Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

“Such a birth requires, as its antecedents, not only a series of carefully arranged intermarriages, but also a long, continued exercise of frugality and self-control on the part of the would-be ancestors of the coming Equilateral, and a patient, systematic, and continuous development of the Isosceles intellect through many generations.”

Here, the Square describes the conditions under which two Isosceles triangles can produce an Equilateral baby. This passage uses language associated with both meritocratic development through intentional self-improvement and language associated with Darwinian evolutionary theories of inherited characteristics. It also highlights how desirable it is for lower-class Flatlanders to rise through the social ranks, emphasizing the incredible amount of effort that goes into it. These conditions parallel, in comically exaggerated fashion, the actual social structure of Victorian England, and by their self-evident absurdity implicitly critique the Social Darwinist theories and rigid hierarchies of Edwin A. Abbott’s own world.

“How admirable is this Law of Compensation! And how perfect a proof of the natural fitness and, I may almost say, the divine origin of the aristocratic constitution of the States in Flatland! By a judicious use of this Law of Nature, the Polygons and Circles are almost always able to stifle sedition in its very cradle, taking advantage of the irrepressible and boundless hopefulness of the human mind.”

In this satirical passage, the Square exclaims approvingly about the way the aristocratic classes have benefited from a “natural law” that decreases the Isosceles triangles’ capacity for violence at the same rate that it increases their intelligence. Since wider (and thus less dangerous) angles are associated with higher social standing in the Flatland system, potential revolutionaries can often be persuaded to give up their capacity to overthrow the system in exchange for a higher position within that system. The satire here rests on a productive irony, in that what is evident to the reader is not evident to the narrator: namely, that the whole social system has been engineered to perpetuate the power of the ruling classes. By the end of the novel, we learn that sedition has hardly been stifled in Flatland, which indicates again that this passage is satirical.

“For as they have no pretensions to an angle, being inferior in respect to the very lowest Isosceles, they are consequently wholly devoid of brainpower, and have neither reflection, judgment nor forethought, and hardly any memory.”

The Square describes the general condition of women in Flatland, arguing that it originates in their lack of angles: this emphasizes the importance placed by Flatlanders on what the Circular class refers to as “configuration” in determining an individual’s worth in society. He also highlights the intellectual inferiority of Flatland’s women, using language that reflects a debate known in Victorian England as “the Woman Question.” This debate focused on the extent to which women should have civil rights and why or why not they might deserve such rights.

“A start, a fidgety shifting of the position, yes, even a violent sneeze, has been known before now to prove fatal to the incautious, and to nip in the bud many a promising friendship. Especially this is true among the lower classes of the Triangles.”

Here, the Square describes how easy it is for shapes that have sharp angles to accidentally injure or even kill other shapes. His focus on this tendency among Triangles is another example of Flatlander elitism: the Triangles (both Equilateral and Isosceles) are among the lower classes in Flatland, and, just as in the real world that Flatland satirizes, they are thus assumed to be more undisciplined and/or more naturally violent. This passage also highlights the differences between the everyday physical experiences of Flatlanders and the everyday physical experiences of those who have different types of bodies.

“In the cheaper schools, what is gained by the longer existence of the Specimen is lost, partly in the expenditure for food, and partly in the diminished accuracy of the angles, which are impaired after a few weeks of constant ‘feeling’.”

The Square is referring to the use of Irregular Triangles (from the “Criminal and Vagabond Classes”) as part of the education of students who are learning Recognition by Sight. His use of sanitized scientific language (“Specimen”) reflects the disdain with which the rest of Flatland views its most oppressed, vulnerable groups: they are not even seen as worthy of life and are openly subjected to such torture that their body shapes change over time. Ultimately, their only value in Flatland is as tools by which other shapes can become more confident and capable in their social interactions. This passage might reflect Abbott’s hatred of the British imperial government’s use of colonized people’s bodies as tools in similar ways.

“[Among] our Higher Classes, ‘Feeling’ is discouraged or absolutely forbidden. From the cradle their children, instead of going to the Public Elementary schools (where the art of Feeling is taught,) are sent to higher Seminaries of an exclusive character; and at our illustrious University, to ‘feel’ is regarded as a most serious fault, involving Rustication for the first offence, and Expulsion for the second.”

In this passage, the Square describes the different ways children of the higher and lower classes are educated and how they are taught to recognize each other. At certain British universities, “rustication” referred to a period in which a student was briefly suspended. This passage emphasizes not only the wide gulf between a lower-class education and a higher-class one, but also the importance of social mores in Flatland. Manners dictate not only small, one-on-one interactions between individuals, but also what the larger class system looks like and how it maintains itself over time.

“Let the advocates of a falsely called Philanthropy plead as they may for the abrogation of Irregular Penal Laws, I for my part have never known an Irregular who was not also what Nature evidently intended him to be—a hypocrite, a misanthropist, and, up to the limits of his power, a perpetrator of all manner of mischief.”

Here, as in many other places in the text, Abbott uses irony to mock the belief among many Flatlanders, including at times the Square himself, that Irregulars are inherently violent and antisocial, when, in actuality, the terrible oppression and marginalization they face might motivate them to behave violently. This is one of the classical functions of satire: to show that what appears to be a law of nature is actually the result of social conditioning.

“Here, Nature herself appeared to erect a barrier, and to plead against extending the innovation to these two classes. Many-sidedness was almost essential as a pretext for the Innovators. ‘Distinction of sides is intended by Nature to imply distinction of colours’—such was the sophism which in those days flew from mouth to mouth.”

During his recounting of the Colour Revolt, the Square reflects on the expectations many Flatlanders had about how color would and should work; interestingly, he uses an argument by analogy long before the issue of analogies becomes important for the narrative. Here, the analogy is between numbers of sides and the capacity to be distinguished by color, with the implication being that women, as straight lines, and priests, being (functionally) circles, would not be colored. While the rebels eventually found a way around this axiom, its popularity speaks to the significance Flatlanders have always placed on body shape in the formation of culture.

“Even at a small party, the company was a pleasure to behold; the richly varied hues of the assembly in a church or theatre are said to have more than once proved too distracting for our greatest teachers and actors; but most ravishing of all is said to have been the unspeakable magnificence of a military review.”

Here, the Square uses hyperbolic language to capture the magnificence of life during the Colour Revolt: Turns of phrase like “too distracting,” “most ravishing of all,” and “unspeakable,” convey a sense of grandiosity and sensuousness that reflects the revolutionary nature of that age in Flatland’s history.

“For by assigning the Women the same two colours as were assigned to the Priests, the Revolutionists thereby ensured that, in certain positions, every Woman would appear like a Priest, and be treated with corresponding respect and deference—a prospect that could not fail to attract the Female Sex in a mass.”

The prospect of women being confused with priests simply because they are painted the same color is another example of the unreliability of both knowledge and perception. It also hints at the fragile nature of Flatland’s seemingly ironclad social classes: If two colors are all that distinguish a woman from a priest, how great a distinction can there actually be in the first place? This passage also reminds the reader how desperately Flatland’s marginalized groups wanted to gain enough power to obtain the same basic rights and privileges already held by more powerful groups.

“Now therefore the artful Irregular whom I described above as the real author of this diabolical Bill, determined at one blow to lower the status of the Hierarchy by forcing them to submit to the pollution of Colour, and at the same time to destroy their domestic opportunities of training in the Art of Sight Recognition, so as to enfeeble their intellects by depriving them of their pure and colourless homes.”

Here, the Square describes the plan by the Irregular Triangle who is responsible for the Universal Colour Bill, using hyperbolic language to depict this plan as the ultimate act of social destruction. He also uses language tinged with religious implications; words like “diabolical,” “pollution,” and “pure,” suggest that the lack of color is inherently a more moral orientation than the addition of color, which he implies is inherently evil. This hyperbolic tone and language satirize aristocrats’ fear that the “diabolical” lower classes will successfully rise against them.

“[The] Chief Circle in a few impassioned words made a final appeal to the Women, exclaiming that, if the Colour Bill passed, no marriage would henceforth be safe, no woman’s honour secure; fraud, deception, hypocrisy would pervade every household; domestic bliss would share the fate of the Constitution and pass to speedy perdition.”

This passage follows the sexual assault of the Polygonal woman by the Isosceles man in disguise: it illustrates how Flatland politicians—and, presumably, politicians in the real world—use fear tactics to control the population and quell rebellion. The fragmented structure of the sentence reflects the social fragmentation about which the Chief Circle is warning his audience.

“For why should you praise, for example, the integrity of a Square who faithfully defends the interests of his client, when you ought in reality rather to admire the exact precision of his right angles? Or again, why blame a lying, thievish Isosceles when you ought rather to implore the incurable inequality of his sides?”

In this passage, the Square is referring to a doctrine put forward by Pantocyclus, the Polygon who quelled the Colour Revolt: this doctrine states that configuration (or a figure’s body shape) determines everything about their behavior. Although the Square goes on to say that this makes sense theoretically, he does not agree that it is always the case. The fact that Abbott included this concept and then let his main character disagree with its universal application could reflect his own disagreement with the idea that things like compassion, virtue, and effort do not shape our lives and everything simply comes down to immutable, inherited traits.

“No, no: neighborhood is needless for the union of hearts; and the birth of children is too important a matter to have been allowed to depend upon such an accident as proximity.”

The King of Lineland speaks these words to the Square in the latter’s dream: they are a response to the Square’s insistence that Linelanders cannot possibly meet their spouses or reproduce without being directly next to each other on the line. The king’s disregard for geographical closeness represents a departure from the Flatlanders’ obsession with location and orientation, and the radical difference in the two men’s views suggests that cultural truth and knowledge are malleable concepts.

“‘That confirms my impression,’ said the King, ‘that you are not a Man, but a feminine Monstrosity with a bass voice, and an utterly uneducated ear.’”

The King of Lineland, confused by the fact that the Square has only one mouth—whereas all men in Lineland have two—expresses confusion about the visitor’s gender. This is an example of the tendency toward assumptions of cultural uniformity throughout the novel: The king assumes that gender expresses itself the same in both Lineland and Flatland. It also highlights the fundamentally flexible nature of gender as a social construct.

“Suffice it that I am the completion of your incomplete self. You are a Line, but I am a Line of Lines, called in my country a Square: and even I, infinitely superior though I am to you, am of little account among the great nobles of Flatland, whence I have come to visit you, in the hope of enlightening your ignorance.”

The Square speaks these words to the King of Lineland immediately before waking from his dream. This moment is notable as it is one of the first times the Square reflects, out loud and with some self-awareness, on what makes him different from other types of beings. It also foreshadows his later belief that he might be a god, or if not a god, at least someone with special knowledge that he is obligated to bring to the uneducated masses.

“I tell you that I come from Space, or, since you will not understand what Space means, from the Land of Three Dimensions whence I but lately looked down upon your Plane which you call Space forsooth. From the position of advantage I discerned that all you speak of as solid (by which you mean ‘enclosed on four sides’), your houses, your churches, your very chests and safes, yes even your insides and stomachs, all lying open and exposed to my view.”

Here, the Sphere explains to the Square in the most basic terms why he has come to Flatland. He touches on several of the novel’s major themes: an obsession with interiority and exteriority; an anxiety about surveillance and control; a fear of the domestic being invaded by unfamiliar forces; and a concern about bodily autonomy. He also emphasizes the wide gulf between how he and the Square define geometrical concepts.

“Every reader in Spaceland will easily understand that my mysterious Guest was speaking in the language of truth and even of simplicity. But to me, proficient though I was in Flatland Mathematics, it was by no means a simple matter.”

Here, as the Sphere continues to explain the concept of three dimensions, the Square gives voice to the fragmentation of his grasp on geometrical concepts that were once familiar. The language of mathematics, often considered universal across different groups of people, is no longer universal; linguistic signs are beginning to lose their meaning, and the notion of meaning itself is beginning to collapse.

“I had hoped to find in you—as being a man of sense and an accomplished mathematician—a fit apostle for the Gospel of the Three Dimensions, which I am allowed to preach once only in a thousand years: but now I know now how to convince you. Stay, I have it. Deeds, and not words, shall proclaim the truth.”

The Sphere expresses disappointment in the Square’s attack on him and his refusal to believe in three dimensions, despite all the facts the Sphere has presented. He realizes that he will have to produce material results through empirical investigations or experimentation to bring the Square around. However, he also emphasizes the religious motivations for his actions, confirming that he is indeed a pseudo-divine figure who hopes to spread a revelation throughout Flatland.

“‘Fool! Madman! Irregular!’ I exclaimed; ‘never will I release thee; thou shalt pay for the penalty of thing impostures.’”

The Square shouts this after the Sphere gets stuck below Flatland’s surface dimension. His use of words like “fool” and “madman” are reminders that the question of truth is important throughout the novel, and those who are unable to understand their own perceptions accurately because of delusion or hallucination cannot access the truth of their experiences. By using “Irregular” as a slur, the Square emphasizes the perpetually lowly role the Irregulars play in Flatland’s society: They are so despised that their name has become weaponized as an insult.

“I looked below, and saw with my physical eye all that domestic individuality which I had hitherto merely inferred with the understanding. A how poor and shadowy was the inferred conjecture in comparison with the reality I now beheld!”

As the Square looks into his Flatland home from Spaceland, he is suddenly able to see the truly complex nature of his country. In a moment of enlightenment, he realizes that his previously held notions of truth did not accurately capture the world as it truly was. This passage also highlights the distinction between perceiving and inferring, which is fundamental to many of the novel’s representations of knowledge and awareness.

“My native city, with the interior of every house and every creature therein, lay open to my view in miniature. We mounted higher, and lo, the secrets of the earth, the depths of the mines and inmost caverns of the hills, were bared before me.”

The Square’s perception of Flatland from high above becomes increasingly grandiose; indeed, this passage is immediately followed by his declaration that he has become a god and has obtained “omnividence.” The references to entering the earth itself aligns with the imperialist, colonialist discourse which Abbott often resisted, suggesting that, like the impulse to call oneself an all-powerful deity, the impulse to invade the planet’s interior is fundamentally destructive and should be avoided.

“So far as the Monarch understanding [your words] at all, he accepts them as his own—for he cannot conceive of any other except himself—and plumes himself upon the variety of ‘Its Thought’ as an instance of creative Power. Let us leave this God of Pointland to the ignorant fruition of his omnipresence and omniscience: nothing that you or I can do can rescue him from his self-satisfaction.”

In another mirrored scene, the Square dreams of visiting Pointland with the Sphere (who, in the real world, has abandoned him). Despite the extremely small size of this figure, who calls himself the King of Pointland, the absolute confidence he feels about his individual perception of the world echoes the absolute certainty the Square once felt. Additionally, the Sphere’s use of the words “omnipresence” and “omniscience” is a reminder of the Square’s own self-centered declaration that he has achieved “omnividence.” The novel uses these extremely similar scenes to critique the near-universal nature of solipsism and self-regard.