# How the Sphere Encouraged Me in a Vision explained — Flatland

> Chapter companion for Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott.

## What happens

After returning from Spaceland, the Square conceals his experiences from his wife and retreats to his chamber, where he falls asleep and dreams of the Sphere. In the dream, the Sphere takes him to Pointland, a realm of no dimensions, where a self-contented Point believes itself to be the entire universe. The Square attempts to enlighten the Point but fails, and the Sphere uses the lesson to encourage the Square to aspire and teach others, revealing higher dimensional constructions by analogy.

## Themes in this chapter

### Perception and Reality

The Square's dream reveals the limitations of the Point's self-perception, contrasting its self-contented ignorance with the broader reality of multiple dimensions.

### Knowledge and Ignorance

The Sphere teaches the Square that self-contentment is vile and ignorant, and that aspiration to higher knowledge is better than blind happiness.

### The Limits of Imagination

The Point cannot conceive of anything beyond itself, illustrating the limits of imagination when confined to a single dimension.

## Character check-ins

### The Narrator (A Square)

The Square dreams of the Sphere, visits Pointland, and is encouraged to aspire and teach.

### The Sphere

The Sphere appears in the Square's dream, guides him to Pointland, and encourages him to aspire and teach others about higher dimensions.

### The Stranger

The Sphere is also referred to as the Stranger in the context of the dream vision.

## Key lines

> Upward, yet not Northward

The direction of the third dimension is perpendicular to the plane, not a cardinal direction.

_The Square repeats this phrase as a mnemonic to grasp the concept of the third dimension._

> to be self-contented is to be vile and ignorant, and that to aspire is better than to be blindly and impotently happy.

Complacency is contemptible and ignorant; striving for greater understanding is superior to ignorant contentment.

_The Sphere's moral lesson to the Square after visiting Pointland._

> It is; and there is none else beside It.

The Point declares itself to be the only existence, with nothing else in the universe.

_The Point's solipsistic self-description in Pointland._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/flatland_se/chapters/xx-how-the-sphere-encouraged-me-in-a-vision
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/flatland_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/flatland_se/chapters