"The Circular Ruins" () is a

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

by Argentine author

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo ( ; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish literature, Spanish-language and international literatur ...

. First published in the literary journal '' Sur'' in December 1940, it was included in the 1941 collection ''

The Garden of Forking Paths "The Garden of Forking Paths" (original Spanish title: "El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan") is a 1941 short story by Argentina, Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges. It is the title story in the collection ''El jardín de senderos que ...

'' () and the 1944 collection ''

Ficciones ' (in English: "Fictions") is a collection of short stories by Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges, originally written and published in Spanish between 1941 and 1956. Thirteen stories from ''Ficciones'' were first published by New Direc ...

''. It was first published in English in '' View'' (Series V, No. 6 1946), translated by

Paul Bowles Paul Frederic Bowles (; December 30, 1910November 18, 1999) was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator. He became associated with the Moroccan city of Tangier, where he settled in 1947 and lived for 52 years to the end of his ...

. Since publication, it has become one of Borges's best-known stories. The story is about a man who gradually dreams another man into existence in the ruins of an ancient temple. Though he is successful, the dreamer realizes at the story's conclusion that he himself is someone else's dream. Critics have interpreted "The Circular Ruins" as exploring themes of philosophical

idealism Idealism in philosophy, also known as philosophical realism or metaphysical idealism, is the set of metaphysics, metaphysical perspectives asserting that, most fundamentally, reality is equivalent to mind, Spirit (vital essence), spirit, or ...

Gnosticism Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek language, Ancient Greek: , Romanization of Ancient Greek, romanized: ''gnōstikós'', Koine Greek: Help:IPA/Greek, �nostiˈkos 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced ...

kabbalism Kabbalah or Qabalah ( ; , ; ) is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. It forms the foundation of Mysticism, mystical religious interpretations within Judaism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ...

, and creativity.

Plot

A man arrives by canoe at the burned ruins of an ancient temple. The temple is centered on the statue of an ambiguous deity that appears to be a tiger or a horse. The man immediately falls asleep; his goal, the narrator reveals, is to "dream a man with minute integrity and insert him into reality." Local villagers bring the man food, and he spends most of his time sleeping in the ruins. At first, the man dreams that he is addressing a group of pupils on anatomy, cosmography, and magic; he hopes to find among his pupils "a soul which would merit participation in the universe." The man eventually narrows the group of students down to a boy who resembles him, but soon finds himself stricken with insomnia and unable to continue dreaming. After taking a rest to regain his strength, the man attempts a different tactic: he begins to dream a man piece by piece, beginning with his heart and slowly adding other organs and features. The process takes over a year and is painstaking. Frustrated, the man consults the temple's deity, which in a dream is revealed to be a multifaceted deity known as "Fire" that also can appear as a bull, a rose, and a storm. Fire promises the man that he will bring the dreamed one into reality, and that everyone but Fire and the dreamer will believe the conjured man to be flesh and blood. Fire demands that after the conjured man's education is finished he be sent to another ruined temple downstream "so that in this deserted edifice a voice might give glory to the god." The man spends two years instructing the conjured man, whom he comes to view as his son. Though he secretly dreads their separation, the man eventually sends his son to the second temple. Before he does so, though, he destroys his son's memory of his apprenticeship, "so that he would never know he was a phantom, so that he would be thought a man like others". The man remains at his temple and hears word from travelers of his son, who is reportedly able to walk on fire without being burned. Though the man still worries his son will find out his true origins, his fears are interrupted by a forest fire that emerges from the south and envelops the ruined temple. Accepting death, the man walks into the flames. He feels no pain and realizes "with relief, with humiliation, with terror" that he too is an illusion, and that someone else is dreaming him.

Themes

''The Circular Ruins'' deals with themes that recur in Borges's work, particularly

and the manifestation of thoughts in the "real world". The story draws on a wide range of religious influences. Several critics have observed that the story appears to echo the idea from the Christian

Gnostic Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek: , romanized: ''gnōstikós'', Koine Greek: �nostiˈkos 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced in the late 1st century AD among early Christian sects. These diverse g ...

tradition that, in the words of scholar David C. Howard, "behind every creator lurks another creator."Soud, Stephen E
"Borges the Golem-Maker: Intimations of 'Presence' in 'The Circular Ruins.'"
''MLN'', vol. 110, no. 4, 1995, pp. 739–54. JSTOR. Accessed 10 Aug. 2023. According to Borges scholar Mac Williams, the main character of the dreamer explicitly uses the language of

Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism ( ), also called Mazdayasnā () or Beh-dīn (), is an Iranian religions, Iranian religion centred on the Avesta and the teachings of Zoroaster, Zarathushtra Spitama, who is more commonly referred to by the Greek translation, ...

, in which fire is considered the purest element. Scholars have also noted the story's similarity to the

kabbalistic Kabbalah or Qabalah ( ; , ; ) is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. It forms the foundation of mystical religious interpretations within Judaism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal (). Jewi ...

Jewish legend of the

golem A golem ( ; ) is an animated Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic being in Jewish folklore, which is created entirely from inanimate matter, usually clay or mud. The most famous golem narrative involves Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the late 16th-century ...

, in which mortal men are able to recreate the moment of the divine creation of life. Finally, it also may draw on the

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

idea that the world is an illusion. The story's epigraph is taken from Chapter 4 of ''

Through the Looking-Glass ''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'' is a novel published in December 1871 by Lewis Carroll, the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a mathematics lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford, Christ Church, University of Oxford. I ...

'' by

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...

: "And if he left off dreaming about you ...". It comes from the passage in which Tweedledee points out the sleeping Red King to Alice, and claims she is simply a character in his dream.Howard, David C
"Mind as Reality: Borges' 'The Circular Ruins' and Garcia Marquez' ''One Hundred Years of Solitude.''"
''CLA Journal'', vol. 23, no. 4, 1980, pp. 409–15. JSTOR. Accessed 10 August 2023. For the story's theme that life may only be a dream or illusion, critics have noted antecedents including

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

's '' Timaeus'' (c. 360 BCE),

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's ''

The Tempest ''The Tempest'' is a Shakespeare's plays, play by William Shakespeare, probably written in 1610–1611, and thought to be one of the last plays that he wrote alone. After the first scene, which takes place on a ship at sea during a tempest, th ...

'' (c. 1610),

Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño (17 January 160025 May 1681) (, ; ) was a Spanish dramatist, poet, and writer. He is known as one of the most distinguished Spanish Baroque literature, poets and ...

's '' La vida es sueño'' (1635),

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

's ''

The Mysterious Stranger ''The Mysterious Stranger'' is a novella by the American author Mark Twain. He worked on it intermittently from 1897 through 1908. Twain wrote multiple versions of the story; each involves a supernatural character called "Satan" or "No. 44", enc ...

'' (1908), and

John Fowles John Robert Fowles (; 31 March 1926 – 5 November 2005) was an English novelist, critically positioned between modernism and postmodernism. His work was influenced by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, among others. After leaving Oxford Uni ...

's '' The Magus'' (1965). Borges scholar Arnold M. Penuel describes the story as a "creation myth which paradoxically demythologizes human creativity", comparing it to the way in which

Miguel de Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ( ; ; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was a Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelist ...

's ''

Don Quixote , the full title being ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'', is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and is of ...

'' is a

chivalric romance As a literary genre, the chivalric romance is a type of prose and verse narrative that was popular in the noble courts of high medieval and early modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a chivalri ...

that also demythologizes the chivalric tradition. Though the story's dreamer believes he is creating another man in a supreme act of self-assertion, the experience paradoxically leads him to realize he is himself a dream, shattering his sense of identity.Penuel, Arnold M
"Paradox and Parable: The Theme of Creativity in Borges' 'The Circular Ruins.'"
''Latin American Literary Review'', vol. 17, no. 34, 1989, pp. 52–61. JSTOR. Accessed 10 August 2023. Furthermore, though the story initially appears to implicitly endorse Platonic or Berkeleyan

—the notion of a world of ideal forms that transcends the immediately perceptible world—it ironically undercuts this philosophy by showing that the world, too, is an unstable dream.

Influence

"The Circular Ruins" has become one of Borges's best-known stories. Critic David C. Howard argues that Colombian novelist

Gabriel García Márquez Gabriel José García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian writer and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th centur ...

was influenced by this story and other work by Borges in the writing of his 1967 novel ''

One Hundred Years of Solitude ''One Hundred Years of Solitude'' (, ) is a 1967 in literature, 1967 novel by Colombian people, Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez that tells the Family saga, multi-generational story of the Buendía family, whose patriarch, José Arcadio ...

'' (''Cien años de soledad''), in which several characters are able to dream people or events into existence. The story has also been cited as a forerunner of the reality-bending work of science fiction author Philip K. Dick. Along with another Borges story, "

The Secret Miracle "The Secret Miracle" () is a short story by Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges. The story focuses on an author condemned to death. At the moment of his execution, time freezes, allowing him to finish his masterpiece, though only within his ...

", "The Circular Ruins" was an influence on the

Christopher Nolan Sir Christopher Edward Nolan (born 30 July 1970) is a British and American filmmaker. Known for his Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Blockbuster (entertainment), blockbusters with complex storytelling, he is considered a leading filmma ...

science fiction film ''

Inception ''Inception'' is a 2010 science fiction action heist film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who also produced it with Emma Thomas, his wife. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a professional thief who steals information by inf ...

'', in which characters move between reality, dreams, and dreams-within-dreams. Artist Perry Hall's painting film ''Circular Ruin'', a circle of paint that grows and recedes in a continuous cycle of creation and destruction, was influenced conceptually by Borges's work. In their book ''Gender Trouble'',

gender studies Gender studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analysing gender identity and gendered representation. Gender studies originated in the field of women's studies, concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. The field n ...

philosopher

Judith Butler Judith Pamela Butler (born February 24, 1956) is an American feminist philosopher and gender studies scholar whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics, and the fields of third-wave feminism, queer theory, and literary theory. In ...

uses the story as an

allegory As a List of narrative techniques, literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a wikt:narrative, narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political signi ...

for how gender is

socially constructed Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives fro ...

. In another of Borges's stories, "

An Examination of the Work of Herbert Quain "An Examination of the Work of Herbert Quain" (original Spanish title: "Examen de la obra de Herbert Quain") is a 1941 short story by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. It was included in the anthology ''Ficciones'', part one (''The Garden of Fo ...

", Borges jokingly states that he derived "The Circular Ruins" from the work of the fictional author Herbert Quain.Lorich, Bruce
"Borges's Puzzle of Paradoxes."
''Southwest Review'', vol. 58, no. 1, 1973, pp. 53–65. JSTOR. Accessed 14 Aug. 2023.

References

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Circular Ruins 1940 short stories Short stories by Jorge Luis Borges Works originally published in Sur (magazine)

Plot

Themes

Influence

See also

References

Bibliography