| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 英語教育研究所 === 81 === Specifying Werner Heisenberg's "Physics and Philosophy" (1962)
as Tom Stoppard's direct source of modern physics and the
related philosophy, this thesis names Stoppard's plays "quantum
plays." Quantum mechanics, a chief branch of modern physics,
overthrows Newton's classical physics and yet paradoxically
relies on its language and concepts. The first unique feature
of quantum mechanics is the concept of complementarity, which
stipulates that there exist two contradictory yet equally
legitimate descriptions of the same reality. Fascinated by
complementarity, Stoppard's early plays are crammed with
dualism images, of which the dominating one is the
juxtaposition of the chaotic subatomic world and the ordered
Newtonian world. The former is governed by ontological
probability while the latter by determinism and causality.
Chapter I reviews Stoppard's critics and introduces innovative
features of quantum mechanics. Chapter II focuses on the
illustration of the subatomic world in "Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern Are Dead" (1967). Ontological probability governs
the subatomic world, and the supremacy of assumptions over
experimental facts frustrates the protagonists' effort to grasp
a firm reality. Death comes to terminate all the unbearable
bewilderment. Chapter III explores Stoppard's dualism themes
and images derived from complementarity. Chapter IV
investigates his structural stagecraft. Chapter V deals with
his moral quest in the quantum labyrinth. Chapter VI, the
conclusion, briefly evaluates Stoppard's artistic
accomplishments.
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