29 pages • 58 minutes read
Jorge Luis BorgesThe Library of Babel
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1941A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Labyrinths
Labyrinths are a recurring theme in Jorge Luis Borges’s literature (a 1962 collection compiling several of his short stories and essays was entitled Labyrinths), acting as symbols of the futility of searching for meaning and patterns in the universe. His stories feature physical labyrinths, but in their complex narrative structure, they are themselves labyrinthine, resisting easy categorization and universal explanations.
While the physical maze and the labyrinthine narrative structure are evident in many of Borges’s stories, in “The Library of Babel,” the Library represents a different kind of labyrinth—a labyrinth of knowledge, language, and infinite possibilities. The seemingly limitless shelves and incomprehensible texts within the Library evoke a sense of being lost in a labyrinth of information: “I declare that the Library is endless” (Paragraph 2). In both cases, whether within a physical maze or the boundless Library, Borges invites readers to contemplate the profound mysteries of existence and the limits of human understanding. Just as the labyrinth symbolizes death in some of Borges’s tales, the Library symbolizes the vastness of the unknown and the eternal quest for meaning and knowledge, echoing the labyrinth’s theme of existential challenge and exploration.
Books and Texts
In “The Library of Babel,” books emerge as potent symbols encapsulating the profound intricacies of human knowledge and language. The myriad books housed within the Library encapsulate the vastness of the universe itself, each book harboring a unique amalgamation of letters and words that exudes a sense of divine wisdom: “[T]he universe, with its elegant appointments—its bookshelves, its enigmatic books, its indefatigable staircases for the traveler, and its water closets for the seated librarian—can only be the handiwork of a god” (Paragraph 3). Within this boundless collection, some books contain concealed truths, while others are repositories of gibberish, mirroring the erratic nature of human comprehension and communication.
The quest for meaningful volumes serves as a metaphor for humanity’s timeless pursuit of meaning and truth amid the turbulent sea of information: “The certainty that some bookshelf in some hexagon contained precious books, yet that those precious books were forever out of reach, was almost unbearable” (Paragraph 10). These books symbolize the constraints of language and the inherent struggle of navigating the limitless expanse of knowledge, inviting readers to contemplate the elusive essence of wisdom and the unrelenting journey toward enlightenment.
Hexagons
In the story’s first sentence, the narrator declares that the Library is synonymous with the universe. This is not a standard or conventional view among librarians—it represents a succinct statement of his personal belief (explained at greater length later in the text) that the Library is infinite and thus comprises the whole of existence. In this context, the use of hexagons as the architectural pattern for the Library holds symbolic significance. Hexagons are a recurring pattern found in the natural world, such as the hexagonal cells of a beehive or the geological formations of the Giant’s Causeway. By employing hexagonal tessellation, Borges connects the architecture of the Library with notions of natural order and perfection.
The choice of hexagons also holds geometric significance. Hexagons are ideal for tessellating, seamlessly covering a plane with a natural and repeating pattern, unlike pentagons, heptagons, or octagons. Squares, while tessellating, would result in fewer walls for books if two doors were included in each room’s design. This structured environment resembles the bees in their hive, where individuality and existence outside the collective society or home are minimal. Bees diligently move from cell to cell, producing honey, while the librarians in the Library of Babel navigate from cell to cell in their endless exploration of books.
Related Titles
By Jorge Luis Borges
