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Part 1, Chapter 11
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
Nemo takes Arronax into the submarine’s control room. Arronax recognizes some of the instruments in there, but many of them he does not. Nemo offers to explain the “soul of the Nautilus,” and Arronax listens eagerly. He explains that the ship runs on a special kind of electricity derived from a saltwater formula. The machines that pump oxygen into the vessel are powered by electricity, as is a clock that Nemo points out. There is a small but powerful sailboat on board the submarine. Nemo and Arronax walk back through the ship, past Conseil and Ned, who are eating ravenously. In the kitchen, Arronax sees that all the food is made with electricity, rather than gas.
In the late 1860s when the story takes place, the fact that the Nautilus is powered by electricity would seem much more exciting and impressive than it does today (although other elements of the vessel are certainly impressive even from a contemporary perspective). Verne’s breathless enthusiasm about electricity at times becomes rather comical for modern readers, such as when Arronax is surprised by the electric oven in this passage.
Themes
In the engine room, Arronax views the machine that produces electricity. He comments that he now understands how the ship manages to move at its extraordinary speed, but still doesn’t understand the dexterity of its movement, or how it manages to survive the intense pressure of the deep sea. Nemo says he is happy to explain everything, seeing as Arronax will never leave the Nautilus again.
This passage begins as a rapturous and happy moment of scientific curiosity, and ends on a deeply sinister note. The fact that Nemo mentions that Arronax will never leave the Nautilus so casually somehow makes this statement even more ominous than it would otherwise be—it’s clear that Nemo is fully committed to the notion that he is in control and that Arronax and his companions are prisoners for life on the Nautilus.
Themes
