Summary Of The Novel Flatland

Flatland on Mathematics and Literature Commonly the notion of mathematics and literature are relegated to two different spheres of influence, left to be independent of one another. The two disciplines enchant and bewilder the masses as they help to persuade the human race of getting infinitesimally closer to the truths of the universe. In this regard, mathematics and literature can combine in an attempt to push the boundaries of prior understanding in order to present a new facet of a world as mysterious as the we inhabit. This symbiotic relation of sorts is ever apparent in the novel Flatland by Edwin A. Abbot. Abbot implores through literary means the depth to which mathematics can theoretically define our world, metaphorically and literally. Effectively Abbot uses mathematics and literature to …show more content…
As the introduction continues we get an understanding of the societal structure of flatland in which the geometric properties of each individual defines his/her social standing. Everything in the world is defined through a mathematic lens down to the houses which are pentagonal; everything in flatland is two dimensional. The real question of the novel is a function of the dimensionality of the world; once the construct of the narrators is shifted by the introduction of a place that doesn’t fit his predisposed mold. Then when he succumbs to these new ideas and brings them back to his world, he is strictly opposed by everyone and is sent to jail.The beginning of Part 2 is where the novel truly delves into the question of dimensionality as well as the questions about societal structure as a whole. Coming to the square as a dream, he experiences line land which he feels to be filled of women seeing as women take the shape of lines in flatland. However, his first encounter is with the Monarch of the world whom the square immediately assumes is a woman, to which the Monarch refutes. The square asks more of the