Fix

Fix is the detective whose mistaken identification turns Phileas Fogg’s journey into a pursuit as well as a race against time. He follows Fogg across continents, at first trying to delay him until an arrest warrant arrives, then helping clear obstacles from his path when the pursuit’s circumstances change. The contrast between those two strategies defines Fix: he acts less from certainty about Fogg’s guilt or innocence than from the changing demands of his police assignment.

Identity and Introduction

Fix is a detective sent from England to search for the robber of the bank. A dispatch signed by Fix identifies Fogg as the man sought and asks that an arrest warrant be sent to Bombay. In response, the polished gentleman’s photograph at the Reform Club is scrutinized against the description of the robber. His solitary habits and sudden departure are reinterpreted as evidence of a plan to escape detection. The narrative thus establishes the central error that governs Fix’s pursuit: ordinary features of Fogg’s journey come to seem incriminating once the detective’s identification supplies a suspect.

At Suez, Fix waits among the crowds for the arrival of the Mongolia. He is described as small and slight, with an intelligent, nervous face and bright eyes beneath twitching eyebrows; he paces rather than standing still. His assignment is to inspect arriving passengers and follow anyone who resembles the description sent from London. The prospect of a substantial reward for success intensifies his impatience. Fix’s watchfulness is practical, but it is also charged with expectation: every arriving face might end the pursuit, and every delay extends it.

Identification and Pursuit

When a passenger asks for directions to the English consulate and offers a passport for a visa, Fix takes the document and quickly reads its bearer’s description. It matches the bank robber’s description exactly. The man explains that the passport belongs not to him but to his master, Fogg. The resemblance gives Fix a target, but the passport itself does not establish that Fogg committed the robbery; the gap between a matching description and proof drives the mistaken pursuit forward.

Fix later tells Passepartout that he is a police detective sent by the London office, rather than an agent of the Reform Club. The disclosure makes explicit what had previously been concealed from Fogg’s servant: Fix has been following Fogg as a suspected criminal. At Yokohama, Fix goes to the English consulate and finally finds the warrant, which had followed him from Bombay aboard the Carnatic, the steamer on which he had been supposed to travel. By then Fogg has left English territory, so the warrant cannot be used there; Fix concludes that he must pursue him across the Atlantic and seek his arrest on his return to England. He also reckons that Fogg’s travel, rewards, trials, bail, elephants, and other expenses have already cost more than five thousand pounds, and wonders how much money will remain.

Tactics and Conflict with Passepartout

Before that reversal, Fix has deliberately tried to keep Fogg from getting ahead of the warrant. In a private conversation with Passepartout, Fix acknowledges that he sent the Bombay priests after Fogg, got Passepartout intoxicated in Hong Kong, separated him from his master, and caused Fogg to miss the Yokohama steamer. Passepartout listens with closed fists: Fix’s account turns a series of setbacks into the results of purposeful interference. The pursuit has not merely shadowed Fogg; Fix has worked to alter the journey’s course so that the law might catch up with its suspect.

That conversation also exposes the limits of Fix’s opposition. He tells Passepartout that he still thinks Fogg a rascal, but that he will now try to keep obstacles out of Fogg’s way rather than putting them there. His reason is jurisdictional and self-interested: Fix expects Fogg to return to England, where the warrant can be used, and believes that both men have an interest in discovering there whether Fogg is a criminal. Passepartout, who has already thrashed him, is initially wary; Fix’s composure and explanation persuade him that Fix is speaking in good faith. Their relationship shifts from physical hostility to a temporary, conditional alignment, without resolving the underlying question of Fogg’s guilt.

Arrest and Release

Fix’s change of tactics does not prevent the final arrest. When Fogg reaches Liverpool on 21 December, six hours from London, Fix comes up to him, puts a hand on his shoulder, shows the warrant, and arrests him. The moment gives the long pursuit its apparent conclusion: after crossing the world, Fogg is stopped on English ground, where Fix’s warrant can take effect.

The conclusion proves premature. Fix soon hurries to Fogg with Passepartout and Aouda, out of breath and disordered, struggling to explain that the real robber was arrested three days earlier and that Fogg is free. The news reverses the meaning of Fix’s work: the warrant he had pursued across continents has detained the wrong man. Fogg responds with an unusually rapid movement and knocks Fix down with mechanical precision. Fix’s mistaken identification has shaped the journey and culminated in a wrongful arrest, while his final arrival brings the information that ends Fogg’s confinement.

Narrative Role

Fix’s pursuit supplies a second clock alongside Fogg’s wager. The warrant’s journey from Bombay to Yokohama, its uselessness outside English territory, and its eventual use at Liverpool make the timing and reach of law part of the travel plot. Fix repeatedly reads appearances through the assumption of guilt, while the narrative delays the decisive correction until after his arrest of Fogg. His eventual cooperation does not come from a newly stated conviction of Fogg’s innocence: Fix says that his interests have changed, and he continues to expect the truth to be settled in England. The eventual discovery of the real robber therefore resolves the mistaken identity that has driven his pursuit, while leaving Fix’s defining pattern intact: he changes course when the evidence and his position require it.