Previous
Literary Devices
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Part 1, Chapter 10: The Man of the Seas
Explanation and Analysis—The Odyssey:
Though subtle, Captain Nemo’s name is an allusion to Homer’s The Odyssey. In The Odyssey, Odysseus tells the Cyclops that his name is “Nemo,” an attempt at covering up his true identity (as “nemo” is Latin for “no one”). When Captain Nemo introduces himself at the beginning of the book, it is clear that he is also covering up his true identity:
“By what name ought I to address you?”
“Sir,” replied the commander, “I am nothing to you but Captain Nemo; and you and your companions are nothing to me but the passengers of the Nautilus.”
Related Themes:
Part 1, Chapter 19: The Island of Vanikoro
Explanation and Analysis—Imperialists:
Verne wrote Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea at the height of imperialism, and includes many allusions to imperialist leaders, such as the British navy captain James Cook, French admiral Louis Antoine de Bougainville and Portuguese commander Pedro Fernandes de Queirós (or, as Verne writes, “Quiros”). Aronnax spends a great deal of time logging the submarine’s location vis-à-vis places that such leaders had “discovered” years before, such as the following:
Unlock with LitCharts A+On the 25th of December the Nautilus sailed into the midst of the New Hebrides, discovered by Quiros in 1606, and that Bougainville explored in 1768, and to which Cook gave its present name in 1773.
Related Themes:
Part 1, Chapter 22: Captain Nemo’s Thunderbolt
Explanation and Analysis—Maritime Explorers:
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea incorporates a number of real historical events into its narrative, including references to famous maritime explorers, such as Matthew Fontaine Maury, Jean-François de Galaup (or “La Perouse”), and Dumont d’Urvill. For example, when the Nautilus reaches the South Pole in Part 2, Chapter 14, Aronnax connects the land they find to Maury’s theories:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The existence of this land seemed to give some colour to Maury’s theory. The ingenious American has remarked that, between the South Pole and the sixtieth parallel, the sea is covered with floating ice of enormous size, which is never met with in the North Atlantic.
Related Themes:
Part 2, Chapter 6: The Grecian Archipelago
Explanation and Analysis—Independence Movements:
Though subtle, Verne alludes to different anti-imperialist independence movements throughout the novel. For example, in Part 2, Chapter 6, Aronnax notices Captain Nemo sending an enormous amount of money to Greece, a country that was—in the year the book was set (1868)—in the middle of a movement for independence from Ottoman rule:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Captain Nemo took the ingots one by one, and arranged them methodically in the chest, which he filled entirely. I estimated the contents at more than 4,000 lbs. weight of gold, that is to say, nearly £200,000. The chest was securely fastened, and the Captain wrote an address on the lid, in characters which must have belonged to Modern Greece.
Related Themes:
Part 2, Chapter 8: Vigo Bay
Explanation and Analysis—Independence Movements:
Though subtle, Verne alludes to different anti-imperialist independence movements throughout the novel. For example, in Part 2, Chapter 6, Aronnax notices Captain Nemo sending an enormous amount of money to Greece, a country that was—in the year the book was set (1868)—in the middle of a movement for independence from Ottoman rule:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Captain Nemo took the ingots one by one, and arranged them methodically in the chest, which he filled entirely. I estimated the contents at more than 4,000 lbs. weight of gold, that is to say, nearly £200,000. The chest was securely fastened, and the Captain wrote an address on the lid, in characters which must have belonged to Modern Greece.
Related Themes:
Part 2, Chapter 14: The South Pole
Explanation and Analysis—Maritime Explorers:
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea incorporates a number of real historical events into its narrative, including references to famous maritime explorers, such as Matthew Fontaine Maury, Jean-François de Galaup (or “La Perouse”), and Dumont d’Urvill. For example, when the Nautilus reaches the South Pole in Part 2, Chapter 14, Aronnax connects the land they find to Maury’s theories:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The existence of this land seemed to give some colour to Maury’s theory. The ingenious American has remarked that, between the South Pole and the sixtieth parallel, the sea is covered with floating ice of enormous size, which is never met with in the North Atlantic.
Related Themes:
Part 2, Chapter 19: The Gulf Stream
Explanation and Analysis—Toilers of the Deep:
After the brutal battle with giant squids—in which one member of the Nautilus crew is killed—Aronnax makes an allusion to Toilers of the Sea by Victor Hugo (referring to it as “Toilers of the Deep”), a novel that came out just a few years before Twenty Thousand Leagues:
Unlock with LitCharts A+This terrible scene of the 20th of April none of us can ever forget. I have written it under the influence of violent emotion. Since then I have revised the recital; I have read it to Conseil and to the Canadian. They found it exact as to facts, but insufficient as to effect. To paint such pictures, one must have the pen of the most illustrious of our poets, the author of “The Toilers of the Deep.”
Related Themes:
