Flatland · Chapter
III: Concerning the Inhabitants of Flatland explained
The Square describes the physical and social hierarchy of Flatland, from women (Straight Lines) to the lowest Isosceles Triangles, through the middle class of Equilateral Triangles and Squares, up to the nobility of Polygons and the highest
What happens
The Square describes the physical and social hierarchy of Flatland, from women (Straight Lines) to the lowest Isosceles Triangles, through the middle class of Equilateral Triangles and Squares, up to the nobility of Polygons and the highest Circles. He explains the law of nature that male children generally gain one side per generation, the rare possibility of Isosceles rising to Equilateral status through careful breeding and merit, and how the aristocracy uses hope, co-optation, and division to suppress rebellions.
Themes in this chapter
Social Hierarchy and Class
The entire chapter details the rigid class system from women and Isosceles to Circles, with laws of inheritance and limited mobility.
Conformity and Deviance
Irregular Isosceles are seen as threats; the state uses hospitals, executions, and co-optation to enforce conformity and suppress rebellion.
Power and Control
The Circles manipulate hope, ambition, and internal divisions among the lower classes to maintain their power and prevent revolution.
Characters to notice
- The Narrator (A Square)
The narrator describes his own class as a Square and explains the entire social hierarchy of Flatland.
- The Isosceles
The lowest class of Triangles with two equal sides and a very short base, often nearly indistinguishable from Straight Lines; they are soldiers and workmen, and their offspring remain Isosceles unless exceptional circumstances occur.
- The Circles
The highest priestly order, who arrange intermarriages, oversee the State Hospitals, and use strategies to stifle rebellions by co-opting leaders and fomenting internal conflict among the Isosceles.
- Many of the Highest Circles
Mentioned as the judges and rulers who maintain the aristocratic constitution and suppress sedition.
Key passages
“Our women are Straight Lines. Our soldiers and lowest classes of workmen are Triangles with two equal sides, each about eleven inches long, and a base or third side so short (often not exceeding half an inch) that they form at their vertices a very sharp and formidable angle.”
Women are straight lines, while soldiers and workers are isosceles triangles with very sharp angles.
Introduces the physical basis of Flatland's social classes.
“It is a law of Nature with us that a male child shall have one more side than his father, so that each generation shall rise (as a rule) one step in the scale of development and nobility.”
By natural law, each male child is born with one more side than his father, leading to generational advancement.
Explains the hereditary progression of social rank.
“The birth of a True Equilateral Triangle from Isosceles parents is the subject of rejoicing in our country for many furlongs around.”
When an equilateral triangle is born to isosceles parents, it is celebrated widely.
Highlights the rare and celebrated event of upward mobility.
“Had the acute-angled rabble been all, without exception, absolutely destitute of hope and of ambition, they might have found leaders in some of their many seditious outbreaks, so able as to render their superior numbers and strength too much even for the wisdom of the Circles.”
If the lower classes had no hope or ambition, they might find capable leaders and overthrow the Circles.
Explains why the aristocracy allows limited mobility as a safety valve.
“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.”
The ruling classes exploit human hopefulness to suppress rebellions early.
Describes the mechanism of social control through hope and co-optation.
