# Mad Mathesis — A Tangled Tale character guide

> Mad Mathesis in A Tangled Tale by Lewis Carroll.

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0006-knot-iii-mad-mathesis

## Snapshot

Clara's eccentric aunt, who turns every outing into a puzzle and every puzzle into a contest, cheerfully tormenting her niece with percentages and oughts-and-crosses.

## Who they are

Mad Mathesis drags Clara through galleries and cabs, converting Chelsea buns, veterans' limbs, and picture-hanging into arithmetic ambushes she always wins. Where Clara feels and sighs, her aunt calculates, briskly overriding sentiment with data and delighting in the niece's terror. Her relentless games set the book's comic and mathematical machinery in motion, making her the engine of every tangle Clara must struggle through.

## In the story

### [A Tangled Tale](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_tangled_tale_se/chapters/a-tangled-tale)

Quizzes Clara on percentages and engages in train betting matches.

### [Knot III: Mad Mathesis](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_tangled_tale_se/chapters/knot-iii-mad-mathesis)

Mad Mathesis, Clara's aunt, is eccentric and critical of modern conventions; she proposes the train matches and speaks with undisguised aversion to High Schools.

### [Knot V: Oughts and Crosses](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_tangled_tale_se/chapters/knot-v-oughts-and-crosses)

Devises the complex marking match rules and accompanies Clara to the gallery.

### [Knot VII: Petty Cash](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_tangled_tale_se/chapters/knot-vii-petty-cash)

Clara's aunt who meticulously records petty cash and insists Clara remember the luncheon cost.

### [Knot X: Chelsea Buns](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_tangled_tale_se/chapters/knot-x-chelsea-buns)

Clara's eccentric aunt who insists on calculating percentages of wounded soldiers and later prompts Clara with a similar problem.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_tangled_tale_se/characters/mad-mathesis
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_tangled_tale_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_tangled_tale_se/characters