Throughout the entire course of the play Arcadia, Tom Stoppard carefully advances and unravels details of both character and plot in each scene, letting information out a bit at a time so that as we learn more, so more questions are raised that are answered in later scenes, et cetera. This very careful and deliberate construction of the play's layers is particularly evident in scene six, the second scene of the second act of the play.

It is in this scene that many of the plot strands that have been slowly building in the 1800s section of the play finally come to some kind of climax; indeed, this is the last scene to be set in 1809 and brings the action there to a close (the 1800s portion of scene seven being set three years later, in 1812). We learn some very important details about the characters of Lady Croom and Septimus Hodge in this scene, making it in many ways the crux of the whole play, or at the very least the 1800s sections of it.

The first major fact to bear in mind about this s

As Lady Croom herself says, this is an "unusual compliment" [page 71], but she doesn't seem to be too offended by it; indeed, it seems to cement a sudden bond between her and Septimus. With nothing being spoken they understand each other; if Lady Croom was uncertain of Septimus's affections beforehand she now seems to have been reassured. She tells him to come to "my sitting room when I have bathed. Bring a book." With this one comment and the implications it lays, we see perhaps the dawn of a new phase of their relationship.

Before Jellaby is able to relate any more detail of the night's events to us, Lady Croom enters as we come to the main focus of the scene, the conversation between her and Septimus that reveals much about their respective characters and their feelings toward one another. At first, Lady Croom's tone is distinctly angry, which is interesting in itself because what she seems to be angry about are the letters Septimus left for her and Thomasina to read "in the event of my death," [page 69].

Like Septimus, we are unaware at first of the events that have taken place at Sidley Park during the night, but we are very quickly brought up to speed by Jellaby's explanation. In this scene, Jellaby functions less as a character and more as a kind of narrative device to allow Stoppard to tell the audience what has been going on with the other characters in the play.

Obviously the fact that Mrs Chater was having an affair with Byron and that Lady Croom was intending to is not made explicit, but the implication of Jellaby's words and Septimus questions ("which one was leaving and which entering?" [page 68]) is clear. This would seem to add to Septimus' description of Mrs Chater earlier in the play as being an easy lay, although it is unclear at first as to why Lady Croom was developed this sudden Byron fixation, if that s what it is.

When Lady Croom says that it was indeed Mr Chater who discovered them, Septimus again cannot resist teasing Lady Croom, saying that he will ask Byron for "an account of himself" [page 70], when he knows that she knows that such an account would reveal what she was trying to do with Byron during the night.

With the appearance of just three characters and a length of just five pages this scene would, at first glance, appear to be pretty unsubstantial. However, when you look below the surface to see what emerges in the detail, then you find a whole host of character and plot developments. This is something that, in my opinion, sums up the entir

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Approximate Word count = 1686
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)