Flatland was written by the British author Edwin A. Abbott in 1884. It’s set in a fictional two-dimensional world that allegorizes the societal and structural limitations of Victorian England. The world of Flatland is a place composed entirely of geometric shapes. These shapes are personified, as is exemplified by the tale’s stodgy and somber protagonist, A Square.
In Flatland, there is a clear and uncompromising social hierarchy based on shape and the number of angles. Female characters occupy the lowest position in this society, as they are “lines” with no internal angles. This aspect of the setting is a direct commentary on the gender inequalities of Abbott’s period. The limited role the “Females” are allowed to play in Flatland society points to the reductive and limited view of women's roles and capacities held by many people and upheld by law in Victorian England. The more sides a shape has, the higher its status: the “Nobles” are shapes with five or more sides, and the highest social class is occupied by Circles, who function as priests and rulers. This all reflects the unyielding social hierarchies of Victorian Britain, where the Church of England and the aristocracy wielded enormous power and influence.
The concept of "Spaceland"—which appears when The Sphere introduces A Square to the possibility of a world that isn't flat—expands A Square's understanding of dimensions. However, this realization is quickly shown to be impossible to implement in Flatland, as no-one will believe him and his ideas are considered heretical. In A Square’s dreams, the novel also describes worlds even more limited than Flatland: Pointland, a place with no dimensions, and Lineland, a place with only one. These settings represent even more restricted perspectives, and work as other aspects of the novel’s exploration of the limitations of people's willingness to take on new ideas.
