A Wrinkle in Time

Thirteen-year-old Meg Murry’s classmates and teachers see her as a troublesome and headstrong student. Her family includes her gorgeous scientist mother, her missing scientist father, her active 10-year-old twin brothers, Sandy and Dennys; and her five-year-old brother Charles Wallace Murry, a child prodigy who can seldom read Meg’s mind.

 Unable to sleep during a thunderstorm, Meg descends from her attic room to find Charles Wallace sitting at the table drinking milk and eating bread and jam. They are then joined by their mother and are visited by their new strange neighbor, Mrs. Whatsit. During their conversation, Mrs. Whatsit plainly mentions ‘there is such a thing as a tesseract’, which causes Dr. Murry to almost faint. The next morning, Meg discovers the term refers to a scientific concept her dad was working on before his mysterious disappearance. Later, Meg and Charles Wallace meet Meg’s classmate, Calvin O’Keefe, a high-school junior who, although he is a “big man on campus”, considers himself a loner as well. They then go to visit an old haunted house near town which Charles Wallace already knows is the home of Mrs. Whatsit. There they confront a companion of Mrs. Whatsit, the equally strange Mrs. Who. She promises that she and her friends will help Meg find and rescue her father. At night, Charles Wallace declares it is time for them to go on their mission to save their father. This is accompanied by the appearance of the third member of the “Mrs. Ws”, Mrs. Which, who appears to materialize out of nothing.

Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which turn out to be supernatural beings who transport Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O’Keefe through the universe by means of the tesseract, a fifth-dimensional phenomenon explained as being similar to folding the fabric of space and time. Their first stop is the planet Uriel, a Utopian world filled with Centaur-like beings who live in a state of light and love. Mrs. Whatsit herself shows that she, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which are all these centaur-like creatures in disguise as humans. There the “Mrs. Ws” reveal to the children that the universe is under attack from an evil being who appears as a large dark cloud called The Black Thing, which is essentially the personification of evil. The children are then taken elsewhere to visit a woman who is a medium (the “Happy Medium”) with a crystal ball. In it, they see that Earth is partially covered by the darkness, although great religious figures, philosophers, and artists have been fighting against it. Mrs. Whatsit is revealed to be a former star who exploded in an act of self-sacrifice to fight the darkness.

The children then travel to the dark planet of Camazotz, which has “given in” to the Black Thing. Meg’s father is trapped there. They find that all the inhabitants behave in a mechanistic way and seem to be under the control of a single mind. At the planet’s central headquarters (described as CENTRAL Central Intelligence), they discover a red-eyed man with telepathic abilities who can cast a hypnotic spell over their minds. He claims to know the whereabouts of their father. Charles Wallace deliberately looks into the red eyes of the man, allowing himself to be taken over by the mind-controlling planet in order to find their father. Under its influence, he takes Meg and Calvin to the place where Dr. Murry is being held prisoner because he would not succumb to the group mind. The planet turns out to be controlled by an evil disembodied brain with powerful telepathic abilities, which the inhabitants of Camazotz call “IT.” Charles Wallace takes them to the place where IT is held. In such close proximity to IT, the children are threatened by a possible telepathic takeover of their minds. With special powers from Mrs. Who’s glasses, Dr. Murry is able to “tesser” Calvin, Meg and himself away from Camazotz, but Charles Wallace is left behind, still under the influence of IT. Dr. Murry does not know how to protect Meg from the Black Thing which surrounds the planet as they tesser through it, which nearly kills her. When they arrive on the neighboring planet of Ixchel, Meg is nearly frozen and paralyzed. Calvin and the Murrys are discovered by the planet’s inhabitants, large, sightless “beasts” with tentacles and four arms, who prove both wise and gentle. Meg’s paralysis is cured under the care of one inhabitant, whom Meg nicknames “Aunt Beast.” Meg overcomes her anger at her father for leaving Charles Wallace on Camazotz, realizing that parents can’t fix everything, and sometimes children can solve problems themselves.

Then the trio of Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which arrive. They charge Meg with rescuing Charles Wallace from IT because only Meg has a strong enough bond with him. Their father had last seen Charles Wallace when he was a baby and Calvin had only just met him. They each give her a gift. Mrs. Whatsit gives Meg her love. Mrs. Who quotes to Meg a passage from the Bible about God choosing the foolish of the world to confound the wise, and the weak to defeat the strong. Mrs. Which tells Meg that she has one thing that IT does not have. Upon arriving at the building where IT is housed, Charles Wallace is still there under IT’s influence. Meg realizes that the one thing she has that IT does not is love. She focuses all her love at Charles Wallace and is able to free him from IT’s control. Mrs. Who, Mrs. Which, and Mrs. Whatsit tesser the Murrys and Calvin back to Earth. In the vegetable garden, they are reunited with Mrs. Murry and the twins. Mrs. Whatsit says that, although she and the others like the spectacle of the family reuniting, they have to go somewhere. Before Mrs. Whatsit finishes her sentence, she and the others disappear.

 

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