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In Jorge Luis Borges short story “Death and the Compass”, there are two main characters -Lцnnrot and Scharlach- that are by and large ascribed as two sharply opposing figures. However, if one analyses the story in detail, he would easily see that these characters share a lot of common features in their personality and way of thinking as well as some of their personal background; though one is an detective and the other one is a gangster. Both Lцnnrot and Scharlach share the same part of the body if we look at the situation from a Janusian point of view, in which there is one body, one head but two faces. Those two faces, one looking at the sunrise while the other looking at the sunset, are Scharlach and Lцnnrot in this story (Sturrock 59).
The God Janus (the god of duplicity) has a deep impact on the story. The symmetry this god shows is present in the villa of Triste-le Roy (Borges 138). This villa plays a great role in the understanding of the two similar antagonists of the story (Ostergard par 24). The synchronized villa we are told in the story has got many mirrors and labyrinthine style decoration which leads to an expected end, that is, the murder on Lцnnrot by Scharlach.
The villa of Triste-le Roy, the final scene of the story, plays an important role in the series of murders that take place; in the name of achieving the Tetragrammaton as the symbol on the map.
Everything starts with the accidental murder, which takes place in a hotel in northern part of Buenos Aires, which is followed by planned murders of two other people; and finally the murder of Lцnnrot. The murder of a rabbi takes place and this is the event that triggers the bullets out of the gun that Scharlach points at Lцnnrot. Thanks to the robber that accidentally kills the rabbi that Scharlach -the other side of Janus- starts killing other people in the Tetragrammaton periodically.
Although it is rabbis murder and its being published in the paper as a religious murder, it is also a part of chance that leads to the planning of other murders in this labyrinth of possibilities; the chance factor that Lцnnrot tries to put out (Ostergard par 21). When Scharlach reads the rabbinical murder in the paper he realizes that it is Lцnnrot who is investigating the murder and he plans to take his revenge by deceiving him in this event.
The plans Scharlach prepares contain the Tetragrammaton and Lцnnrots investigation in the system of Spinoza. Scharlach changes the flow of events by putting two extra murders in the revenge to complete the symbol. Lцnnrot on the other hand, tries to see the accidental murder as a planned murder in the secret name of Jehovah which is symbolized as Tetragrammaton. To investigate this murder systematically and to reach a logical result, Lцnnrot uses Spinozist point of view and becomes the pure-reasoner of the story (Bloom 25).
The Tetragrammaton, both Lцnnrot and Scharlach are involved in, is an ancient symbol that is used especially and ancient Greece and Israel. The four corners of the symbol lead us to the secret name of the god, which is JHVH. This is one of the Jewish symbols in the story, perhaps the strongest one. It has a direct connection with the murders and the plan of revenge. Although it is Scharlach who undertakes the project of Jehovah, it is the chance that rabbi had written “the first letter of the name is uttered”. Not only the first letter sign but also the date is a chance in this murder.
The murder of the rabbi takes place on the third of December; but this corresponds to the fourth of December in the Jewish calendar. The sign of four comes into being again with the date. Although at a part of the story, Baruj Spinoza sends a letter to commissioner, which later reaches to Lцnnrot, and says that there will not be a fourth murder (Borges 135), the symbol hidden behind the days of the month signals another murder. Not only because the name contains [in Hebrew alphabet] four letters, but also because the ideal world can only be achieved by the four signs of compass (according of Judaism).
The compass plays a very important role in the story, especially on the map. The murders take place on a perfect Tetragrammaton that is in the shape of a compass in this Borgesian story. Although the letter detective receives implies that there will not be any other murder and shapes the murder places in a perfect triangular, in the end we see that the murders take the shape of a rhombus(compass shape), which can be interpreted like the way that leads to the perfect future; for Scharlach it is revenge. After the rhombus is complete on the map, the janusian labyrinth is broken and the god Janus no more has two faces in this story. Although one face is down, the names still have the janusian effect.
Both Scharlach and Lцnnrot names contain interestingly the meaning “red” in them (Bloom 24). Scharlach means “the scarlet fever” and the last syllable of Lцnnrot means “red” in German. This is the last point they meet in similarities; but they have some distinct features as well.
To start with, Erik Lцnnrot is a detective who has arrested Scharlachs brother, thus gained a very dangerous enemy. Being and anti-oedipal character, he is an outstanding person in the story (Gargett par 15). He knows that he will die, but he does not do anything against it, thus accepts his destiny, rather than trying to escape like Oedipus.
One can say that he falls into a trap that is organized by Scharlach, but it seems like he commits suicide (Bloom 24). His accepting his destiny can be a result of this suicide idea as well. There is a trap for Lцnnrot, but this does not necessarily mean that he goes there blindfolded to be killed.