Apocalyptic Vision and The Fifth Dimension

Ann Boyd, MT 759

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle is the mythical story of humans traveling with the aid of personified stars into the fifth dimension by time travel. The children provide the motivation needed to rescue Mr. Murray from an evil entrapment. None of the characters in this fantasy are “normal”. Meg complains to her father about how dumb she is and how different Charles Wallace is. Her father reassures her saying, “there is nothing the matter with his mind. He just does things in his own way and in his own time” (9). To Meg he says, “you’re not dumb. . . you are like Charles Wallace. Your development has to go at its own pace. It just doesn’t happen to be the usual pace” (9). The reference early in the story to time directs the reader to its importance, or to wonder if time is as important as it appears to be. Is time a human construction used to chart progress? Or is time finite in the sense of longevity and infinite in the context of the eternal?

Mrs. Whatsit appears in the family home on a stormy night bearing a message as if she were an archangel. “There is such a thing as a tesseract” (21). Mrs. Murray seems to understand but the children do not. Distracting Meg from her conflict with teachers and principal at school, Charles takes her off to explore a haunted house where they encounter another distinctive friend, Calvin, and another angelic messenger, Mrs. Who. Charles mysteriously understands Mrs. Who and Mrs. Whatsit. The messengers will teleport the children beyond the earth, through the vast expanses of the universe in order to rescue their father (33). One of the three messengers, Mrs. Which, only partially transmutates saying, “I ddo nott thinkk I willl matterrialize commpletely. I ffindd ittt verry ttirrinngg andd wee hhave mmuch ttoo ddoo” (55). Even reading the line produces a strange feeling. Suddenly Meg, Calvin, and Charles are transported into the fifth dimension accompanied by the three angelic beings. The symbol of the three women could point to the trinity. Later in the story, Mrs. Whatsit is called the comforter (Holy Spirit), Mrs. Which only partially materializes (God), and Mrs. Who is a star who gave her life fighting evil (Jesus). Another interpretation of the triad is the transfiguration account of Jesus, with Elijah and Moses. The three disciples, Peter, James and John (equivalent to Meg, Calvin and Charles) were awe struck, but they did not run away. Here the children are somehow ready to cooperate with these strange beings without fear. It is not too much of a stretch of imagination when compared to the feeling of being in a holy place, or situation, such as the last minutes of a loved one’s life.

They stop at “Uriel, the third plant of the star Malak in the spiral nebula Messier 101” (61). Calvin challenges this assertion saying the distance even at the speed of light would take years. Mrs. Whatsit explained, “we tesser. Or you might say, we wrinkle” (62). Meg asks if her father is here and is told to be patient. It seems absurd to travel mysteriously to another part of the universe and then ask about the distance and the time factor. Likewise, what meaning can patience have in a situation where we move from planet Z to Y by tessering? The juxtaposition of normal and abnormal stimulates curiosity: what is the message, yet, the pace of the story gives you no time to ponder. Reflectively it is a clever way to describe the seen and unseen, the substance of our faith, and our finite existence on terra firma. The mysterious encounter with God, in meditation, contemplation, is lost in time and space, we move beyond our physicality and into the eternal realm of love. The absorption can be so complete that the physical world seems to evaporate and one is truly betwixt and between. Trying to describe the experience is so difficult that this story is a welcome metaphor.

The journey is full of apocalyptic imagery. In the first leg of the flight of fantasy, Meg hears singing and asks for translation. “Sing unto the lord a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth” (68). They are all filled with joy and awe. Continuing onward, they encounter a shadow and it pierces Meg so that she can not breathe. Calvin names the darkness evil. Meg asked Mrs. Which; “that dark thing we saw, is that what my father is fighting?” (73) She is told that her father is behind the shadow, trapped in darkness and needs courage. Mrs. Which suggested Mr. Murray would find the courage to do for his children what he cannot do for himself (75). This scene can be read on multiple levels, but the most striking is the thought that God would not defeat death and evil for himself alone, for it would not be necessary, there is no evil in God. Only for his beloved children will he sacrifice himself. Mrs. Whatsit, the comforter, tells the children they are not alone in the battle of good and evil, light and darkness. “All through the universe it’s being fought, all through the cosmos, and my but it’s a grand and exciting battle” (88). Calvin asks who is fighting and is told “and the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not” (89). Charles recognizes this means Jesus. There are others helping too, declares Mrs. Whatsit and they name artists, authors, musicians, religious leaders, scientists, and mathematicians. Still Meg presses, is Father here? No.

After another timeless transport they encounter a place of perfect uniformity. A man with red eyes communicates with Charles telepathically. Charles looks into his eyes and is captured (125). The altered truth is that instead of individuality, all are of one mind, one with IT, and all are happy (142). There is no diversity, they may as well all be clones. This is a brilliant example of the loss of diversity and fragility which confer meaning to life.

Finally, they find Father in a glass column which Meg can penetrate using Mrs. Who’s spectacles, and by putting them on her father they exit and are joined by Calvin. The adventure continues as they tesser and land in another strange place inhabited by beasts who care for Meg and nurse her back to health from her frozen state. As she awakens she knows, as from a vision, that she and she alone can return and rescue Charles. When she accepts the mission, her father and friend protest but finally agree that she must because Charles understands her (195). Destiny has the trump card. The more experienced Mrs. Whatsit tessers her back to IT for the final battle with IT and the redemption of Charles. For this trip, Mrs. Who gives her a message: “The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see your calling . . . not, to bring to naught things that are.” (202). Charles is still in the IT mind’s grasp and argues with Meg but she prevails through consistently stating her love for him (208). Suddenly the family is safely reunited in the vegetable garden at their home. Freedom and love have conquered evil. In this story, the consistent victor is love, never ending, prevailing against forces of evil and ending with reunion. It is an elegant picture of the abiding love of God and the eternal victory of salvation, now and not yet, according to the apocalyptic vision.