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Bernard
A modern-day Coverly sibling, along with Chloe and Gus. Valentine studies mathematics at Oxford and spends the play trying to find an algorithm that describes patterns in the Sidley Park grouse population. He is therefore uniquely suited to understand Thomasina’s attempts to represent nature through iteration, and helps Hannah work out the significance of Thomasina’s explorations.
Valentine Quotes in Arcadia
The Arcadia quotes below are all either spoken by Valentine or refer to Valentine. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Act 1, Scene 4
Quotes
When your Thomasina was doing maths it had been the same maths for a couple of thousand years. Classical. And for a century after Thomasina. Then maths left the real world behind, just like modern art, really. Nature was classical, maths was suddenly Picassos. But now nature is having the last laugh. The freaky stuff is turning out to be the mathematics of the natural world.
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The unpredictable and the predetermined unfold together to make everything the way it is. It’s how nature creates itself, on every scale, the snowflake and the snowstorm. It makes me so happy.
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Act 2, Scene 7
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Comparing what we’re looking for misses the point. It’s wanting to know that makes us matter. Otherwise we’re going out the way we came in.
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…There’s an order things can’t happen in. You can’t open a door till there’s a house.
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Get the entire Arcadia LitChart as a printable PDF.
Valentine Quotes in Arcadia
The Arcadia quotes below are all either spoken by Valentine or refer to Valentine. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Act 1, Scene 4
Quotes
When your Thomasina was doing maths it had been the same maths for a couple of thousand years. Classical. And for a century after Thomasina. Then maths left the real world behind, just like modern art, really. Nature was classical, maths was suddenly Picassos. But now nature is having the last laugh. The freaky stuff is turning out to be the mathematics of the natural world.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
The unpredictable and the predetermined unfold together to make everything the way it is. It’s how nature creates itself, on every scale, the snowflake and the snowstorm. It makes me so happy.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2, Scene 7
Quotes
Comparing what we’re looking for misses the point. It’s wanting to know that makes us matter. Otherwise we’re going out the way we came in.
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…There’s an order things can’t happen in. You can’t open a door till there’s a house.
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