Throughout 'Arcadia', Stoppard uses the motif of the garden to explore the differences between classical and Romantic characters, and the change from strict order into specially designed chaos that the garden goes through, is reflected both in Hannah, Bernard, Thomasina and Valentine, as well as the play as a whole. Indeed, the fact that Stoppard called his play 'Arcadia', that is a garden idyll: paradise on earth, indicates how significant the garden is and how much it represents.
             On a very basic level, the garden at Sidney Park is the setting for many small, yet often important events. The gazebo, in particular, is where several illicit affairs take place, between Septimus and Mrs Chater and of course between Lord Byron and Lady Croom. Most significantly, perhaps, after the gazebo is turned into a hermitage by Mr Noakes, Septimus lives out the rest of his life there, trying to prove Thomasina's theories. This change from the gazebo to hermitage is only part of the transformation that take up much discussion of Act One of 'Arcadia'. The change manifests itself in three main stages, and forms the basis of what Hannah is writing about, therefore forming one of the strongest links between past and present:
             Hannah – 'It's what happened to the Enlightenment, isn't it? A century of intellectual rigour turned in on itself. A mind in chaos suspected of genius.'
             The garden starts off as a perfect example of the classical style; a 'paradise in the age of reason' of ordered straight line and geometrical forms. Then, the landscape gardener Capability Brown transforms it into a picturesque and fake 'wilderness' designed to appear completely natural and 'as God intended', while it is in fact completely artificial and stylised. This, however, is what Lady Croom seems to value: 'The slopes are green and gentle. The trees are companionably gro...