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
When Arronax wakes up, he finds Ned and Conseil still asleep. He is disheartened to see that they all remain inside the prison cell, although he notices that their dinner dishes have been cleared away. He panics about the oxygen levels in the cell, which must be diminishing. To his relief, he manages to find a pipe that leads to a ventilator. His investigation of the room is stopped by Ned and Conseil waking up. Ned asks if it’s dinnertime, and Arronax replies that he believes it is morning, and that they “have slept clear round the clock.” Painfully hungry, the men await their next meal impatiently. They shout, but nobody answers. When, after two hours, the door finally opens, Ned attacks the person who comes inside. Arronax is shocked to hear the stranger addressing him politely in French.
The contrast between Arronax’s panic about the lack of oxygen—clearly triggered by being both inside a mysterious vessel and inside a prison cell within that vessel—is a distinct contrast to the sense of freedom illustrated by Mobilis in Mobili. Whereas the submarine itself may enable the commander and crew to freely roam the ocean, the vessel also effectively functions as a prison for the panicked Arronax, Ned, and Conseil.
Themes
Literary Devices
