exual tendencies. By the end of the play the lives of the characters in the past and present have begun to show parallels and similarities. One of the relationships in 1809 involves a thirteen year old girl, Thomasina, and her tutor, Septimus Hodge. This relationship can be compared to the relationship between Hannah Jarvis and Valentine Coverly in the present. Love and sex seem to be the driving forces in the play. People are attracted to those other than their spouses and seem unable to avoid the misfortune that often results. Stoppard portrays humans as imperfect creatures who are driven by instinctual desires. The play suggests that it is this desire that causes the disorder in an otherwise orderly world. This desire cannot be controlled. The theories of Plato regarding the nature of love are evident in Stoppard's play through his characters' pursuit of sexual pleasure within the inner worki
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