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Chapters 13–16

Summary: Chapter 13: Aouda

Fogg, Passepartout, and Cromarty learn that the captive woman’s name is Aouda. She is the daughter of a rich English merchant who lived in Bombay. When her father died, she was forced to marry the old Indian rajah. The men make a plan to hide in the trees near the pagoda until nightfall, hoping to slip past the Brahmins in the dark to rescue the woman. Seeing that all entrances to the pagoda are heavily guarded and the Brahmins are drunk, Passepartout comes up with another plan to rescue Aouda. Early in the morning, he takes the place of the rajah’s body on the pyre and waits quietly. Just as the pyre is about to go up in flames, he rises and runs away with Aouda. Confused, the crowd thinks the old rajah has come alive again and watches in awe as he walks away with his “wife.” The Brahmins, eventually realizing what happened, chase after Fogg and his group, shooting bullets and arrows at their elephant, but it’s too late. The group escapes.

Summary: Chapter 14: Phileas Fogg Gains a New Travel Companion

Aouda, still groggy from being drugged by the priests, realizes she’s now with strangers. Passepartout feels pleased with the success of his mission, but Cromarty warns that Aouda is only temporarily safe: As long as she’s in India, she’s at risk of being captured and sacrificed. Miraculously, they all arrive at the train station in Allahabad on time. Fogg sends the Parsee man off, paying him for his service and handing him his elephant back as a gift. On their way to Calcutta, Fogg offers to take Aouda out of India so she won’t be recaptured. He invites her to Hong Kong. Aouda takes Fogg up on his offer, saying she has a cousin, Jeejeeh, in Hong Kong she can stay with. Cromarty departs at the station in Benares, bidding the group goodbye. Fogg feels pleased to realize that even though he lost two days traveling across India, he gained two days traveling from London to Bombay, so he’s still on schedule as he arrives in Calcutta.

Summary: Chapter 15: A Day in Court

The chapter opens with Fogg and Passepartout being greeted by a policeman at the train station in Calcutta. The policeman takes them to jail, where they wait to appear before a judge. In the courtroom, three Brahmin priests appear before judge, charging Fogg and Passepartout with violating a holy place. Thinking the priests are the ones who captured Aouda, Fogg readily admits his guilt, saying he was only doing what he thought was best since a woman was about to be sacrificed. Confused, the priests explain that they are from Bombay and hand over Passepartout’s shoes as evidence. Passepartout yells out for his shoes, implicating himself. Fogg then realizes that these are the priests who Passepartout offended in Bombay, not the Hindu priests from the forest. Detective Fix had bribed the priests to follow Passepartout from Bombay to Calcutta to detain Fogg and Passepartout.

Since Fogg and Passepartout both admitted their “guilt,” the judge, explaining that English law strictly protects Indian religions, sentences Passepartout to fifteen days in jail and a 300-pound fine and sentences Fogg to seven days in jail and a 150-pound fine since masters are responsible for their servants. Fogg offers bail in return. The judge sets bail to 1,000 pounds for each man, which Fogg happily pays. Fix, realizing Fogg values his time more than money and will happily pay bail, becomes frustrated. Passepartout, Fogg, and Aouda reach the harbor with one hour to spare to board the ship the Rangoon to Hong Kong.

Summary: Chapter 16: Detective Fix’s Predicament

Fogg, Passepartout, and Aouda sail on the Rangoon from India to Hong Kong. Passepartout and Aouda swap stories about their lives, and Passepartout tells Aouda all about Fogg’s 20,000-pound bet. Fogg sits quietly the entire time, barely speaking. Detective Fix is also on the steamer, hiding in his cabin. Fix is becoming anxious realizing that after the group leaves Hong Kong, they’ll be out of an English-ruled country and it will become more difficult to capture Fogg once out of English jurisdiction. Fix ponders whether he should reveal his identity to Passepartout. Fix has deduced that Passepartout was likely not an accomplice to the robbery, since he’s so forthright about Fogg’s plans and seems genuinely unaware of Fogg’s motivations. He weighs whether he should engage Passepartout’s cooperation. Fix approaches Passepartout, and this time, Passepartout is more suspicious of Fix. Passepartout asks Fix why he’s on the boat after he said he was only heading to Bombay. Fix says he’s going to Hong Kong, too. Easily satisfied with this simple reply, Passepartout chats about his and Fogg’s adventures in India and how they now have a woman with them. This raises more questions for Fix, but he decides to refrain from asking any more questions to avoid rousing any more suspicion.

Analysis: Chapters 13–16

In Chapters 13–16, readers begin to see the relationship between Fogg and Passepartout develop and their strengths and weaknesses come into sharper focus. It’s Fogg’s valiant idea to save Aouda, but it’s Passepartout’s clever plan that allows them to carry it out. Furthermore, Passepartout is willing to get “dirty” replacing the prince’s body with his own in the pyre and patiently waits for his time to strike, while Fogg typically gets them out of trouble by paying people off or offering them rewards, staying “clean.”

Fogg and Passepartout begin to both demonstrate and prove their sense of honor. Fogg proves his honor by both wanting to save Aouda and generously gifting the Parsee man back his elephant after paying him for the animal and his services as a guide. Clearly, money is not as important to Fogg as the achievement of a personal goal. Passepartout demonstrates his sense of honor by risking his life to carry out Fogg’s desire to save Aouda. Such an action reveals that Passepartout takes his duties as a servant seriously. His loyalty to Fogg goes far beyond the home: Passepartout is willing to align his goals with Fogg’s and views doing so as a natural outcome of being a gentleman’s servant.

Verne’s depiction of the landscape of India and the people living there reflects the complicated and shifting cultural perspectives and values of the nineteenth century brought on by the British imperialist expansion into the Asian and African continents. The Indian terrain beyond the railroad tracks is depicted as wild and frightening, the Hindu priests as savage and ferocious, and their customs as primitive, backward, and appalling. Verne doesn’t leave much room for nuance here. This depiction is very much in line with what British merchants stationed in India were likely reporting back to England, and Verne doesn’t do much to complicate this depiction. The Hindus remain stock characters representing the stereotypical and untrue ideas the British had about them. Such representations of Hindus and their religion, a complicated system stretching back thousands of years, would seem quaint and, more importantly, unacceptable now.

Aouda represents the intersection between Britain and India and between the modern and undeveloped world. Aouda stands at the crossroads between two cultures: Her father was likely British, and she received an English education, but she is the wife of a member of the upper caste of India. She’s given over to the Hindu priests once her father dies, suggesting that she may have been set up as a pawn between her father to settle some debt he owed to them. Aouda fulfills her duty as the rajah’s wife but is unwilling to go as far as to sacrifice her life to take on the dictates of her religion. She remains a complex figure stuck between two worlds.

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