78 pages • 2 hours read
Madeleine L'EngleA Wrinkle In Time
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1962A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
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Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
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BetaChapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Mrs. Whatsit”
A Wrinkle in Time opens on “a dark and stormy night” (3). Meg lies awake, thinking about how much she dislikes herself and her life. Most of all, she thinks about how much she wishes her father would come back. He disappeared some time ago without explanation, and Meg misses him fiercely.
Unable to fall back asleep, Meg goes downstairs to the kitchen to make cocoa. Charles Wallace and her mother are there, and Charles Wallace heats milk for cocoa. Meg marvels at how Charles Wallace always seems to know what she is thinking or doing. Meg’s anxiety about the storm wanes, replaced by concerns for how people make fun of Charles Wallace. Charles Wallace doesn’t talk to people outside of his family, and the way people look at him like he’s stupid infuriates Meg.
Charles Wallace wants to tell someone called Mrs. Whatsit about Meg. When pressed, he won’t reveal anything else about this mystery person, but before Meg or her mother can ask again, Mrs. Whatsit, an old woman wearing an odd assortment of clothes, shows up at their house. The Murrys express concern about her being out in the storm, to which Mrs. Whatsit responds, “wild nights are my glory” (21). Mrs. Whatsit has a sandwich, shakes the water out of her boots, and takes her leave, telling Meg’s mother, “there is such a thing as a tesseract” (21). Meg’s mother goes pale.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Mrs. Who”
The next morning dawns sunny with no evidence of the night’s storm. Meg dismisses Mrs. Whatsit as a dream and heads down for breakfast, where her mother informs Meg she didn’t dream the events of last night. Meg’s other brothers, Sandy and Dennys, tell her not to take everything so seriously and to “use a happy medium” (24).
Meg is distracted at school all day, gets in trouble in class, and is sent to the principal’s office. When she gets home, Charles Wallace wants to go see Mrs. Whatsit and her friends at the haunted house (an abandoned house nearby) to “find out more about that tesseract thing” (28) because it upset their mother. On their way, they meet Calvin O’Keefe, a boy a few years older than Meg. Charles Wallace asks Calvin what he’s doing there, and Calvin responds he had a compulsion to “come over to the haunted house” (33). Charles, Meg, and Calvin continue to the haunted house, where they meet Mrs. Who. Like Mrs. Whatsit, she’s a little old woman, and she wears “enormous spectacles, twice as thick and twice as large as Meg’s” (35).
Mrs. Who is cryptic, speaking partly in quotations. She gives her approval of Calvin and tells them it’s coming up on the time for them to help Mr. Murry. Mrs. Who shoos the children away, and the three head to the Murry house for dinner.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Mrs. Which”
On the way home, Meg feels happy, though she doesn’t understand how or why. Calvin finds he fits in perfectly with Meg’s family. After dinner, Calvin and Meg go for a walk and discuss Meg’s father. She tells him her father used to write every day but then the letters “just stopped coming” (51). Charles Wallace interrupts their conversation, saying he thinks they’re going “to find father” (53). Mrs. Who and Mrs. Whatsit appear from nowhere, accompanied by a third presence that appears only as a shimmer in the moonlight. Charles Wallace introduces the shimmer as Mrs. Which.
Chapters 1-3 Analysis
These opening chapters introduce the major characters and main conflict of A Wrinkle in Time. Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin form a triad and face challenges together for most of the story. Each brings a specific strength to their group: Meg, her stubborn refusal to give in; Charles Wallace, his telepathic abilities; Calvin, his ease of communication. With the help of the Mrs. Ws, the children set off on the story’s main conflict: finding and rescuing Mr. Murry from the darkness overtaking the universe.
Meg is the protagonist and has much to overcome, both emotionally and physically. Her undisciplined nature contrasts sharply with Charles Wallace’s adult-like demeanor. Charles Wallace possesses wisdom far beyond his years and reads Meg’s emotions, helping her to cope with herself, as well as with meeting the Mrs. Ws. Calvin represents a call to action. His compulsion to go to the haunted house brings him together with the Murrys, forming a strong and sudden familial bond. Like Charles, Calvin possesses gifts that are beyond basic human capabilities, which results in the two boys understanding one another on some higher level.
The Mrs. Ws serve as guides throughout the story. Each takes one of the children under their wing: Mrs. Whatsit, Meg; Mrs. Who, Calvin; Mrs. Which, Charles Wallace. We never learn who or what the ladies are, but it is implied that they embody the light and goodness in the universe.
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