20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Themes

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

Underwater Exploration as an Exploration of the Self

At first pass, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a novel about undersea exploration, but it is far more than that. As the men on the Nautilus explore the oceans of the world, they also explore their fears, emotions, goals, and personal issues. Aronnax is always absolutely enthralled by the sights of the underwater world, affirming his chosen profession and his constant curiosity. However, he also explores his relationship with the other men on the Nautilus and what it means to be a friend and comrade. In the end, Aronnax chooses his fellow captives, Conseil and Land, over Nemo despite Aronnax’s infatuation with the strange Nemo, and Aronnax chooses society over enchantment. Ned Land better understands his relationship with the land as the novel progresses. Momentarily, Land’s “self” may be content to hunt and gaze underwater, but this seascape is not his home, and Land grows more and more miserable as the chapters roll on. Most significantly, it appears that Nemo has taken to the ocean depths to come to terms with his personal history. The solitude and autonomy of the Nautilus give him the separation and quiet he needs, but his isolation is not entire. Nemo still “banks” the treasure he pillages. He still interacts with other ships, sometimes aggressively. Nemo cannot escape his past simply by exploring the deep. It’s not that easy. No matter how deep Nemo dives, he cannot hide from his reality or cure his anger and pain.

Shunning Civilization and Political Resistance

Captain Nemo has severed nearly all ties with civilization and has physically separated himself from the world of humans. He depends on no one but himself and his crew. Except for those dozen men, whose number is reduced by two during the novel, Nemo does not interact with other people until the three captives, Aronnax, Conseil, and Land, appear. Although Aronnax and readers never fully understand the reasons for Nemo’s self-imposed isolation, there are hints throughout the novel about its psychological source. Nemo identifies with the name of the sunken vessel the Avenger and later shouts about being both the oppressed and the oppressor. Several times, he sympathizes with oppressed native people, whom some in the story call savages. However, Nemo does break his own rule several times. For example, Nemo saves a pearl diver and gives him a bag of pearls, and he also communicates with the diver who handles the chest of gold ingots, so Nemo’s isolation is not entirely complete. When he sinks the warship at the end, Nemo is motivated by political and personal revenge. In the stories he tells of shipwrecks, Nemo always sympathizes with the underdogs who fight valiantly but sometimes chose self-destruction over surrender. For Nemo, living on the Nautilus is both a personal and political choice.

The Results of Hate and Revenge

Nemo is a character of secrets. Readers may wish that they could see the manuscript that he writes about his life history that he refers to in Part II, Chapter XIX. Aronnax certainly does. Without its details, Aronnax and readers are left to piece together hints and clues about Nemo’s life that are dropped like crumbs, sometimes inadvertently. Nemo identifies with the ship the Avenger. He seems to carry a huge grudge against some government, country, person, or political power on which he seeks revenge. In the final pages of the novel, Aronnax speaks several times of the hatred he observes in Nemo’s face and actions. Nemo himself declares, “All that I hate is there!” when he looks at the warship five or six miles away. No matter how isolated he is, he cannot escape this hatred and need for revenge. Nemo’s hate eats him alive. It makes him sad and angry. This hate is the source of the melancholy that Nemo tries to process when he plays his organ. This hate flares sometimes when Nemo talks to Aronnax and something said in the conversation triggers it. Nemo’s hate and thirst for revenge are his downfall. When Nemo speaks his final words of the novel, “Almighty God! Enough! Enough!” Aronnax wonders if he is expressing remorse. Nemo could also be expressing how oppressive it is to carry around so much hatred and vengeance, for Nemo, by his own admission, is a man who is oppressed by his past.

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