Genre
Short story
Setting and Context
A fantasy universe which is an infinitely large library
Narrator and Point of View
First person narration from an unnamed librarian. Footnotes added by a fictional editor are used a few times throughout.
Tone and Mood
Philosophical, cynical
Protagonist and Antagonist
Major Conflict
The narrator experiences internal conflict over whether he will find meaning in the universe before dying.
Climax
The narrator comes to the conclusion that the Library is infinite and the books within it are periodic, meaning there may be order to the universe.
Foreshadowing
Understatement
The narrator speaks in an understated tone about what will happen when he dies.
Allusions
The epigraph of the story comes from the text Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton and there are religious allusions throughout the text.
Imagery
The imagery in "The Library of Babel" is purposefully muted and repetitive since the setting is a library made of an infinite number of identical rooms.
