“It is neither…it is Knowledge; it is Three Dimensions: open your eye once again and try to look steadily.”
The Square is from a two-dimensional world, Flatland; hence the idea of a three-dimensional one is hard for him to comprehend. Even though he has been acquainted with the Lineland, the one-dimensional realm and his attempt to convince them of his world were futile. He tries to be unbiased when the Sphere tries to explain Spaceland since he appears as a circle to him. The Sphere guides him into the third dimension and gets to observe full figures with solid dimensions. However, as expected his reaction is denial at first since conceptualizing such a world is beyond what he could fathom. In consequence, the Sphere attempts to explain in the quotation that any dimension higher than their own require open-mindedness and acceptance of the new knowledge.
“...learn this lesson, that to be self-contented is to be vile and ignorant, and that to aspire is better than to be blindly and impotently happy.”
The story is a social commentary on the Victorian era as it satirizes the social norms, class hierarchy, and gender roles. The two-dimensional world Flatland is utilized as an allegory of the era while Lineland is used to show the hypocrisy and ignorance of the lands. Since the two-dimension world cannot believe in the third-dimension as much as the one-dimension cannot accept the possibility of Flatland. The realms and worlds are satirizing the closed-mindedness and lack of knowledge of cultures and periods because they harbor ingrained notions. In this scenario, the Sphere expresses the ignorance of being content with the social norms while there is a possibility of higher knowledge and growth. Demonstrated through the narrow-mindedness of the residents of Lineland, Flatland, and Spaceland in accepting the probability of a universe or realm more multifaceted.
“If a man with a triangular front and a polygonal back were allowed to exist and to propagate a still more Irregular posterity, what would become of the arts of life?”
The novel caricatures the aspects of social classes, gender politics, and intersectionality by using geometrical figures. Therefore, incorporates the various shapes such as polygons to represent the men and their number of sides describe their social class. The regularity, sides, and angles play a role in determining the hierarchy of one’s social class. Irregular polygons are detested and are either corrected of their ‘deformity’ or eliminated because they are considered socially unacceptable. The story delves into the notion of prejudice in the Victorian era or any period thereof in how society shuns the physically unique or different. The Square has these notions ingrained in him too even though he has been introduced to the infinity nature of the universe.
