Around the World in Eighty Days

by

Jules Verne

Clocks Symbol Icon

Around the World in Eighty Days was published in 1873, just after the Industrial Revolution. During this period, Western society made a general shift away from a predominately agrarian way of life and toward urbanization, factory work, and modern modes of transportation. As a result of this more mechanized and routinized lifestyle, time became an increasingly important presence in people’s day-to-day activities, as they now had to keep exact time in order to perform their work and navigate their cities successfully (wristwatches came about in 1868 for this reason). This modern reliance on time is evident in the clocks that Phileas Fogg and his servant Jean Passepartout obsessively focus on throughout the novel. Fogg synchronizes his entire life down to the second based on the complicated clock he keeps in his house which keeps track of the hours, minutes, seconds, days, months, and years. He also keeps meticulous track of the time lost and gained during his journey around the world in eighty days. Passepartout, too, becomes preoccupied with time; he is plagued with anxiety over every delay throughout their journey and refuses to change his watch over from London time. These clocks serve as a constant, ticking reminder of man’s futile efforts to harness control over time and the rest of the natural world using technology. Fogg and Passepartout’s fraught fixation on clocks and watches represents the broader societal shift happening around their contemporary period, as modernization changed people’s relationship with time and caused them to adapt their lives to abide by the new machines they relied upon.

Clocks Quotes in Around the World in Eighty Days

The Around the World in Eighty Days quotes below all refer to the symbol of Clocks. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Modernity, Time, and Control Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

“Ah, we shall get on together, Mr. Fogg and I! What a domestic and regular gentleman! A real machine; well, I don’t mind serving a machine.”

Related Characters: Jean Passepartout (speaker), Phileas Fogg
Related Symbols: Clocks
Page Number: 8
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

“I see how it is,” said Fix. “You have kept London time, which is two hours behind that of Suez. You ought to regulate your watch at noon in each country.”

“I regulate my watch? Never!”

“Well then, it will agree with the sun.”

“So much the worse for the sun, monsieur. The sun will be wrong, then!”

Related Characters: Jean Passepartout (speaker), Detective Fix (speaker), Phileas Fogg
Related Symbols: Clocks
Page Number: 21-22
Explanation and Analysis:
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Around the World in Eighty Days PDF

Clocks Symbol Timeline in Around the World in Eighty Days

The timeline below shows where the symbol Clocks appears in Around the World in Eighty Days. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
Modernity, Time, and Control Theme Icon
...is eccentric and extremely particular about his daily schedule, meals, and habits—he carefully observes a clock in his house that displays the hours, minutes, seconds, days, months, and years. Mr. Fogg... (full context)
Chapter 2
Modernity, Time, and Control Theme Icon
Chance, Adventure, and Human Connection Theme Icon
...whether he will live up to Fogg’s strict standards. In his bedroom, Passepartout finds a clock that is synced with Fogg’s and a schedule that details his mater’s whereabouts and his... (full context)
Chapter 8
Modernity, Time, and Control Theme Icon
...carpet-bags. Passepartout asks Fix not to let him miss the steamer, refusing to reset his watch even when Fix points out that it is still set on London time, two hours... (full context)
Chapter 11
Modernity, Time, and Control Theme Icon
Chance, Adventure, and Human Connection Theme Icon
...stresses over the time. Like Detective Fix, Sir Francis suggests that Passepartout should change his watch from London time, but he refuses. (full context)
Chapter 24
Modernity, Time, and Control Theme Icon
Passepartout is glad to be rid of Detective Fix, and smugly notices that his watch (which he refused to adjust at Fix’s suggestion) now matches up perfectly with the ship’s... (full context)
Chapter 37
Modernity, Time, and Control Theme Icon
Chance, Adventure, and Human Connection Theme Icon
...all 360 degrees of the Earth, Fogg unknowingly gained twenty-four hours throughout his trip. Passepartout’s watch, which he kept on London time throughout the journey, displayed the correct time but not... (full context)