The Sidley Park garden is the play’s strongest symbol of the shift from Enlightenment-era conceptions of beauty to Romantic ones. Noakes spearheads the change, transforming the grounds from a gentle, pastoral countryside scene to a dramatic Gothic wilderness complete with a moldering obelisk and a fake hermitage. This parallels the transformation in culture at the turn of the 19th century from a focus on reason, science and human progress to emotion and nature. The characters are split ideologically, with Bernard high Romantic, Valentine very Enlightenment, and Thomasina’s math bridging the two. But, as Lady Croom and Hannah both point out, neither garden style is actually more natural or more real than the other. Both designs are human-made for a desired effect.
The Garden Quotes in Arcadia
The Arcadia quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Garden. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Act 1, Scene 1
Quotes
But Sidley Park is already a picture, and a most amiable picture too. The slopes are green and gentle. The trees are companionably grouped at intervals that show them to advantage. The rill is a serpentine ribbon unwound from the lake peaceably contained by meadows on which the right amount of sheep are tastefully arranged—in short, it is nature as God intended, and I can say with the painter, “Et in Arcadia ego!” “Here I am in Arcadia,” Thomasina.
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The Garden Symbol Timeline in Arcadia
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Garden appears in Arcadia. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Act 1, Scene 1
...overheard Jellaby, the butler, gossiping that Mrs. Chater had engaged in carnal embrace in the garden’s gazebo. Septimus is immediately curious about the news.
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...person with Mrs. Chater in the gazebo. Septimus says that Noakes, whose job as the gardener is about creating picturesquely beautiful gardens, is more like a snake. Thomasina is otherwise engaged,...
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...of Sidley Park, and her brother Brice enter. Brice lists features of the Sidley Park garden—the gazebo, the Chinese bridge—and a moment of comic misunderstanding ensues, with Chater and Septimus thinking...
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Noakes lays out his plans for garden renovations. Brice hates them, but Noakes explains this is what’s in fashion. The drawings apparently...
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Lady Croom returns to the garden renovation plans. She describes how the gentle and carefully cultivated countryside look has given way...
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Lady Croom blames the garden plans on Romantic literature like The Castle of Otranto. She hears shots from the men...
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Act 1, Scene 2
...briefly enters and exits. Chloë tells Bernard about Hannah’s project—she’s writing a history of the garden. Bernard realizes that he’s read the previous book that Hannah has written, and asks Chloë...
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...game books, but everything in the house has been taken away in preparation for a garden party. Valentine quickly and distractedly tries to figure out who Bernard is. Bernard explains that...
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...adds helpfully, that the Romantic poet Coleridge died. Hannah shows Bernard Noakes’s plans for the garden, including the little drawing of the hermit that Thomasina drew in Scene 1. Hannah explains...
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Act 1, Scene 4
...though Gus hasn’t talked since he was five, he seems to know more about the garden than their mother.
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