Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions characters

Also known as A Square

Appears from the start

A respectable middle-class Square in the two-dimensional society of Flatland. He explains his world's geometry, customs, and rigid hierarchy from within its assumptions, while writing after experiences that have made him question what his society declares possible.

First appears in chapter 4

The Square's wife, who like all adult women in Flatland appears as a dangerously sharp line. She manages the household within strict laws governing women's movement, speech, and entry into buildings.

Also known as King of Lineland

First appears in chapter 13

The ruler of a one-dimensional world whose inhabitants can move only along a line. Unable to imagine sideways motion, he interprets every attempt to describe Flatland within the limits of his own experience.

First appears in chapter 15

The Square's promising young Hexagonal grandson. His playful reasoning about powers of numbers brings him close to imagining a third direction, but social training quickly teaches him to retreat from the forbidden idea.

Also known as The Stranger

First appears in chapter 15

A three-dimensional visitor who enters Flatland during the turn of the millennium. Because Flatlanders can perceive only planar cross-sections, he first appears as a circle that changes size. He tries to teach the Square about height and Spaceland.

Also known as King of Pointland

First appears in chapter 20

The sole inhabitant of a world without length, breadth, or height. With no external direction or other being available to his senses, he understands every apparent voice as a thought arising from his own all-encompassing self.