“I consider it most irresponsible to leave these madmen in the care of female nurses. This is the second murder…the second accident in the medical establishment known as Les Cerisiers…On the twelfth of August a certain Herbert Georg Beutler, who believes himself to be the great physicist Sir Isaac Newton, strangled Dorothea Moser, a nurse…And in this very room. If they’d had male attendants such a thing would never have happened.”
The inspector’s remarks imply that the nurses’ murders are attributed to their femaleness. He contemplates that the female nurses are naturally weaker; hence, they are easily killed by the patients all of whom are masculine. Additionally, the inspector implies that male nurses would easily overwhelm the male patients.
“ I simply can’t stand disorder. Really it was my love of order that made me become a physicist…- to interpret the apparent disorder of Nature in the light of a more sublime order.”
Newton’s confession affirms his fixation of orderliness which is a key aspect of the real Isaac Newton. He depicts himself as an orderly man who would not tolerate disorderliness. His ultimate object in life is to uphold tidiness.
“Anyone who takes life is a murderer, and we have taken life. Each one of us came to this establishment for a definite purpose. Each of us killed his nurse, again for a definite purpose. You two did it so as not to endanger the outcome of your secret mission; and I because Nurse Monika believed in me. She thought I was an unrecognized genius. She did not realize that today it’s the duty of a genius to remain unrecognized. Killing is a terrible thing. I killed in order to avoid even more dreadful murder."
Mobius’ confession affirms that they are play-acting their insanity. They are sane individuals who resort to murder to conceal their true psychological status. Moreover, the murders which they orchestrate are well planned: the murders are not attributed to insanity. Being in the sanatorium safeguards them from exposed are ingenious individuals; their ingenuity is a threat for them.
