How Thomasina and Septimus Relate to the Theme of Truth in Arcadia

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ow How Thomasina and Septimus relate to the theme of truth in arcadia The first aspect of truth as a theme in arcadia is where Thomasina on the second page tells Septimus about Mrs Chater in carnal embrace. ‘Papa’s landskip Gardner. He was taking bearings in the garden when he saw – through his spyglass – Mrs Chater in the garden in carnal embrace.’ Thomasina at this point of the novel is not aware of what carnal embrace is, so we are looking through the point of view of someone who does not fully understand the possible extents of her statement, and we therefore get a slightly twisted version of what the truth may have actually been. The next page in the book, we see that Septimus is not aware of the whole truth where Thomasina tries to contradict Septimus by saying that a gazebo is not a meat larder. Septimus response to this is simply ‘I never said my definition was complete’ showing us that no one in this book at any one time knows the full truth about what is going on between the characters and plots or their own understanding of each other’s relations. Slightly further into the play, Septimus identifies a big stereotype of the time to Thomasina in context of how old you are and the whole issue that children should be seen but not heard. ‘You must not be cleverer than your elders. It is impolite.’ Thomasina is obviously one of the smartest and mentally aware characters in the whole play, but due to her age she cannot blossom as she may do as in the 19th century children were far less important and looked upon far less importantly than now a day’s. Further on, we see that on page 96 that the truth is not found out due to it being completely hidden from the characters, a letter from Lord Byron being burned in front of Thomasina so she will never find out the truth of what is on the letter. ‘Now there’s a thing – a letter from Lord Byron never to be read

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