# The Isosceles — Flatland character guide > The Isosceles in Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott. **Role:** supporting **Also known as:** the Isosceles, Every Isosceles, an Isosceles, themselves **First appearance:** 0006-iii-concerning-the-inhabitants-of-flatland ## Snapshot The sharp-angled laborers and soldiers at the bottom of Flatland, feared for their points and kept in line by law and by their own desperation. ## Who they are With two equal sides and a narrow apex, they are the working class and the army, their acute angles making them dangerous both to enemies and to the social order. Flatland's regime manages them through a mix of brutal regulation and the faint hope that their descendants might, over generations, become less pointed and more respectable. They matter because they expose the cruelty beneath the Square's tidy world, and because their capacity for revolt shadows every claim of stability the narrator makes. ## Relationships ### [The Stranger](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/flatland_se/characters/the_stranger) _social_ The Isosceles and Stranger have a negligible relationship, likely a brief encounter. ### [The Circles](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/flatland_se/characters/the_circles) _social_ The Circles oversee the Isosceles in a rigid social hierarchy, with little personal interaction. ### [The Stranger](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/flatland_se/characters/the_stranger) _social_ The Isosceles and Stranger have a negligible relationship, likely a brief encounter. ## In the story ### [Preface to the Second and Revised Edition, 1884](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/flatland_se/chapters/preface-to-the-second-and-revised-edition-1884) The Isosceles are referenced as the lower classes, whose destinies have been neglected by historians, and toward whom the Square has modified his views. ### [Flatland](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/flatland_se/chapters/flatland) The lowest class of soldiers and workmen, with sharp angles and limited intelligence. ### [Part I: This World](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/flatland_se/chapters/part-i-this-world) Described as the lowest class, with limited rights and used as soldiers or laborers. ### [III: Concerning the Inhabitants of Flatland](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/flatland_se/chapters/iii-concerning-the-inhabitants-of-flatland) The lowest class of Triangles with two equal sides and a very short base, often nearly indistinguishable from Straight Lines; they are soldiers and workmen, and their offspring remain Isosceles unless exceptional circumstances occur. ### [Concerning the Women](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/flatland_se/chapters/iv-concerning-the-women) Mentioned as the lower strata where lack of tact leads to domestic disasters; their wives are said to imitate the back-motion of higher classes, and their families are subject to elimination through female outbreaks. ### [V: Of Our Methods of Recognizing One Another](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/flatland_se/chapters/v-of-our-methods-of-recognizing-one-another) The Isosceles are discussed as the lowest class, with dangerous angles and a system of gradual angle increase across generations. ### [VI: Of Recognition by Sight](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/flatland_se/chapters/vi-of-recognition-by-sight) Mentioned as the lower classes (common tradesmen and serfs) who cannot afford Sight Recognition training and rely on Feeling. ### [VII: Concerning Irregular Figures](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/flatland_se/chapters/vii-concerning-irregular-figures) Mentioned as soldiers and artisans whose sides must be equal; also as potential Irregulars causing danger in crowds. ### [Of the Ancient Practice of Painting](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/flatland_se/chapters/viii-of-the-ancient-practice-of-painting) The Isosceles soldiers are described in military reviews, displaying vibrant colors during the Colour Revolt. ### [IX: Of the Universal Colour Bill](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/flatland_se/chapters/ix-of-the-universal-colour-bill) The Isosceles classes are portrayed as increasingly insolent and revolutionary, demanding equality and the abolition of aristocratic arts. ### [X: Of the Suppression of the Chromatic Sedition](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/flatland_se/chapters/x-of-the-suppression-of-the-chromatic-sedition) The Isosceles are the main agitators for the Colour Bill; they are ultimately massacred by one another's angles after being leaderless and attacked by invisible women and convicts. ### [XII: Of the Doctrine of Our Priests](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/flatland_se/chapters/xii-of-the-doctrine-of-our-priests) Isosceles figures are cited as examples of those whose irregular sides lead to criminal behavior, and who must be sent to hospital or executed. ### [XIII: How I Had a Vision of Lineland](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/flatland_se/chapters/xiii-how-i-had-a-vision-of-lineland) Not directly present; the Lineland King refers to his subjects, including small Lines (men) and Points (women), but no specific Isosceles character appears. ### [XIV: How I Vainly Tried to Explain the Nature of Flatland](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/flatland_se/chapters/xiv-how-i-vainly-tried-to-explain-the-nature-of-flatland) Referenced indirectly when the Square compares the war-cry of Lineland's subjects to 'the roar of an army of a hundred thousand Isosceles'. ### [XV: Concerning a Stranger from Spaceland](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/flatland_se/chapters/xv-concerning-a-stranger-from-spaceland) Not directly present, but the wife's proverbs ('Feeling is believing') reflect the lower-class reliance on touch over sight. ### [How I Came to Spaceland, and What I Saw There](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/flatland_se/chapters/xviii-how-i-came-to-spaceland-and-what-i-saw-there) Six low-type Isosceles soldiers rush upon the Sphere at the Council's command. ### [Endnotes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/flatland_se/chapters/endnotes) Discussed in the context of marriage and certification for Triangles. ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/flatland_se/characters/the_isosceles - Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/flatland_se - All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/flatland_se/characters