Phileas Fogg–Fix relationship

The relationship between Phileas Fogg and Fix is shaped first by a mistaken identity and then by a change in what Fix believes will serve his duty. Fix pursues Fogg as a suspected bank robber, obstructing his journey while waiting for an arrest warrant; later, he helps protect the same man he has tried to detain. Their alignment never rests on Fix deciding that Fogg is innocent. Instead, it develops through shared circumstances, Fogg’s composure, and Fix’s eventual recognition that the case against him was mistaken.

Pursuit and Misidentification

When Fix reaches Yokohama, he goes to the English consulate and at last finds the warrant of arrest. It has followed him from Bombay aboard the Carnatic, the steamer on which he himself was supposed to travel. By then, however, Fogg has left English territory. Fix understands that the warrant cannot be used there and that securing Fogg’s extradition would be necessary. The delayed document gives the pursuit a legal as well as personal dimension: Fix has not abandoned his suspicion, but the authority he needs has arrived too late for the arrest he planned.

Fix decides to follow Fogg across the Atlantic, expecting him to return to England. His reasoning is practical and revealing. He believes Fogg is a criminal who thinks he has escaped the police, and he calculates that Fogg may still have money despite spending more than five thousand pounds on travel, rewards, trials, bail, elephants, and other costs. Fix continues to treat the journey as part of a criminal flight, not as evidence against his own theory.

He later explains to Passepartout how deliberately he had worked to delay Fogg while the party was on English ground. He sent the Bombay priests after him, got Passepartout intoxicated in Hong Kong, separated the servant from his master, and caused Fogg to miss the Yokohama steamer. Fix’s confession makes the pursuit’s consequences concrete: what looked like a succession of obstacles was, in part, the detective’s purposeful interference. His conduct is not a personal vendetta; he presents it as an attempt to hold a suspect until the warrant arrived.

A Tactical Alliance

The decisive change begins not with a change in Fix’s judgment of Fogg, but with a change in Fix’s plan. He tells Passepartout that he has stopped acting as Fogg’s adversary and will instead help keep obstacles out of his way. He remains convinced that Fogg is a rogue. England is still the place where Fix expects the question of guilt to be resolved, and he argues that he and Passepartout therefore have a shared interest in reaching it.

Passepartout listens with closed fists and initially asks whether Fix has become convinced of Fogg’s honesty. Fix’s answer is no: his cooperation is self-interested, not an acquittal. Yet Passepartout is ultimately persuaded that Fix speaks in good faith. Their exchange establishes the limited basis of the new alliance. Fix does not withdraw his accusation; he changes sides operationally because he now believes that helping Fogg reach England serves his own purpose better than delaying him.

Trust Under Pressure

The alliance acquires a more consequential test when Fogg prepares to join the rescue of prisoners. Fix asks to go with him. Fogg instead invites him to remain with Aouda in case anything happens to him, placing her and the precious carpet-bag in Fix’s care. For a detective who has followed Fogg step by step, staying behind means separation from the very suspect he has spent the journey pursuing. The narrative marks Fix’s conflict physically: his face turns pale, and he lowers his eyes before Fogg’s calm, frank look.

Fix agrees to stay. The choice does not prove that his suspicions have vanished; the evidence presents him as still struggling with them. But he accepts Fogg’s request and takes responsibility for Aouda rather than insisting on accompanying the rescue party. The moment shifts their relation from mere coordination toward provisional trust: Fogg entrusts him with a person and an important possession, while Fix accepts a role that temporarily places another’s safety ahead of keeping Fogg under immediate observation.

That trust remains unsettled on the journey back. At Queenstown, Fix is strongly tempted to arrest Fogg but does not do so. The narration leaves his reason open, asking whether he has changed his mind or understood that he made a grave mistake; it does not settle the question at that point. Fix nevertheless continues with the party. The hesitation matters because it delays the arrest without resolving the underlying accusation. His cooperation and his pursuit coexist until they reach Liverpool.

Arrest and Reversal

At Liverpool, Fix ends that suspension. As Fogg disembarks, only six hours from London, Fix approaches, places a hand on his shoulder, and shows him the warrant. The arrest comes at the moment when Fogg is close to completing his journey, restoring the original opposition between detective and suspect just as the remaining time becomes critical.

The reversal follows when Fix reaches Fogg with news that the real robber has been arrested three days earlier and that Fogg is free. Out of breath and disordered, he struggles to deliver the apology. Fogg responds with the one rapid motion attributed to him in the episode: he draws back his arms and knocks Fix down with mechanical precision. The blow makes the harm of the mistaken arrest bodily and immediate. Passepartout celebrates it, while Fix, on the floor, says nothing; the narration presents the blow as deserved.

Reconciliation and Its Limits

There is no immediate conversation in which Fix and Fogg settle their differences. Fogg, Aouda, and Passepartout leave the Custom House without delay to seek a train to London, and the missed express forces Fogg to order a special train. The pressing deadline leaves no room for a leisurely reconciliation, and Fix’s release of Fogg does not erase the delays and separations he earlier caused.

The relationship’s final measure comes after Fogg wins the wager. He has spent nearly nineteen thousand pounds on the journey, leaving one thousand pounds to divide between Passepartout and Fix. Fogg gives Fix a share despite the arrest and the deception that preceded it, and the narration specifies that he bears no grudge against the detective. The gesture does not make their conduct equivalent: Fix’s interference helped endanger Fogg’s schedule, while Fogg’s punch answers the arrest in the moment. Instead, the division of the remaining money closes the conflict without pretending that it never happened. Their arc turns on a distinction between suspicion and proof: Fix can assist Fogg while still believing him guilty, arrest him when the opportunity arises, and finally release him when the real robber is identified; Fogg can retaliate and still choose not to preserve resentment.