Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar
(175)
Study Questions for Flatland
- Why might Abbott have chosen for the opening illustration and for the
epigraph to part one quotations from Shakespearean tragedies?
- If you come back to the Preface after the reading the text, do you find
A Square’s replies to the two objections convincing?
- In the Preface, what does A Square say about the “family likeness” that
runs through humanity in all dimensions?
- Comment on Flatand’s class structure and gender discrimination.
- Note how Flatland deals with “sedition” in chapter 3. Are
there any parallels here to our world?
- Why might chapter 4 be so unrelentingly misogynistic?
- What happens to the Specimens referred to in chapter 5?
- Describe the methods that Flatlanders use to recognize one another. What
are the advantages and disadvantages of each?
- What was the result of the Universal Colour Bill? How does Pantocyclus
restore order?
- What are some of the key tenets of the Priests’ doctrine? Is
this doctrine theoretically unquestionable, as A Square says? What
are its “practical drawbacks”?
- Consider why the quotations beginning and following part two come from
Shakespeare’s The
Tempest.
- How does A Square react initially to the visitor from Spaceland?
- How does Flatland’s High Council react to the visit by the sphere?
Is this surprising? Does this ever happen in our world?
- With whom does A Square compare himself in chapter 19?
- How does the sphere react when confronted with the possibility of a higher
dimension? Is Abbott telling us something about the nature of truth?
- In chapter 19, A Square uses analogy to argue for a fourth dimension,
using terminal points (e.g. moving a point produces a line with two terminal
points). Using the analogies in the chapter and the discussion of terminal
and bounding points, is it possible to visualize a four-dimensional cube?
- Do you agree with the Sphere’s critique of life in Pointland?
- What fate befalls A Square back in Flatland?
- Would you stand up for the “truth” and maintain your convictions
as A Square does?
- Although Flatland
is obviously a work of fiction, the author has a number of points that he
wants to make. What are some of them? How does he make these points?