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
During this time, the narrator (Pierre Arronax) returns to New York from a scientific expedition in Nebraska. He is an assistant professor at the Museum of Natural History in Paris, and spent half a year in Nebraska on the orders of the French government. Arronax is immediately aware that the incident involving the Scotia is one of the most important issues of the time. People do not believe that the mass the ships encountered is an island, because if this were true, it wouldn’t have been able to move at such great speed. Instead, people theorize that the Scotia collided with a gigantic shipwreck.
Narrating Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea through the perspective of a scientist significantly shapes how the story is imparted to the reader. Rather than having a narrator with naïve or limited knowledge—and thus partially restricting the reader’s access to the novel’s events—a scientist narrator has an unusually high level of expertise, meaning that the reader should theoretically get the most informed version of the story.
Themes
Different governments around the world all insist that they had no involvement with the mysterious mass, and after extensive inquiries, it is declared that the mass could not possibly be a submarine built by any national military. As the author of a book entitled Mysteries of the Unsounded Depths Undersea, Arronax is asked for advice. On April 30, the New York Herald publishes an article in which Arronax shares his view on the matter. He claims that, if the monster is a type of being already known to humanity, then it is probably an enormous narwhal. Theoretically, such a gigantic narwhal would have a tusk that could create the hole discovered in the Scotia and other ships that collided with the “monster.”
Here the reader is reminded that, while Arronax might be an expert with an unusually extensive knowledge of the deep sea, he doesn’t know what the monster is for sure. Like others, all he can do is speculate. Importantly, his speculation should be better informed than a layman’s interpretation. Yet faced with such a mysterious object, it’s debatable whether it’s even possible to engage in rational and realistic speculation.
Themes
Arronax concludes that he supports the notion that the monster is a narwhal, unless it doesn’t exist at all, which is unlikely but possible. He explains that he arrived at this cautious conclusion because he does not want to risk losing his good reputation as a scientist. Following Arronax’s statement, there was a frenzy of speculation regarding what mysterious, fantastical creature could be living undetected in the ocean.
This passage hints at the limitations of scientific knowledge, particularly for explaining totally unknown and unprecedented phenomena. Arronax has to make a cautious, rational guess in order to protect his reputation as a scientist—yet it’s possible that a more outlandish and imaginative approach might be necessary.
Themes
The U.S. is the first country to launch a search for the monster, and does so with aggressive enthusiasm. However, from this point on the monster is nowhere to be found. Finally, on June 2, a steamer heading to Shanghai from San Francisco encounters the creature again. Arronax is immediately invited to board a U.S. naval ship, the Abraham Lincoln, to join the search for it.
At this point, it’s clear that the search for the monster is incredibly significant not just for the public and the scientific community, but for the U.S. military. At this point in the mid-19th century, exploration, scientific discovery, and the mysteries of the unknown are of the utmost importance to all realms of society.
Themes
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