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Part 1, Chapter 19
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
On the first day of 1868, Conseil greets Arronax by wishing him a happy New Year. Arronax wonders if the new year will end their “imprisonment.” By the next day, they are approaching the northeast coast of Australia. Arronax continues gathering samples of marine life. They cross a treacherous zone of rocks but, miraculously, the Nautilus “slide[s] by the rocks like magic.” However, shortly after a large jolt alerts Arronax that the Nautilus has struck something. Nemo remains calm, and tells Arronax that they have not experienced an “accident,” but rather just an “incident.” He explains that they must wait for the tide to push them off the ground back into the water.
Arronax’s experience aboard the “Nautilus” is contradictory. On one hand, the situation is bleak: he is a captive forced into exile who has been told that he will die in the “prison” of the vessel. At the same time, living on the submarine is also a kind of all-expenses-paid research trip with the best technology and opportunities on Earth freely available to him. In this sense, the novel takes an ambiguous stance toward freedom versus constraint—even if one is physically confined against their will, it seems that they can still retain freedom in other ways.
Themes
Ned announces that he doesn’t think the Nautilus will ever move again. Conseil suggests that they ask Nemo for permission to walk around on land for a little while, and to Arronax’s surprise, Nemo agrees. Arronax, Conseil, and Ned command a small boat. Ned is ecstatic at the prospect of eating real meat. He says that he will eat whatever he finds on the island, which is called Gilboa.
The area the Nautilus is now in is the Torres Strait, a strip of water dotted by islands between Australia and Papua New Guinea. Given Nemo’s distaste for human society and desire to keep Arronax and the others captive, it’s surprising that he’s willing to let them explore Gilboa, since the island may or may not be inhabited. Perhaps Nemo doesn’t consider a remote place such as this to be civilized in the same way that Western nations are, which could potentially suggest either prejudice or admiration for indigenous people on Nemo’s part.
Themes
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