The Garden of Forking Paths: Quotes That Drive the Plot

“. . . and I hung up the phone. Immediately I recollected the voice that had spoken in German. It was that of Captain Richard Madden. Madden, in Viktor Runeberg's office, meant the end of all our work and—though this seemed a secondary matter, or should have seemed so to me—of our lives also. His being there meant that Runeberg had been arrested or murdered.”

These lines, which open the portion of the story told in Yu Tsun’s voice, set the plot in motion and define the major antagonist of the piece. The inciting incident of the story occurs when Yu Tsun overhears Madden in Runeberg’s office before hanging up the phone. This moment introduces the story’s central conflict as it establishes Yu Tsun’s last day of freedom and Madden’s role as antagonist. Yu Tsun realizes that Madden’s choice to speak German rather than English means he knows that Runeberg is working for Germany. If Madden has captured or killed Runeberg, Yu Tsun will be next. The tension driving the story comprises Yu Tsun’s need to communicate secret information to the Chief, his overseer in Berlin, before he is himself arrested or killed, and this scene sets up the urgency of that mission.

“It seemed to me that the dew-damp garden surrounding the house was infinitely saturated with invisible people. All were Albert and myself, secretive, busy and multiform in other dimensions of time. I lifted my eyes and the short nightmare disappeared. In the black and yellow garden there was only a single man, but this man was as strong as a statue and this man was walking up the path and he was Captain Richard Madden.”

This moment in the text marks the end of the peaceful interlude of Yu Tsun’s hour with Stephen Albert and the approach of the climax of the story. From the time Yu Tsun’s train leaves the station up until this moment, he enjoys a temporary respite from his fear of Madden. He knows when Madden misses the train that he has a head start of at least 50 minutes. From the time he arrives at Ashgrove and begins walking to Albert’s house, the story takes on a gentle and quiet tone. Borges describes the beauty of the night and the magical quality of Albert’s library. Yu Tsun, knowing he will likely be killed soon, finds himself drawn into Albert’s description of his great-grandfather’s beliefs about time and reality. This passage begins with Yu Tsun imagining all the different versions of himself and Albert that exist as the paths of reality through this moment, before Borges breaks the peaceful isolation of the moment with the arrival of Madden, the story’s antagonist, who will arrest Yu Tsun and return the plot from its dreamy and contemplative philosophical tone back to a tense and urgent one, unique to spy thrillers.

“Albert rose from his seat. He stood up tall as he opened the top drawer of the high writing cabinet. For a moment his back was again turned to me. I had the revolver ready. I fired with the utmost care: Albert fell without a murmur, at once. I swear that his death was instantaneous, as if he had been struck by lightning.”

This moment marks the climax of the story. Seeing Madden approaching, Yu Tsun asks to see his great-grandfather’s letter again. Although foreshadowing of a shooting exists early in the story, when Yu Tsun reveals the revolver and bullet in his pocket, Borges gives no warning of or explanation for Yu Tsun’s seemingly sudden decision to kill Albert. The violence of the moment stands in marked contrast to the warmth of their conversation. Although Albert has mentioned that in some versions of this reality, they are enemies, Yu Tsun has repeatedly claimed to be his friend. Even the description of the shooting stresses the care he has taken to kill Albert instantly, without unnecessary pain. As the story goes on, Borges reveals Yu Tsun’s reason for killing Albert, but in this moment his action is unexplained; Borges’s decision to present the killing without context renders it a shocking plot twist.

“The secret name of the city to be attacked got through to Berlin. Yesterday it was bombed. I read the news in the same English newspapers which were trying to solve the riddle of the murder of the learned Sinologist Stephen Albert by the unknown Yu Tsun. The Chief, however, had already solved this mystery.”

This passage, in the last paragraph of the story, finally explains why Yu Tsun has gone to Ashgrove and killed Stephen Albert. At the beginning of the story, Yu Tsun finds himself about to be caught by Madden, who he believes will arrest or kill him before he is able to communicate to German intelligence the secret military information that may help them win the war. Although Borges describes many of Yu Tsun’s actions in a clear and straightforward manner, he does not explain what Yu Tsun looks up in the telephone book, why he goes to Ashgrove, why he describes Albert, a stranger, as the only one who can help him, or why he kills Albert without provocation. This passage makes sense of Yu Tsun’s unexplained actions. He has sought to get his name into the British newspapers he knows the Chief reads alongside the word “Albert,” hoping the Chief will recognize it as the name of a town in France, the location of the British encampment. He uses the telephone book to find someone with that name, goes to his house, and kills him in order to have that name reported alongside his. Because Stephen Albert is the one “Albert” he finds in the area, he is in that sense the only man who can help him accomplish his goal.

Next section The Non-Linear Nature of Time and Reality