A Wrinkle in Time

Summary

Meg Murry is a stubborn, clumsy, unhappy girl with glasses and braces who is doing badly at school, and whose physicist father has been missing for more than a year on secret government work. On a stormy night she comes down to the kitchen of the family's country house to find her mother, a scientist, and her five-year-old brother Charles Wallace, an uncannily gifted child the village thinks is slow. They are joined by a strange tramp-like old woman, Mrs Whatsit, who has been stealing sheets from a neighbor and who remarks as she leaves that there is such a thing as a tesseract, the word for the concept Mr. Murry was studying. The next day Charles Wallace takes Meg to a haunted house where Mrs Whatsit's friends live: Mrs Who, who speaks in quotations from many languages, and Mrs Which, who barely appears as a shimmer. They meet Calvin O'Keefe, a popular older boy from a large, neglected family, who feels drawn there too. The three Mrs Ws take the children by tessering, a wrinkle that folds space and time, first to the beautiful planet Uriel, where Mrs Whatsit becomes a winged creature and shows them the Black Thing, a shadow of evil that covers some worlds and touches Earth. The Happy Medium's crystal shows that Earth is fighting it, and the children learn the names of some of the fighters, Jesus among artists, scientists and teachers, and that Mrs Whatsit was once a star who gave her life in the battle. Their father is imprisoned on Camazotz, a planet wholly given over to the Black Thing. Before leaving them there, the Mrs Ws give gifts: Calvin the ability to communicate, Meg her faults, Charles Wallace the resilience of childhood, and Mrs Who her spectacles. Camazotz is a town where children bounce balls in perfect rhythm and every door opens at the same moment, ruled from the CENTRAL Central Intelligence building by IT, a disembodied brain that speaks through the Man with Red Eyes. Charles Wallace, too sure of his own intelligence, lets IT into his mind and is taken over. With Mrs Who's glasses Meg reaches her father inside a transparent column, but when he tessers Meg and Calvin away from IT, Charles Wallace is left behind and Meg is half frozen by passing through the Black Thing. On the gray planet Ixchel, eyeless, furred beings nurse her, especially the one she names Aunt Beast. Meg realizes that she alone can return for Charles Wallace. Mrs Which tells her she has one thing IT lacks, and before IT's pulsing rhythm Meg discovers it is love: by loving her brother she breaks IT's hold and brings him back. All four land in the Murrys' garden, where Mr. Murry is reunited with his wife and the twins Sandy and Dennys. L'Engle wrote it in 1959–60; after many rejections it was published in 1962 by Farrar, Straus under its Ariel Books imprint, and it won the 1963 Newbery Medal.

Plot or Argument

• Chapters 1–3: Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who, Mrs Which

  On a stormy night Mrs Whatsit appears in the Murry kitchen and speaks of a tesseract; Meg and Charles Wallace meet Calvin and the other two Mrs Ws at the haunted house.

• Chapters 4–5: The Black Thing and The Tesseract

  Tessering to Uriel, the children see the Black Thing from the mountain heights and learn how the tesseract folds space and time.

• Chapter 6: The Happy Medium

  The Medium's crystal shows Earth under the shadow and the fighters against it; Mrs Whatsit's past as a star is revealed; the Mrs Ws give their gifts and leave the children on Camazotz.

• Chapters 7–9: The Man with Red Eyes, The Transparent Column, IT

  In the rhythmic town of Camazotz, Charles Wallace is captured by IT; Meg finds her father imprisoned; the children are brought before IT's pulsing brain.

• Chapters 10–11: Absolute Zero and Aunt Beast

  Mr. Murry tessers away with Meg and Calvin, leaving Charles Wallace; Meg is paralysed by cold and nursed back to health by the beasts of Ixchel.

• Chapter 12: The Foolish and the Weak

  Meg returns alone to Camazotz with the Mrs Ws' last gifts, frees Charles Wallace by loving him, and the family is reunited at home.

Characters

• Meg Murry, protagonist

  Awkward, impatient, fiercely loyal girl whose faults and love both prove essential.

• Charles Wallace Murry, Meg's youngest brother

  Five-year-old with extraordinary intelligence and intuition, whose pride lets IT capture him.

• Calvin O'Keefe, companion

  Tall, well-liked older boy from a poor, unloving home who finds a family in the Murrys.

• Mrs Whatsit, guide

  The youngest of the three Mrs Ws, cheerful and eccentric, once a star.

• Mrs Who, guide

  Speaks chiefly in quotations from many authors and languages; gives Meg her spectacles.

• Mrs Which, guide

  The eldest and most authoritative, seldom fully materializing.

• Dr. Alex Murry, Meg's father

  Physicist imprisoned on Camazotz after his experiments with the tesseract.

• Mrs. Murry, Meg's mother

  Scientist who keeps hope for her husband's return and works in her home laboratory.

• Sandy and Dennys, Meg's twin brothers

  Ordinary, practical ten-year-olds who stay at home.

• IT, antagonist

  Huge disembodied brain controlling Camazotz through a single rhythm.

• The Man with Red Eyes, IT's mouthpiece

  The figure through whom IT first speaks and tries to hypnotize the children.

• Aunt Beast, healer

  Gentle, eyeless being of Ixchel who nurses Meg back from paralysis.

Lessons

• Love is stronger than IT

  IT has unlimited knowledge and control but cannot love. Meg, with all her faults, wins her brother back by the one power IT does not have. The book does not make love vague: it is Meg's particular, costly love for Charles Wallace, held on to while IT's rhythm pounds at her.

  • Why can't Meg's father or Calvin go back for Charles Wallace?
  • What does Meg have to do inwardly before she can love Charles Wallace while he is under IT's control?
  • Why do you think L'Engle made love, rather than cleverness, the way to defeat IT?

• Alike is not the same as equal

  Camazotz has abolished differences: children bounce balls in time, the boy who misses is punished, and everyone is supposed to be happy. L'Engle shows that sameness enforced by power destroys the persons it claims to make equal.

  • What happens to the little boy on Camazotz who bounces his ball out of rhythm?
  • Why does IT say that everyone on Camazotz is happy, and why does Meg reject that?
  • How are the Murrys different from each other, and why is that good for them?

• Faults can become gifts

  Mrs Whatsit gives Meg her own faults, her anger, impatience and stubbornness, and those faults are what keep her from giving in to IT. Meg does not have to become a different person to be useful; her character has to be turned toward the good.

  • Why is it strange that Mrs Whatsit gives Meg her faults as a gift?
  • When does Meg's stubbornness help her on Camazotz?
  • Can you think of a weakness of your own that might be useful in the right situation?

• Pride of intellect

  Charles Wallace is the cleverest person in the story, and that is why he falls. Thinking he can enter IT's mind and come out again, he is captured. The final chapter's title, from Paul's letter to the Corinthians, says that God chooses the foolish and weak to shame the wise and strong.

  • Why does Charles Wallace think he can safely let IT into his mind?
  • How does the title of Chapter 12 explain who rescues him?
  • Is intelligence dangerous? When does knowledge need humility?

Context

The novel appeared at the height of the Cold War, when Americans were anxious about conformity, mind control and the uses of science, and readers have often seen Camazotz as a picture of a totalitarian state. L'Engle drew on popular accounts of relativity and quantum physics, and on her Christian faith, to make a story in which science, cosmic adventure and scripture belong together. Its heroine, a girl who is good at mathematics and bad at fitting in, was unusual in children's fiction of the time.

Composition

L'Engle said the idea came to her during a long camping trip across the United States with her family in 1959, and she wrote the book in 1959–60. It was rejected by many publishers, at least twenty-six by most accounts, who found it too difficult for children or too strange for any category, before John Farrar of Farrar, Straus accepted it for the Ariel Books imprint, which published it in 1962.

Reception

It won the Newbery Medal in 1963 and has sold millions of copies. It began the Time Quintet, followed by A Wind in the Door (1973), A Swiftly Tilting Planet (1978), Many Waters (1986) and An Acceptable Time (1989). Its mixture of theology and science fiction has drawn objections from some readers on both religious and secular sides; L'Engle herself spoke of the book as her affirmation of a God of love. It was adapted for television in 2003, as a graphic novel by Hope Larson in 2012, and as a feature film in 2018.

Comparisons

• the-lion-the-witch-and-the-wardrobe

  Both send siblings into another world where a child's betrayal or capture must be undone by self-giving love, and both carry Christian meaning inside a fantasy adventure, though Lewis builds an allegorical figure of Christ while L'Engle names Jesus directly.

• the-pilgrims-progress

  Meg's journey from world to world with guides who give gifts and warnings follows the pattern of Christian's pilgrimage, with Camazotz as a Vanity Fair of conformity.

• we

  Zamyatin's One State, with its synchronized routines and citizens reduced to numbers, is an adult ancestor of Camazotz's rhythmic streets; both set love and individuality against total control.

• the-giver

  Lowry's community, like Camazotz, buys comfort with sameness, and in both the child hero discovers love as what the system has removed.

• the-phantom-tollbooth

  Published a year apart, both send a dissatisfied child through strange lands that make ideas visible; Milo learns curiosity, while Meg learns that love outranks knowledge.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• Mrs Whatsit's parting remark about the tesseract in Chapter 1, and how it connects to Mr. Murry's disappearance.
• The view of the Black Thing from the mountain on Uriel, and the list of Earth's fighters in the Happy Medium's crystal.
• The gifts the Mrs Ws give the children before leaving them on Camazotz, and where each one is used.
• The rhythmic children and the boy with the ball on Camazotz, and how Charles Wallace changes after he looks into the Man with Red Eyes.
• Meg's choice in Chapter 12 to go back alone, and what Mrs Which tells her she has that IT lacks.

Key terms and names

Tesseract

A fifth-dimensional fold, or wrinkle, that brings two distant places together so that one can travel between them without crossing the space in between.

The Black Thing

The shadow of evil that covers some planets and touches Earth; the children first see it from Uriel.

Camazotz

The planet wholly given over to the Black Thing, where everything moves in one rhythm under IT's control.

IT

The giant brain that rules Camazotz and seizes Charles Wallace's mind.

Uriel

The beautiful planet where Mrs Whatsit shows the children the Black Thing and her true form.

Ixchel

The gray planet of tall, eyeless, furred beings who heal Meg.

Happy Medium

A cheerful seer whose crystal ball shows the children Earth and the shadow over it.

Mrs Who's spectacles

Mrs Who's gift, which lets Meg see into the transparent column where her father is held.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension How does Mrs Whatsit explain the tesseract to the children, and why do they need it?
2. Comprehension What gifts do the Mrs Ws give Meg, Calvin and Charles Wallace before leaving them on Camazotz?
3. Comprehension How is Meg healed on Ixchel, and why must she go back to Camazotz alone?
4. Interpretation IT tells the children that on Camazotz everyone is alike and therefore happy. What is wrong with IT's argument?
5. Interpretation Charles Wallace is the cleverest of the children, yet he is the one IT captures. What does L'Engle suggest about the danger of pride in one's own mind?
6. Interpretation Mrs Whatsit compares life to a sonnet, with a strict form and freedom within it. How does that comparison answer IT's idea of order?
7. Big Question Why is love a power that a being made only of intelligence cannot understand or resist?
8. Big Question The final chapter is titled from Paul's words about the foolish and the weak. Why might God choose weak people to do great things?

Faith Connections

• 1 Corinthians 1:25-28 (Scripture)

  Mrs Who gives Meg Paul's words that the foolishness of God is wiser than men and that God chooses the weak to confound the strong. Chapter 12 takes its title from the passage, and Meg, the least impressive of the children, is the one who saves her brother.

• John 1:5 (Scripture)

  Mrs Whatsit's company on Uriel speaks of the light shining in darkness. The Black Thing is real and powerful, but the book insists that light has never been overcome by it.

• 1 John 4:18 (Scripture)

  Perfect love casts out fear. Meg goes before IT afraid and wins by love, not by courage or knowledge alone.

• Augustine, Confessions VII (Church Fathers)

  Augustine describes evil not as a thing God made but as a privation, a lack of the good. L'Engle's Black Thing is a shadow and an absence that blots out stars, and IT is pure mind without love, a picture of what is missing rather than what is added.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: IT claims that perfect order, sameness and obedience produce happiness, and backs the claim with overwhelming intelligence. But the Murrys' freedom, differences and love are what make them persons, and Camazotz has destroyed those. Since IT has everything except love, love is the one weapon it cannot meet. Therefore the novel argues that love, not knowledge or control, is the deepest power in the universe, and that even weak and faulty people can wield it.

Rhetorical device: allusion. The first sentence, the record's only quote, borrows Bulwer-Lytton's famous opening, and Mrs Who's speeches are built from quotations of Scripture, Dante, Shakespeare and others.

Debate: Resolved: Charles Wallace's capture by IT was caused more by his pride than by IT's power.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Explain how Meg's faults, which she hates at the start, become the means by which she resists IT and rescues Charles Wallace in Chapter 12.

Comparison with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: Compare Edmund's betrayal and rescue with Charles Wallace's capture and rescue. Who saves each boy, at what cost, and what does each book say about love that rescues?

Medical Lens

Not a medical book, though two episodes are suggestive. On Camazotz IT controls minds by imposing a single pulsing rhythm, and Charles Wallace's capture, with its fixed, glassy eyes and strange voice, is described in terms that recall mid-century fears of hypnosis and brainwashing; the book treats it as spiritual and moral possession rather than illness. In Chapters 10–11 Meg is paralysed and numbed after the tesser through the Black Thing, and the beasts of Ixchel heal her by warmth, touch and song, a picture of nursing care that is restorative as much as physical. Any reading of these as clinical states is interpretive.

• Chapters 8–9

  Charles Wallace lets IT into his mind and speaks with its voice; Meg feels IT's rhythm pressing on her own thoughts.

  Altered States Psychology Unconscious
• Chapters 10–11

  Meg, half frozen after passing through the Black Thing, is carried and nursed back to health by Aunt Beast on Ixchel.

  Nursing Caregiving

Creative Prompts

• Classroom

  Show how a tesseract works the way Mrs Whatsit explains it, with a piece of string or a skirt hem pulled together, and then explain it in your own words.

• Fiction

  Write a day in the life of the boy on Camazotz who bounced his ball out of rhythm, from the time he was taken away.

• Dialogue

  Write the conversation between Meg and Aunt Beast in which Meg tries to describe sight to a creature who has no eyes.

• Essay

  Mrs Whatsit gives each child a gift before Camazotz. Explain each gift and how it is used, and argue which one matters most.

Further Reading

• A Wind in the Door, Madeleine L'Engle

• A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Madeleine L'Engle

• Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art, Madeleine L'Engle

  L'Engle's essays on Christian faith and the writer's vocation.

• A Circle of Quiet, Madeleine L'Engle

  The first Crosswicks Journal, with reflections on the writing and rejection of A Wrinkle in Time.

• Listening for Madeleine: A Portrait of Madeleine L'Engle in Many Voices, Leonard S. Marcus