Modernity, Time, and Control Theme Analysis

In Around the World in Eighty Days, wealthy eccentric Phileas Fogg utilizes modern innovations in transportation to complete the once-impossible feat of circling the globe in under three months. The novel takes place in 1872, just after the Industrial Revolution. During this time, steam power, machine tools, and other technological marvels changed the way that human beings lived, worked, and traveled. New modes of transport such as steamships and trains allowed people to journey greater distances much more efficiently, a change that causes Ralph (one of Fogg’s whist partners) to remark that the world seems to have grown physically smaller since “a man can now go round it ten times more quickly than a hundred years ago.” As a result, people’s perception of time fundamentally changed—it was now a valuable resource that could be controlled, manipulated, and optimized. Fogg, machine-like in his obsession with schedule, punctuality, and precision, is an archetypal representation of this modern attitude toward time. Verne critiques this mindset by showing that the self-imposed struggle against time that Fogg and his servant, Jean Passepartout, engage in is futile and even harmful. Their preoccupation with staying on schedule distracts them from more meaningful pursuits, and time remains a random, uncontrollable force despite their efforts to transcend its limitations.

Prior to his journey around the world, Fogg is utterly fixated on precisely scheduling and routinizing every aspect of his life, yet this obsession with optimization causes more harm than good. Fogg attempts to control his time by becoming perfectly synchronized with the complicated, detailed clock he owns and anticipating every moment of every day. Even his footsteps “beat to the second, like an astronomical clock.” In attempting to exert control over his time, he has entirely assimilated with his clock, and has become more akin to a machine than a man. Fogg’s obsession with time, then, is a detriment rather than an asset to his life. His strict routine is dehumanizing, preventing him from maintaining relationships with “either relatives or near friends” or pursuing new experiences. His life is entirely solitary and devoid of any meaningful purpose. By portraying Fogg as a hyper-efficient, yet lonely and empty individual, Verne suggests that living one’s life in such a safe, calculated manner may be regressive, rather than progressive.

Fogg’s obsession with time continues as he wagers £20,000 that he can circle the globe in just eighty days, and he and Passepartout both become wholly and detrimentally consumed by their efforts to use time to their advantage. Fogg keeps meticulous notes of their time lost and gained on the journey, remaining calm whenever an obstacle is thrown his way because he has “constantly foreseen the likelihood of certain obstacles.” This calculated attitude, however, does not prevent them from losing time (and nearly losing the wager entirely). The success of the trip is largely out of his control, and his obsession with time merely stands in the way of him enjoying the locations they pass through, as he only interacts with people by necessity and is more concerned with making good time than pausing to embrace uncertainty and experience new places

Passepartout, though lighthearted and spontaneous compared to Fogg, also becomes obsessed with time and control throughout their trip. He insists on maintaining a sense of order by keeping his watch set on London time, and experiences a great deal of emotional turmoil over every delay they face. Although Passepartout is more interested than Fogg in seeing the world around him, his preoccupation with their schedule makes the journey stressful for him, rather than enjoyable.

Though Fogg and Passepartout are obsessed with their deadline and thus take on an adversarial relationship with time, the itinerary that Fogg has meticulously scheduled out ultimately proves to be futile, as it does little to guarantee their success. Throughout the journey, Fogg places his faith in the technology that allows him to take on the superhuman feat of circling the globe in eighty days. Yet they constantly face unforeseen circumstances caused by nature or human error—storms at sea, unfinished railroads, trouble with the law, and senseless violence all throw them off course regardless of their desperate efforts to cheat time. Fogg believes that he can preplan for these obstacles by perfectly utilizing the time he has allotted for himself, yet he does not foresee the International Date Line, a mistake that nearly causes him to lose the wager at the end of the novel. It is merely by coincidence and the random nature of time, rather than planning, that Fogg realizes his mistake and wins the challenge.

By showing that Fogg and Passepartout’s efforts to control time ultimately stand in the way of their enjoyment of their travel and daily lives, Verne critiques modern people’s tendency to become more routinized and mechanized in their habits, mirroring the machines they rely upon. The novel questions the industrialized world’s reverence for technology and obsession with efficiency and optimization by demonstrating that, even with the help of great innovative feats, time still has more control over humans than humans have over it.