Maturity and Independence Theme Analysis

“[…] other distinguished geologists agree with [Poisson] in thinking that the interior of the globe is neither formed of gas nor water, nor of the heaviest minerals known, for in that case the earth’s gravity would be twice less.”

“Oh, figures can be made to prove anything!”

“And facts, too, my boy. Is it not unquestionable that the number of volcanoes has considerably decreased since the early days of the world, and if great central heat existed, would it be likely to get less powerful?”

“If you enter the field of suppositions, uncle, I have nothing more to say on the subject.”

“Axel, it is a grant thing to devote one’s self to science. What glory awaits Mr. Lidenbrock, and will be reflected on his companions! When you come back, Axel, you will be a man, an equal, free to speak, free to act, free too––”

The girl blushed, and did not finish the sentence.

“When science has spoken, it is for us to hold our peace.”

I went back to the parsonage, very crestfallen. My uncle had vanquished me by scientific arguments.

As a true nephew of Professor Lidenbrock, and notwithstanding my mental preoccupation, I was interested in observing the mineralogical curiosities displayed in this vast cabinet of natural history, and, at the same time, was going over in my mind the whole geological history of Iceland.

We were quite fit for this existence of troglodytes. I scarcely thought of sun, or stars, or moon, or trees, or houses, or towns, or any of those terrestrial superfluities which are necessary to sublunary beings. We were fossils now, and thought such useless marvels absurd.

“[…] if there is any law of increase in temperature, the heat here ought to be 1,500.”

“Ought to be, my boy.”

“And all this granite would be in a state of fusion, as it could not possibly remain in a solid state.”

“You see, however, that it is nothing of the sort, and that facts, as usual, give the lie to theories.”

How long this state of insensibility had lasted I cannot say, I had no longer any means of reckoning time. Never was solitude like mine, never was abandonment so absolute.

The whole fossil world lives again in my imagination. I go back in fancy to the biblical epoch of creation, long before the advent of man, when the imperfect earth was not fitted to sustain him. Then still further back, when no life existed. […] All life was concentrated in me, my heart alone beat in a depopulated world.

What another had done I would dare, and nothing to me seemed impossible.

The soul of the professor had passed into me. The spirit of a discoverer pervaded me. I forgot the past, I disdained the future! Nothing existed for me on the face of our planet, in whose bosom I was plunged, neither town nor country, neither Hamburg nor Königstrasse, nor my poor Gräuben, who must think me lost for ever in the bowels of the earth!

From that day my uncle was the happiest of sages, and I the happiest of men; for my lovely Virlandaise […] was installed in the Königstrasse house in double quality of niece and wife. I need not add that her uncle was the illustrious professor Otto Lidenbrock, corresponding member of all the scientific societies, geographical, and mineralogical […].