Flatland : A Romance Of Many Dimensions

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is a short satirical novel written by Edwin Abbott about an imaginary two-dimensional world that is occupied by geometric figures. Flatland is narrated by a square (who is a member of the gentleman social class) who guides the reader through life as it is known in Flatland and the visions and dreams that he has about Lineland and Spaceland. In this paper I will be talking about how Edwin Abbott uses mathematical symbolism to satirize the society of England in the Victorian era. The novel Flatland refers to the Victorian era where at the time women were regarding as inferior to males and the family life was practically the only respectable career option for a woman. The man was the leader of the family and the wife was to teach the children and care for the house and her husband. Just before the time of the writing of Flatland girl’s schools were included under the Endowed Schools Act of 1869, but in comparison to their male counterparts Victorian females had extremely finite access to higher education. 1 In Flatland, women are represented as a mere line segment, lacking complexity of form and angles of any shape or size. By using this math symbolism, I believe that Abbott means this to represent the low status of women in the society during the Victorian era. Through math symbolism Abbott was also showing how women in the Victorian era lived a one-dimensional life and by using the mathematical symbolism of one dimension he was able