Flatland: Chapter 12 Summary & Analysis

A Square discusses the doctrine of the Circles, which is concisely expressed by the axiom “Attend to your Configuration.” Their teaching strives for individual and collective improvement towards the most desired configuration, that is, of the Circles. They reject the values of will, effort, and praise, and contend that configuration dictates how a figure behaves. Thus, irregularity is considered a disease that must be cured lest one be imprisoned or executed.

Pantocyclus attributed any faults or deviations from normal social conduct to irregularity. Thus, he concluded that praise and blame are meaningless gestures. However, A Square points out the downsides to the indisputable doctrine. In the case of an Isosceles triangle guilty of stealing, the penalty of death is easily sentenced, since he could not help but steal because of his natural lowliness. On the other hand, in minor domestic cases where execution is unnecessary, such as with the disobedience of A Square’s grandsons, blame is evaded and instead put on configuration.

Despite the doctrine’s teaching, A Square confesses that he sees the value of scolding and disciplining on his Grandson’s configuration, although he cannot explain why he thinks that it is so. A Square mentions that he is not the only one who believes in discipline, and says that even Circles use praise and blame towards other figures and even their own children.

A Square describes how the Circles’ emphasis on configuration has reversed the relational arrangement between parents and children. In contrast to Spaceland, where children are taught to respect their parents, Flatland parents must honor their sons and grandsons. Therefore, a man must prioritize the interests of posterity above his own.

After humbling himself and his square status, A Square indicates what he believes is the weak point of the Circles’ system: their relations with women. Following the doctrine of regular configuration, irregular births are highly discouraged. In a similar manner, women who have any ancestral history of irregularity are unfit for marriage.

Since women are only straight lines, their irregularities are instead documented by detailed pedigrees that are recorded by the State. Only women with certified pedigrees are allowed to marry. Thus, A Square entertains the fact that it might be supposed that Circles would be careful in choosing a wife. On the contrary, the Circles do not stress the regularity of their wives. Instead, those of the lower classes who are desperate to climb the social ladder through their sons take more care into taking Regular wives.

Despite the fact that such careless marriages of Circles can result in a decrease in the number of sides or even be simply barren, the Circles do not give much thought to this, since the loss of a few sides is not very noticeable and can be compensated at the Neo-Therapeutic Gymnasium. Yet A Square warns that if this does not stop, the circular race may cease, and Flatland will no longer exist.

A Square offers an additional warning, one relating to the relations between men and women. Three hundred years ago, the Chief Circle declared that women should not be treated as rational, since they lack Reason and are more emotional. From then on, women were no longer provided education.

A Square fears that this program of educational negligence of females is harmful to the Male Sex, since men must live bi-lingual lives and use a different vocabulary in the presence of women. He thus makes an appeal to the statesmen of Flatland to reconsider female education in order to lessen the burden on the young, who have to unlearn the language of their mothers and learn the male language of science.