Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Scientific Discovery and Technological Innovation
Freedom vs. Constraint
Human Intelligence and its Limits
Exploration, Imperialism, and Conquest
Nature vs. Civilization
Summary
Analysis
On the next day, November 9, Arronax wakes after a long and peaceful sleep. He goes to the saloon but cannot find Nemo, and thus spends time looking at the marine plants gathered in the glass cases. On the following day, Nemo is once again absent. Arronax, Ned, and Conseil are confused; the situation feels surreal. On November 11, the Nautilus resurfaces in order to stock up on oxygen. Arronax is on the vessel’s deck when an officer comes up to him, says a phrase that Arronax doesn’t understand, and walks away.
Nemo claimed that he was happy to explain everything about how the vessel worked to Arronax, but it also seems as if he is deliberately keeping much of the vessel’s operations mysterious. Indeed, maintaining this level of obscurity helps Nemo retain power over the captives.
Themes
Five days pass; each morning Arronax goes up to the deck, where the same officer says the same thing. Nemo is still missing. On November 16, Arronax finds a letter in his cabin. The letter is from Captain Nemo; it is an invitation to a “hunting party” on the island of Crespo. Ned enthusiastically exclaims that they should accept the invitation, but adds that once he gets back on dry land he will not be going back to the Nautilus. Consulting a star chart, Arronax establishes that their destination is a small, deserted island discovered by Captain Crespo in 1801.
Nemo appears to treat the ocean as a kind of playground where he and the members of his crew are the only humans around. Although on one level this could be seen as a marker of ultimate freedom, it is also a profoundly isolated mode of existence. The novel raises the question, then, as to whether freedom is worth it when bought at such a price.
Themes
The next day, Arronax wakes to find the vessel still. Nemo is waiting for him in the saloon, and the two men eat breakfast together. After eating a little, Nemo reflects that it is possible for a man to survive underwater so long as he has a steady supply of oxygen; however, this is a somewhat confined existence, as the man remains totally tethered to his oxygen supply, without which he cannot survive. Nemo hopes to be freed by something called the Rouquayrol apparatus, which was invented by two Frenchmen. It is an iron tank that a person wears on their back containing a store of air that is accessed through rubber breathing tubes.
For Nemo, the only drawbacks of a totally underwater existence are practical. If he can find a way to breathe underwater, then he evidently would prefer never to come up to the surface at all. In a sense, Nemo’s rejection of human society means that he doesn’t even want to be human, but would rather be a sea creature and thus be totally in harmony with the water.
Themes
In addition to experimenting with the Rouquayrol apparatus, Nemo has also been using the Ruhmkorff burner, a light that the attaches to his waist that works as a kind of special deep-sea lantern, allowing him to swim in the deep sea and actually see where he’s going. Arronax is impressed, but says he has one final question, regarding the gun that he will carry during the hunting trip. Nemo describes a special gun with electrified bullets invented by an Austrian, which can kill any animal, no matter how large. Satisfied, Arronax says that he is now ready and eager to join the expedition.
Nemo combines a commitment to science and nature in an unusual and novel manner. Often people presume that embracing scientific technology puts a person at odds with the natural world. Yet as Nemo demonstrates, the two can actually operate together in a synthesized manner—by wearing the Rouquayrol apparatus and Ruhmkorff burner, Nemo is effectively imbued with superhuman abilities and becomes one with the natural world around him. Still, it’s clear from Nemo’s desire to hunt and collect specimens that he is driven to exert control over other creatures rather than to merely observe and coexist with them.
Themes
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