Only the Animals

Only the Animals

by

Ceridwen Dovey

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Tom Stoppard Character Analysis

Tom Stoppard is a real-life British playwright who, in “Plautus: A Memoir,” Plautus adopts in an attempt to get close to either Americans or communists. At the time that Stoppard takes Plautus in, he’s in the early stages of writing what will eventually become his play Jumpers, in which a man accidentally kills his tortoise while his wife watches men land on the moon. Plautus’s name is also taken from another of Stoppard’s plays, Arcadia, in which a hermit owns a tortoise named Plautus.
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Tom Stoppard Character Timeline in Only the Animals

The timeline below shows where the character Tom Stoppard appears in Only the Animals. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Plautus: A Memoir of My Years on Earth and Last Days in Space: Soul of Tortoise (Died 1968, Space)
The Interconnectedness of Humans and Animals Theme Icon
...district in London, where she knows she’ll at least find communists. A British playwright named Tom Stoppard adopts her. He’s working on a play about a philosopher who steps on his pet... (full context)