Secret Morphology and a Vicious Series: Form and Pattern in BorgesFord Maddox Ford famously thought that an author should open with "the note which suggests the whole book." In the story "Death and the Compass," Borges's third sentence accomplishes this: "But he has guessed," he writes of his detective protagonist Erik Lönnrot, "the secret morphology of the vicious series." Indeed, the fixation on figure and form, pattern and symmetry – by conformation – is fundamental to Borges' story. This is not surprising: after all, the equidistant triangle connecting the locations of the three enigmatic crimes on the city map is “the key” that solves the mystery. But even in the less high-profile locations, geometric shapes are pervasive: the Hotel du Nord is a "high prism"; the paint shop that is the backdrop to the second murder displays "yellow and red diamonds"; the kidnappers in Harlequin costumes show off "yellow, red and green diamond designs". think of the “rectangular” water of the adjacent dock basin, and of the “rectangular belvedere of the villa of Triste-le-Roy; the “quadrilateral prison” and “that perverse cubicle of Rue de Toulon”. ; the distorted contours of reality have fit into neat, parallel lines, which makes sense, because Lönnrot is a creator of forms. When Police Commissioner Treviranus suggests that the first victim, Rabbi Yarmolinsky, was killed by accident. that the intended victim was probably the wealthy Tetrarch of Galilee who was staying in an adjacent room and that the thief had simply entered the wrong room, Lonnrot rejects the theory. “In the hypothesis you postulate, chance intervenes to a large extent,” he says. “A rabbi has died. I would prefer a purely rabbinical explanation... in the middle of the paper... of the Yiddsche Zeitung that you were examining Yarmolinsky's writings to find the key to his death", Sharlach tells Lönnrot. This is a peculiar thing to do, but Sharlach he understands, because that's what he probably would have done: find a structure in everything. This further deepens Borges' comment. Because in this final scene, in this confrontation between investigators, Borges does not contrast Lönnrot with an Other; opposite mirror, against a reflection of himself. Note the language Borges uses to describe them: Sharlach is “indifferent,” showing “fatiguing triumph” and great “sadness”; Lönnrot feels “an impersonal, almost anonymous sadness.” he last metonymic twist, Lönnrot's hamartia is his undoing: with Lönnrot's personal pistol in hand, Sharlach “took a few steps back. Then, very carefully, he fired.”