Romanticism In Conrad And Stoppard's Arcadia And Heart Of Darkness

Both ‘Arcadia’ and ‘Heart of Darkness’ present literature that emerges out of two main intellectual movements- The Enlightenment and romanticism, both use these conflicting schools of thought to express ideas and themes about chaos versus disorder. Both Conrad and Stoppard do this mainly through setting and characterisation. The Age of Enlightenment was a cultural movement of intellectuals beginning in late 17th century Europe emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition and religious beliefs. On the other hand, the Romantic Movement originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century. It was partly a revolt against the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature. Romanticism embraced the exotic, the unfamiliar, harnessing the power of the imagination to envision and to escape.

Although ‘Arcadia’ is never actually set in the garden on Sidley house, it is referred to a number of times and Stoppard uses it symbolically to express conflicting views on types of knowledge and the clash between chaos and order. The classical view conforms to Lady Croom’s Arcadia; “nature as god intended” which implies the assistance of humanity to nature in fulfilling God’s design. Mr Noakes, on the other hand, tries to reform the garden from a romantic perspective in picturesque style giving the garden a wild, chaotic shape. Romanticism is central to the play in introducing the idea of irregularity (chaos) dominating the nature (order). Through the setting of the garden the play’s modern characters also express their theories on order versus chaos like when Hannah describes the shift to the early 19th century taste for "Romantic" landscapes of rocks and ruins, using it as a symbol of the more ...

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...live without a common Power… they are in a condition which is called War… as is of every man, against every man.”Heart of Darkness demonstrates this through the European’s fall from grace as they move farther and farther away from their superiors and begin to feel the absence of a strong, guiding hand. The irony is that the order and shape of the European empires is built on the chaos of colonial plunder and expansion- most are ignorant of the chaos.

In a psychoanalytic view, there is a certain amount of irony in the way that order and chaos are presented in both works. Stoppard and Conrad both convey that chaos and order reside amidst one another; even though total opposites, without one the other fails to exist which leads the constant juxtaposition of the chaotic nature of humans and the world we live in and the order we try to manifest out of it throughout time.