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Chapter 18
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Around the World in Eighty Days, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Modernity, Time, and Control
Imperialism
Chance, Adventure, and Human Connection
Honor, Reputation, and Duty
Summary
Analysis
The narration remarks that Hong Kong was transformed by the “colonizing genius of the English” into “an important city and an excellent port.” Walking around the city, Passepartout marvels at the diverse population.
Still suspecting Detective Fix of being a spy from the Reform Club, Passepartout asks him whether he will join them as far as America. Fix replies yes, and Passepartout has Fogg secure him a cabin. Fix decides that now is the time to confess his identity and motivations to Passepartout. He takes him to an opium smoking-house and tells him that he is a detective pursuing Fogg, whom he suspects of robbing the Bank of England.
Passepartout’s suspicion of Fix is ironic, since it is Fix’s ongoing doubt of Fogg that causes Passepartout to question Fix’s credibility. Fix knows that confessing could sabotage his efforts; his decision to do so shows just how committed he is to catching Fogg and upholding his reputation as a detective.
Themes
Passepartout rejects Fix’s suspicions and tells him that Fogg is “the most honorable of men.” Fix threatens to arrest him as an accomplice unless he helps to keep Fogg in Hong Kong until the warrant arrives, but Passepartout stays loyal to Fogg and refuses to betray him. Fix decides to slip an already drunk Passepartout an opium pipe in order to make him pass out, rejoicing that Passepartout will not wake up in time to let Fogg know that the Carnatic steamer is departing for Yokohama.
The genuine connection Passepartout shares with Fogg is clearly of more importance to him than the public’s opinion of his master. Though Fix should act morally as a member of the police force, his decision to drug Passepartout demonstrates his hypocritical willingness to commit a wrongdoing against another person in order to get the outcome he wants.
Themes
