Flatland · Chapter
IX: Of the Universal Colour Bill explained
The chapter details the introduction and implications of the Universal Colour Bill in Flatland, which mandates that all classes, including women and Priests, be painted red on the front half and green on the back.
What happens
The chapter details the introduction and implications of the Universal Colour Bill in Flatland, which mandates that all classes, including women and Priests, be painted red on the front half and green on the back. The bill is a cunning plot by an Irregular Circle to undermine the social hierarchy by confusing the visual identity of women with that of the Circles, thereby eroding the intellectual training of the Priestly Order and paving the way for revolution and equality among classes.
Themes in this chapter
Social Hierarchy and Class
The Universal Colour Bill threatens to collapse class distinctions by making women and Priests visually identical, undermining the aristocratic hierarchy.
Perception and Reality
The bill exploits visual perception to confuse identity, showing how surface appearances can distort social reality and lead to chaos.
Gender and Patriarchy
Women are depicted as eager to exploit the confusion to gain power and access to secrets, challenging patriarchal control.
Characters to notice
- The Narrator (A Square)
The narrator describes the dangers and political machinations behind the Universal Colour Bill, reflecting on its impact on society.
- The Circles
The Circles are the target of the bill, which aims to demoralize them by forcing them to adopt colour and undermining their intellectual training in Sight Recognition.
- The Isosceles
The Isosceles classes are portrayed as increasingly insolent and revolutionary, demanding equality and the abolition of aristocratic arts.
- Chromatistes
Chromatistes is implied as the originator of the Colour Revolt, though the bill's author is an Irregular Circle.
- Many of the Highest Circles
The highest Circles are described as wavering and undecided in the face of revolutionary demands.
Key passages
“How attractive this prospect must have been to the frail sex may readily be imagined. They anticipated with delight the confusion that would ensue.”
Women were excited by the prospect of confusion, as it would allow them to overhear secrets and be mistaken for Priests.
Highlights the gendered dimension of the bill's appeal.
“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.”
The Irregular Circle who devised the bill aimed to degrade the Circles by compelling them to adopt colour, weakening their intellectual superiority.
Reveals the strategic intent behind the bill.
“Only in discerning between the father and the mother would the Circular infant find problems for the exercise of its understanding—problems too often likely to be corrupted by maternal impostures with the result of shaking the child’s faith in all logical conclusions.”
Circular children would struggle to distinguish their parents, and mothers could deceive them, undermining their trust in logic.
Illustrates the bill's threat to intellectual training and family dynamics.