Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Journey to the Center of the Earth, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Science and Discovery
Maturity and Independence
Intuition vs. Evidence
Nature vs. Civilization
Adventure
Summary
Analysis
Axel is struck with despair at the prospect of being buried alive. He tries to think of Gräuben and of Lidenbrock’s house in Hamburg, but they feel lost to him. He envisions the events that led to his isolation underground and decides that to have any hope in this situation would be delusional. He cries out for his uncle, knowing that Lidenbrock will be suffering while searching for him.
Axel’s worst fears about the journey are coming true, and he must face them alone. His home and the people he loves feel unreachable, and he sees no reason to hope for survival. He cries out for Lidenbrock not only because he needs him, but also because he knows Lidenbrock will miss him. This empathy and concern for Lidenbrock’s potential grief speaks to Axel’s maturity, in that he thinks of how other people will feel about his death.
Themes
Axel begins to think of Heaven. He thinks of his mother, who died when Axel was a child. He prays, unsure if God will know him after Axel has “forgotten him” for so long. Prayer calms him enough to take stock of his situation. He realizes that if he travels upward, he will eventually return to the crater of Snäffel. He ascends for only half an hour before his path is blocked by a granite wall. He begins to panic, and his fear worsens as his lamp starts losing its light. Axel is terrified of the darkness he will face, since darkness underground is far more absolute than darkness above the earth’s surface. When the light at last goes out, Axel loses all his senses. He wanders aimlessly for hours before falling against a wall and losing consciousness.
Religion is not discussed much in the novel, and Axel’s shame in “forgetting” God suggests that he and Lidenbrock have prioritized science over faith. This speaks to the fraught relationship between religion and science that escalated in 1859, when Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution challenged the Biblical creation story. Axel does not return to prayer after this moment of faith, but the calming effect of prayer suggests that religion can be valuable even to scientists. Axel is an anxious character, but he continues to try to think rationally and reach safety. Only when he exhausts all methods of escape does he despair.
Themes
