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
Two days later, the men are still at sea with no sign of land. Now that Axel has fully recovered from his time alone, Lidenbrock has lost his gentleness and returned to his agitated impatience. The sea has proved to be at least three times as large as Lidenbrock’s initial estimate, and he wonders aloud if they strayed from Saknussemm’s path. Axel tries to comfort him with the beauty of their surroundings, but Lidenbrock snaps that he cares only about reaching his goal.
Throughout the novel, Axel has paused to appreciate his new surroundings while Lidenbrock dismisses them in favor of pursuing scientific discovery. This speaks to Axel growing into his own man apart from Lidenbrock. Lidenbrock is a genius with an absolute commitment to progressing in his field. Axel, on the other hand, is a more ordinary young man content to enjoy the world for what it is.
Themes
The next day, Lidenbrock tries to measure the depth of the sea by casting down a long rope with a heavy pickaxe at the end. The rope does not reach the sea floor, and when he pulls it back up, the pickaxe is dented with teeth marks. Axel wonders what sort of monsters lurk under the water, and he spends the next day thinking about it. He believes that human eyes are not meant to see creatures that are so ancient. He resents Lidenbrock for trying to measure the sea and potentially disturbing the sea creatures.
The moment when the men see bite marks on the pickaxe emphasizes the danger of traveling through completely unknown terrain, with no knowledge of what might await them. Axel has been developing an appreciation and respect for nature throughout the journey, and here that respect starts to turn into a resentment of science’s clinical, detached approach to the natural world.
Themes
The following evening, a powerful wave throws the raft backwards. Hans calls the men’s attention to a spot several hundred yards away, where massive sea creatures swim around the sea’s surface and disturbs the water. Axel notes that the smallest of them could easily bite through the raft. As the animals move closer, Hans realizes that they are not a group: they are two animals fighting each other, one with the body of a serpent and the shell of a turtle, and one with the muzzle of a porpoise, the head of a lizard, and the teeth of a crocodile. Lidenbrock identifies these creatures as a plesiosaurus and an ichthyosaurus. The creatures continue to fight, raising huge waves, until the ichthyosaurus kills its opponent.
The discovery of surviving dinosaurs escalates the scientific significance of the adventure, as the men’s journey underground has effectively brought them to a place outside of time. Paleontology developed significantly as field in the 19th century. The first ichthyosaur and plesiosaur skeletons were identified in the early part of the century by paleontologist Mary Anning. Her discoveries provided people like Jules Verne an understanding of what dinosaurs might have looked like.
Themes
