Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

“[You] will then have a pretty correct notion of my country and countrymen. Alas, a few years ago, I should have said ‘my universe’: but now my mind has been opened to higher views of things.”

While explaining to the reader how to imagine what Flatland looks like, the Square acknowledges that his own understanding of Flatland has been altered over time, particularly—as we will find out later—by his experience in Spaceland. This is the first example of an instance in which a character’s perception of both geographical space and personal identity is radically by new information.

“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.