in itself, more significant. In an even greater sense, knowledge defines time: this has its origin at the Fall from grace, when knowledge of good and evil was brought to mankind. Defined in this way, when there is no knowledge left to be gained, there will be "no time left", and

in front of her when he says he has shot "a rabbit...no, indeed, a hare, though very rabbit-like..." (68), and she says to Chater: "The Castle of Otranto was written by whomsoever I say it was" (13).

In this way, knowledge is used to define time. Life begins when we begin to search for knowledge: "It makes me so happy. To be at the beginning again, knowing almost nothing." (47). Knowledge defines time from its very beginning, at the picking of the apple from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, to its conclusion, with the end of mankind's quest. What is to become of mankind at the end? If we are to fill our pails with knowledge until our wells run dry, we will be "alone, on an empty shore". Once again, the beauty of mystery is evident: certainty brings only loneliness.

To discuss the importance of knowledge within Arcadia firstly requires us to ask to whom knowledge is important. Each of the characters desires knowledge, and this lies at the heart of their actions. The play begins with Thomasina asking what "carnal embrace" is, while Valentine is studying grouse numbers to find a mathematical formula, and Septimus spends the last years of his life as a hermit, trying desperately to disprove the end of the universe as predicted by Thomasina's equations.

The "exchange of views" is viewed dimly by Hannah ("what a drag"), and she feels that one should not hope for this outcome. What drive would there be in the course of a life, to seek knowledge, if we knew that our scant findings would, at the end, appear inadequate when we are bestowed with all the knowledge there is on offer? There is almost an implication that to believe in such an afterlife is a temptation, to be avoided lest we waste the lives that we are living now. In searching for meaning in our lives, we give our lives meaning.

Perhaps the desire to gain a god-like omniscience stems from a need to know the truth. There is an emptiness about truth and its various distortions in the face of time and history, for even if you could have been present in a historical context, there remains the problem of different perceptions and points of view. And while the past may seem cloudy, the future is "disorder...the unpredictable and the predetermined unfold together to make everything the way it is" (47). The nature of our lives really does begin to seem "trivial" in the face of the overwhelming evidence of the insignificance of the knowledge we set out to find. The importance of knowledge itself, rather than the search for it, is revealed very briefly in the play, and is contained in the words of Bernard: "If knowledge isn't self-knowledge it isn't doing much" (61). More than any other type of knowledge, this seems to provide a limitless supply, and in keeping with the definition, our quest for it duly ends upo!

"You can't believe in the afterlife, Valentine. Believe in the after, by all means, but not the life. Believe in God, the soul, the spirit, the infinite, believe in angels if you like, but not in the great celestial get-together for an exchange of views. If the answers are in the back of the book I can wait,

Some common words found in the essay are:
Believe God, Law Thermodynamics, Hannah That's, Chater Bernard, , Classicism Arcadia, Castle Otranto, Byron Knowledge, Lady Croom, Eventually Valentine, empty shore, found mysteries, importance knowledge, knowledge defines, search knowledge, empty shore discuss, mind god, knowledge evil, knowledge characters, failure final, understand mind, importance knowledge arcadia, discuss importance knowledge, shore discuss importance, left that's means,
Approximate Word count = 2097
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)