Flatland: Figuren, Zeitleiste und Orte

The narrator introduces Flatland and explains why its inhabitants see one another as straight lines.

The narrator explains directions, house design, and laws that restrict inquiry into Flatland’s constant light.

The narrator describes a social order based on bodily shape and methods used to preserve ruling privileges.

The narrator describes the dangers posed by women’s pointed bodies and the laws controlling their movements.

The narrator explains how hearing and touch identify people, despite unreliable voices and dangerous physical contact.

The narrator explains how educated Flatlanders use fog and differences in brightness to recognize shapes.

The narrator defends bodily regularity and laws that punish inhabitants with unequal sides.

Chromatistes introduces bodily painting, and the practice spreads until only Women and Priests remain unpainted.

Revolutionary leaders propose compulsory painting for Women and Priests while Soldiers and Artisans demand equal rights.

Pantocyclus pretends to accept the Colour Bill, then traps reformers in an assembly massacre.

The narrator describes priestly rule and dangerous medical treatments used to seek Circular status for infants.

The Square questions difficulties in the doctrine linking shape with conduct and argues against denying women education.

The narrator dreams of Lineland and questions its King about life confined to a single line.

The narrator fails to explain sideways movement to the King, faces threats, and wakes.

A mysterious visitor appears after the narrator rejects his grandson’s suggestion about the geometrical meaning of cubing.

The visitor identifies himself as a Sphere, but his demonstrations fail to convince the Square of three-dimensional space.

The Sphere removes a locked-away book and touches the narrator internally before declaring he will take him outside his Plane.

The Sphere carries the narrator through Spaceland, where he witnesses his brother’s sentence of lifelong imprisonment.

The Square demands knowledge of higher dimensions, but the Sphere rejects his arguments before he descends to Flatland.

The narrator dreams of Pointland, and the Sphere admits his mistake in rejecting exploration beyond three dimensions.

A proclamation deters the narrator from open preaching, while his frightened Grandson rejects lessons about three dimensions.

The narrator receives life imprisonment after publicly describing his experiences, and seven years pass without converts.