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
Arronax rushes up to the platform. He asks Nemo if they are at the South Pole, but Nemo isn’t sure. Along with Conseil, the two men set to work observing the local plants, sea creatures, and birds, including penguins. Arronax notices that Nemo seems “impatient and vexed.” They pass some walruses, which Conseil doesn’t recognize because he has never seen them before. They also see seals, which Arronax thinks look like elegant women. They hear the walruses making loud sounds, and Arronax speculates that they are playing. It is March 20, the day before the spring equinox. Nemo observes that the next day, they will be able to measure by the light whether they are at the exact spot of the South Pole.
The peculiar situation of the captives continues: while they remain miserably imprisoned, the delights of the natural world are so wonderful that they succeed in momentarily distracting them from their plight. Nemo’s hope to reach the exact point of the South Pole, meanwhile, conveys a hint of the colonial explorer’s desire to “conquer” the earth.
Themes
Literary Devices
The next morning, Arronax invites Ned to join the observation, but he refuses. Ned has been seeming increasingly miserable and furious by the day. After breakfast, Arronax joins Nemo and two crew members on a boat, bringing measuring instruments with them. Passing whales, they arrive at their destination at nine a.m. As Nemo measures their location, Arronax heart hammers in anticipation. He shouts for joy as they realize they are indeed exactly at the South Pole. Nemo solemnly announces that he has “take[n] possession” of the South Pole, doing so by no authority other than his own.
The moment of sheer triumph at having reached the South Pole is moving, but it quickly turns sinister as Nemo confirms his similarity to colonizers who seek to claim land as their own. Of course, there is an extent to which Nemo’s act is tongue-in-cheek; yet his despotic nature suggests that there is indeed a part of him that wants to truly “possess” the South Pole.
Themes
