" Valentine:.....till there's no time left. That's what time means.
             Septimus: When we have found all the mysteries and lost all the meaning, we will be alone, on an empty shore."
             Discuss the importance of knowledge within Arcadia in light of the above quotation.
             Knowledge is of importance to all of the characters in Arcadia, the pursuit of which lies at the root of many of their actions. Although their motives may be the same, what they seek is invariably different: the diverse range of information they search for, and the manner in which they do so, can be ordered into something of a hierarchy. But what should rightfully be at the top, and which the bottom? Whether it is Thomasina's intuitive understanding or Hannah's cautious, but well-grounded, speculation ultimately does not matter: "It's all trivial," as both Valentine and Hannah say. That's not to say that the information is unimportant as much as claiming that the process of finding out is, in itself, more significant. In an even greater sense, knowledge defines time: this has its origin at the Fall from grace, when knowledge of good and evil was brought to mankind. Defined in this way, when there is no knowledge left to be gained, there will be "no time left", and mankind "wi!
             To discuss the importance of knowledge within Arcadia firstly requires us to ask to whom knowledge is important. Each of the characters desires knowledge, and this lies at the heart of their actions. The play begins with Thomasina asking what "carnal embrace" is, while Valentine is studying grouse numbers to find a mathematical formula, and Septimus spends the last years of his life as a hermit, trying desperately to disprove the end of the universe as predicted by Thomasina's equations.
             The significance of this is that the knowledge that the characters gain, or seek to gain, leads, at the end, to ruin. Both Chater and Bernard are engaged in the one-eyed pursuit of fame, Chater through p...