Skip to main content
2 of 4
Added a comment to clarify the relatively elementary nature of the solution.
Ian Iscoe
  • 311
  • 2
  • 5

The desired result appears in M.H.A. Newman's classic book, Elements of the Topology of Plane Sets of Points (2nd ed., 1951), as Theorem 14.5 in Chapter VI, on pg. 164:

Theorem 14.5: Every simple arc in $X^2$ is an arc of a simple closed curve in $X^2$.

$X^2$ is Newman's notation for a space that is either the "open" plane, $R^2$, or the "closed" plane", $R^2 \cup \{\infty\}$.

N.B. The proof of Theorem 14.5 does not involve Schoenflies' Theorem.

Ian Iscoe
  • 311
  • 2
  • 5