The Characters in the Play

Notes provided by members of Cherwell School, Oxford

  • Richard Noakes

  • Hannah Jarvis

  • Bernard Nightingale

  • Chloe Coverly

  • Valentine Coverly

  • Gus Coverly/Augustus Coverly

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    Septimus Hodge

    The character of Septimus is pivotal. He is the 'jack-the-lad' character in the House. Employed by Lady Crome for the education of her child, Thomasina, this friend of Lord Byron brought a touch of bohemia to the life of Sidley Park. He was a character of certain passions, enough for him to spend his life working through to its conclusion the work started by Thomasina, but it was a task he could never complete.

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    Thomasina Coverly

    Thomasina's inquisitive personality and intelligence is immediately apparent from the beginning of Act I Scene I.

    "Do you think God is a Newtonian?"
    She is not afraid of expressing her individual opinion, and her character is representative of youth, originality and willingness to accept new ideas. She is indeed capable of independent thought, as she disagrees with everyone else on the garden:
    "In my opinion Mr Noakes' scheme for the garden is perfect."
    Her character contributes to the exploration of mathematical and scientific themes within the play, such as her "jam theory", which suggests a chaos theory in place of traditional Newtonian physics. She is constantly coming up with her own personal theories top explain things, and does not rely on other peoples explanations:
    "If you could stop every atom in it's position and direction, and if you're mind could comprehend all the actions thus suspended, then if you were really really good at algebra, you could write the formula for all the future"
    The change in her character's ideas represents the development of ideas throughout the play. At first she is only interested in science, but by the end she starts to understand the things which most girls of her age are interested in, i.e. dancing, waltzing, and kissing. This represents the disputes between philosophical ideas such as romanticism and determinism.

    She's an intrinsic part of the plot development, as she is very involved with the mystery created to do with the Sidley Park hermit. This makes the audience intrigued and interested in her character.

    She has a central role in the play, much of the plot revolves around her ideas and personality.

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    Jellaby

    Jellaby is a middle- aged butler in the Croom house -hold. He is used by Stoppard to deliver letters which pass between characters, mainly Septimus. He also fills us in with the news of the Chater's a Byron's premature departure, at the beginning of scene six. He also tells the gossip of Lord Byron's room. He only tells after Septimus offers him money.

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    Ezra Chater

    Chater is a friend of Captain Bryce who came to Sidney Park with his wife a poet by trade Mrs Chater in 1810. He's a poet by trade, but it would appear not a very good one.

    As a character he appears as naive, stupid and very gullible, all of these traits are highlighted by Septimus who always manages to reverse chaters anger to his advantage. He's easily flattered by Septimus , which shows his stupidity and is opposed to change, illustrated by his dislike for the new garden.

    Chater heavily influences the plot in the present day, because the base of Bernard's research is The Couch of Eros the bad reviews and the inscription in the cover of it. The letters he writes to Septimus preserved within the pages of the book also help Bernard in jumping to the wrong conclusions.

    On his wife who is sleeping with everyone:
    "There is nothing that woman wouldn't do for me "
    Septimus illustrates the character traits previously mentioned, when Chater thanks him for this comment saying "You are an honest fellow with no more malice in you than poetry."

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    Lady Croom

    Lady Croom is the mother of Thomasina, the sister of Captain Brice and the Lady of the manor. She is very aware of her daughter's intelligence and realises that Thomasina is intellectually superior to herself.

    As a character she is very set in her ways and is a traditionalist, believing that Thomasina should not be "educated beyond eligibility". She is keen to stick by her morals and this is shown by the way in which she insists Byron and everyone connected to the sex scandal must leave Sidley Park immediately. The sex scandal being her going to visit Lord Byron's room late one night to find Mrs Chater just leaving.

    She dislikes change, especially regarding her garden, which she loves and takes great pride in. She likes the classical "Capability Brown" style and dislikes Noakes' modern gothic designs.

    Within the play she falls in love with Byron and agitated by his affair with Mrs Chater. She is also aware of the fact that Septimus is in love with her. Lady Croom has a general fondness for men and falls in love with a character called Count Zelinsky, although he plays no other part in the play.

    In the play Lady Croom represents the only middle aged woman in 1810 and her actions directly influence the future. Her gardening books are used in Hannah's research and she is the one responsible for giving Septimus' copy of "The Couch of Eros" to Byron, which then leads to Bernard's misinterpretations.

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    Capt. Brice

    Captain Brice is Lady Croom's brother and a house guest at Sidley Park. He doesn't appear to be particularly intelligent and doesn't project any strong views nor ideas of his own. He seems prepared in the main to follow the lead of Lady Croom. Brice is responsible for bringing Mr and Mrs Chater to Sidley Park, and therefore for all of the mystery and intrigue that occurs involving these two characters.

    He is not a very honest man, as he blatantly denies that he fancies Mrs Chater, the wife of his supposed friend Chater, to Septimus at the end of Scene 3:

    Septimus: "My compliments to Mrs Chater - have no fear for her safety, she will not want for protection while Captain Brice has a guinea in his pocket, he told her so himself."

    Brice: "You lie, sir!"

    However, the accusations of Septimus prove to be true when Brice marries Mrs Chater after Chater's death.

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    Richard Noakes

    Richard Noakes is the bumbling landscape architect at Sidley Park in 1809. He makes an inauspicious entrance half way through Act One Scene One, with the words:

    "I beg your leave - I thought her ladyship - excuse me"
    He is frequently put on the spot, having to justify himself and answer questions that he doesn't always know the answer to:
    THOMASINA: (To Septimus) How is a ruined child different from a ruined castle? SEPTIMUS: On such questions I defer to Mr.Noakes.

    NOAKES: (Out of his depth) A ruined castle is picturesque certainly.

    He appreciates Gothic style and wants to impliment this into the garden:
    "Irregularity is one of the chiefest principles of the picturesque style…"
    Two years after he is ridiculed in the first scene with his designs, the household sucumbs to the pressure of fashion and decides to use his designs.Lady Croom does not seem too pleased about this, and descibes him as 'Culpability Noakes', a play on words to do with the famous landscape architect Capability Brown.

    Noakes has some occasional importance in the play, but is essentially a minor character. His designs reflect changes in fashion and tastes of society. They reflect firstly the change from the Classical period to the Romantic period; from order to disorder -which is a central theme in the play. Secondly it shows youth and fashion, as it's Thomasina, the young, rebellious fashionable major character who enjoys the designs of the garden in the first place.

    THOMASINA: ..In my opinion , Mr Noakes's scheme for the garden is perfect.

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    Hannah Jarvis

    Hannah is an author in her late thirties, a key part in the modern scenes at Sidley Park. Hannah contributes to the plot by researching into the mystery of the Sidley Park hermit. Her character is both intelligent and confident, with the competitive atmosphere between her and Bernard we see Hannah exercise her knowledge as much as possible:

    "the whole romantic sham, Bernard! It's what happened to the Enlightenment"
    Despite her reserved and quite cynical attitude towards the opposite sex Hannah is quite the attention of the men at Sidley Park, with Bernard, Valentine and Gus all after her heart. Hannah's reserved manner is reflected in her image, a very conventional woman whose appearance is particularly down to earth:
    "She wears nothing frivolous. Her shoes are suitable for the garden"
    The role of Hannah within the play appears to be important as is provides a constant intellectual theme, she is continually analysing the past in order to understand the present. By researching the history of Sidley Park, Hannah enables Stoppard's audience to understand the changes overtime, in particular 'the decline from thinking to feeling'.

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    Bernard Nightingale

    Bernard is a modern day character in his late thirties. He is a don at Sussex University and is extremely literary. He is also pompous, solipsistic, and as Hannah says of him in Scene 5:

    "Arrogant, greedy and reckless."
    Bernard is trying to prove that Lord Byron killed Mr Chater in a duel at Sidley Park in 1809, and ignores the overwhelming amounts of evidence that points to the contrary in pursuit of fame and recognition. He is self-centred and over-confident, as well as being extremely condescending towards what he considers to be Hannah's "trivial" research, although she uncovers many important things that prove to be valuable to his work. He is important to the plot in that he provides much of the intrigue through his biased research, and he conveys ideas about the conflict between literature and science. He obviously values literature and "personalities" more than scientific research and progress, saying in Scene 5:
    "A poet is always timely. A great philosopher is an urgent need, there is no rush for Isaac Newton."
    Bernard refuses to accept that his research might be incorrect, and when it is proved to be wrong, he leaves to uncover his embarrassment and devastation.

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    Chloe Coverly

    Chloe Coverly is a character in the twentieth century Arcadia. At the young age of eighteen, Chloe is eager to act mature. She swans about Sidley Park in a happy go lucky, flamboyant manner. Chloe is consistently considerate and affectionate to others, especially when around her younger brother Gus. It is obvious that Chloe is an extrovert when it comes to men, particularly when the swanky Bernard Nightingale is present, Chloe will not fail to be flirtatious:

    " I thought there was a lot of sexual energy there, didn't you?"
    However, aside from the fact that she is more than often flighty, the girl does not lack in intelligence. Chloe makes a very important contribution to the scientific theme in the play, when she comments on 'the attraction, which Newton left out':
    " The universe is deterministic all right, just like Newton said, I mean it's trying to be, but the only thing going wrong is people fancying people who aren't supposed to be in that part of the plan".

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    Valentine Coverly

    Valentine is a modern day character aged around 25 - 30, and is the older brother of Chloe and Gus Coverly. He is obviously a very intelligent character, and is not very passionate (except about science) or sentimental. He is diametrically opposed to Bernard, who is very literate and bumbling. His importance to the play is to express the mathematical concepts to the audience, for example, when he explains ideas to Hannah, he is at the same time explaining them to the audience. In Scene 4, he uses goldfish in a bowl to simplify the idea of iterated algorithms:

    "This year there are x goldfish. Next year there will be y goldfish. Some get born, some get eaten by herons, whatever…What is the manipulation?… It's called an algorithm."
    He is also a constant threat to Bernard because he is in possession of scientific proof that suggests Byron did not write the book reviews, as Bernard hopes was the case.

    He is quite possibly very arrogant, as is suggested in Scene 5, when he says to Bernard, on the subject of literary research:

    "The questions you are asking don't matter, you see. What matters is the calculus. Scientific progress. Knowledge.
    Valentine seems to think that scientific research is a more worthwhile pursuit than literary research, but then, Bernard is equally capable of being arrogant in return.

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    Gus/Augustus Coverly

    Gus is about fifteen years old and is the younger brother of Valetine and Chloe. He is dumb, for some reason, unknown to the audience, yet although he never speaks he is likely to be a genius because he can improvise on the piano and could find the boathouse when all the experts could not.

    We are led to believe that he has a crush on Hannah, because he offers her an apple in Scene 2 and dances with her in Scene 7. She must be quite fond of him (although not in a sexual way) because she accepts only his offer of a dance.

    Gus is very sensitive and shy and often gets upset by small things, such as when Hannah raises her voice to Valentine (not even in an annoyed way) in Scene 6 and he runs out of the room upset. These feelings for to Hannah are meant to emphasise an important idea in the play, the chaotic effect of humans falling for each other when they aren't supposed to do so. Gus is often attributed with the idea that Thomasina's genius lives on through him, and this links her with him.

    Augustus is a character from 1812, and who is Thomasina's 17 year old brother. He is played by the same actor as Gus and his main function seems to be to link the two time periods of the play. He is also linked with Thomasina in that he asks Septimus to explain the details of sex to him. He is probably one of the most minor characters in the play and does not even appear until the final scene. He is not as important as Gus.

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