Satire In Flatland

In Flatland, Abbott created a fictional world, called Flatland, of only two dimensions inhabited by two-dimensional beings. The narrator, A. Square, begins by introducing readers to his two-dimensional world, including its different types of life and its social order. the society is build up in a social class system consisting of five different classes, whereas the class someone belongs to becomes visible through one’s physical form: “Our Women are Straight Lines. Our Soldiers and Lowest Classes of Workmen are Triangles”. With the rise of the number of sides, the rise in class of society is connected. A male's position in this social order is determined by angles and sides; the square narrator, a lawyer, is higher in the social hierarchy than triangles (who tend to be laborers, soldiers, and merchants) but lower than more complex regular figures. The highest figures in Flatland are those with so many sides and angles that they are close to being circles. Females in Flatland possess no angles or complexity of …show more content…
In the rigid society of Victorian England, there was little tolerance for irregularity. It was often associated with criminal tendency, and some theories blamed deviant behavior on an abnormal shape in the frame or the skull. Frequently, the unusual were segregated from the rest of society in asylums. The rest of society maintained a fascination with the freakish element, and asylums often had viewing galleries so ordinary people could observe the activities and antics of the inmates. Abbott's suggestion that irregulars be eliminated is an extreme exaggeration, especially when coupled with the cruel plan of keeping a number of these unfortunates available as object lessons, an expendable supply of individuals with no rights at all, to be studied by the regular Flatland pupils. Especially pointed are his remarks about the appearance of irregularities among the upper