A Wrinkle in Time
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A Wrinkle in Time is a children's fantasy novel by Madeleine L'Engle, written in 1959 to 1960<ref>L'Engle, M. "Foreword," A Wrinkle in Time 25th Anniversary Collectors' Edition, pg. ix. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1987. L'Engle had the idea for Mrs. Whatsit and friends on a Spring, 1959 camping trip (pg. viii), and wrote the book from "late summer 1959" through "early 1960."</ref> and published in 1962 after many rejections by publishers because it was, in L'Engle's words, "too different."<ref>Ibid, pg x.</ref> The book went on to win a Newbery Medal, Sequoyah Book Award,and Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, and was runner-up for the Hans Christian Andersen Award.<ref>Chase, C. "A Chronology of Madeleine L'Engle's Life and Books," Suncatcher: A Study of Madeleine L'Engle and Her Writing, pg. 170. Innisfree Press, 1998.</ref> It is the first in L'Engle's series of books about the Murry and O'Keefe families.
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Synopsis
The main character is thirteen-year-old Meg Murry, who is regarded by her peers and teachers as a bad-tempered underachiever. Her family recognizes her problem as a lack of emotional maturity but also regards her as being capable of great things. The family includes her beautiful scientist mother, her mysteriously missing scientist father, her five-year-old brother Charles Wallace Murry —a nascent super-genius— and ten-year-old twin athlete brothers Sandy Murry and Dennys Murry.
The book begins with the line, "It was a dark and stormy night.", an allusion to the opening words in Edward George Bulwer-Lytton's 1830 novel Paul Clifford. The Murrys are visited by an eccentric old woman named Mrs. Whatsit, who has previously made the acquaintance of Charles Wallace. After drying her feet and having a midnight snack with Charles, Meg and their mother, Mrs. Whatsit tells an already perplexed Dr. Murry that "there is such a thing as a tesseract."
Shortly thereafter, Meg and Charles meet up with Meg's upperclassman schoolmate Calvin O'Keefe, who, although he is a stereotypical "big man on campus", turns out to be keen to join the children for further encounters with Mrs. Whatsit and her rather more eccentric friends Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which.
Whatsit, Who, and Which turn out to be transcendental beings (possibly angels), who transport Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin through the galaxy by means of tesseracts, which are explained as being similar to "folding" the fabric of space and time. It is revealed to the children that the galaxy is being conquered by a dark cloud, which is the visible manifestation of evil. Meg's missing father was working on a secret government project to achieve faster-than-light travel through a tesseract, and accidentally wound up on Camazotz, an alien planet inside the cloud of evil. The children also discover that Earth is partially covered by the darkness, although great religious figures, philosophers, and artists are fighting against it.
The children travel to Camazotz and rescue Meg's father, who is being imprisoned by an evil disembodied brain with powerful telepathic powers, which the inhabitants of Camazotz call "IT". However, Charles Wallace is mentally dominated by IT, and is left behind when the others flee the planet. After a brief period of recuperation, Meg is sent back alone, told that only she has the power to rescue Charles Wallace. Confronting IT, Meg realizes that she can free her brother by loving him intensely, because love is an emotion that IT in its evil cannot stand. Charles Wallace is freed, and everyone returns home to Earth.
Characters
Mrs. Whatsit
Mrs. Whatsit is described as being an elderly woman wrapped in layers of clothes. She first appears in chapter one. Charles Wallace, a five year old boy in the book, found her in a haunted house in the woods, where she has been living with her two friends, Mrs. Who and Mrs Which. Mrs. Whatsit is the youngest of the Mrs. W's, and the best of the three at interacting with the children.
In chapter 11, the group (Charles Wallace, Calvin, and Meg) finds that the Mrs. W's are really gaurdian angels, or stars that exploded.
Mrs. Who
Mrs. Who is described as being a plump woman with giant spectacles. She is often seen quoting in different languages such as Latin, Spanish, German, and a variety of others.
She is first introduced in Chapter 2. She lives with Mrs. Whatsit and Mrs Which in the haunted house behind the Murry Household.
Mrs. Which
Mrs. Which is the oldest of the Mrs. W's. She is normally seen as being just a beam of light. She is almost always (if not all the time) not fully materialized.
She finds it hard to think as a corporeal being. In Chapter 5, she accidentally brought Charles, Meg, and Calvin to a 2-D world.
Christian content
On the planet Uriel, the centaur-like beings sing a song which translates: "Make a new song to the Lord, and let his praise be sounded from the end of the earth" (Isaiah 42:10).
When the three strange women reveal their secret roles in the cosmic fight against "the darkness" they ask the children to name some on Earth (a partially dark planet) who fight the darkness. First named is Jesus followed by several scientists and artists including Buddha, Gandhi, Bach, Einstein and Euclid. The three women act as guardian angels but are actually ancient star-beings. They think nothing of living in an abandoned house and pretending to be witches as they have nothing to prove.
After the escape from Camazotz, Alexander Murry tells Meg, "...we do know that all things work together for good to those who love God" (Romans 8:28)
L'Engle's liberal Christianity is unsettling to some. A Wrinkle in Time is number 22 on the American Library Association's " 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000" [1]
Notable Quote
"Like and equal are not the same." Meg's thoughts on seeing the anti-individualism on the planet Camazotz.
Other books in the series
L'Engle has written three other books featuring this generation of the Murry family. Listed in order of the internal chronology of the series:
See also: List of L'Engle's works for other related books.
Concerning A Wrinkle in Time
- Scholastic BookFiles: A Reading Guide to A Wrinkle in Time ISBN 0439463645
- Chase, C. Suncatcher: A Study of Madeleine L'Engle and Her Writing, pg. 170. Innisfree Press, 1998.
Television movie
In 2003, a television adaptation of the novel was made by Disney. The movie was directed by John Kent Harrison, and the teleplay was written by Susan Shilliday.
The film was subsequently released on DVD. The special features included deleted scenes, a "behind the scenes" segment, and a "very rare" interview with Madeleine L'Engle who discusses the novel.
Cast
- Katie Stuart as Meg Murry
- Gregory Smith as Calvin O'Keefe
- David Dorfman as Charles Wallace Murry
- Chris Potter as Dr Jack Murray
- Kyle Secor as the Man With Red Eyes
- Sean Cullen as the Happy Medium
- Sarah-Jane Redmond as Dr Dana Murray
- Kate Nelligan as Mrs. Which
- Alison Elliott as Mrs. Who
- Alfre Woodard as Mrs. Whatsit
Other Cultural References
On the ABC Television show Lost, the character Sawyer reads the book.
Notes
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