Art as a Moral Matrix

Abstract

Tom Stoppard has a vision of life which permeates all of his major plays, a vision which has for the most part been misunderstood. Though thoroughly conversant with the currents of thought which prevail in his own day, Stoppard chooses to stand largely opposed to them. He accepts a direct connection between art and morality, between art and life, however distinctly unfashionable such a view may be. Even more importantly, he relegates politics to a secondary status, acknowledging that he is ‘more interested in the metaphysical condition of man rather than the social position’.¹ Simply and unequivocally Stoppard continues to declare, ‘I’m not a moral relativist; I’m not a political relativist’.² Stoppard’s vision is of man as a moral being, a being subject to a moral order which is not contingent on intellectual fashion or political expedience or ideological imperatives or national interest. He writes of mankind as existing in a realm in which right and wrong are universal metaphysical absolutes.