Everything about Captain Nemo totally explained
Captain Nemo is a
fictional character featured in
Jules Verne's novels
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (
1870) and
The Mysterious Island (
1874). "Nemo" is
Latin for "no one".
Nemo, one of the most famous
anti-heroes in fiction, is a mysterious figure. He is a scientific genius who roams the depths of the sea in his
submarine, the
Nautilus, which he built on a deserted island. Nemo tries to project a stern, controlled confidence, but he's driven by a thirst for vengeance, and wracked by remorse over the deaths of his crewmembers and even by the deaths of enemy sailors. In
The Mysterious Island, a still mysterious but gentler Nemo secretly helps the castaways off the island and in the end warns them that the island will perish in a volcanic eruption. Nemo dies of a mysterious illness just before the eruption and is buried in his ship that's then sunk.
Life
Nothing concerning his past is revealed in the
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, excepting his having reason to hate the countries of the world and his apparent loss of his family. It is in its sequel,
The Mysterious Island, that Nemo declares himself Prince Dakkar, the
Hindu son of the
Rajah of
Bundelkund. He was deeply antagonistic to the
British Raj of India. After the
Indian Rebellion of 1857, in which he lost his family and his kingdom, he devoted himself to scientific research and develops an advanced
submarine, the
Nautilus. He and a crew of his followers cruise the seas, battling injustice, especially
imperialism. The gold of Spanish ships sunk in
Vigo Bay, as a result of the
Battle of Vigo Bay, provided them with bullion.
He claims to have no interest in the affairs of the world above, but occasionally intervenes to aid the oppressed, giving salvaged treasure to
Cretans revolting against their
Turkish rulers, by saving (both physically and financially) a pearl hunter who was the unfortunate victim of a diving accident or by sinking warships or by saving the castaways from drowning in
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and covertly watching over the castaways in
The Mysterious Island.
Nemo had a European or English education, as he states that he'd spent his youth studying and touring Europe. In his first meeting with Professor Aronnax and his companions, the latter speak to him in
French,
English,
Latin and
German, all of which Nemo later reveals he's fluent in. Aronnax goes on to comment that Nemo's French was perfect and unaccented, and relies on his
intuition and knowledge of
ethnology to assess that he was from Southern latitudes. However, he was unable to determine the country of his origin. The
Nautilus's library and art collection reveal him to be familiar with European culture and arts. Further he was an accomplished player of the
organ.
He is said to have died, on board the
Nautilus, at Dakkar Grotto on
Lincoln Island in the
South Pacific. The last rites were administered by
Cyrus Harding, one of the castaways on the island who had been saved by the Captain himself, and the ship then submerged into the waters of the grotto.
Character
The best account of the Captain's character may be had from the observations of
Professor Arronax, a character in, and narrator of,
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, who is stated to have embarked upon that curious voyage with the captain when the latter was about forty years of age. He is described as a reticent man throughout the account; tall and swarthy in appearance, he'd a high nose and eyes set on the far sides of his face, an attribute that gave him an exceptional range of vision. In the later account given in "The Mysterious Island", the aged Captain Nemo is said to sport a long white beard.
He eschews dry land having forsworn all ties with it, and when he does step on it, does so only when the land is uninhabited, such as with
Antarctica and desert islands such as
Lincoln Island, of
The Mysterious Island. He, is quite enamoured by the sea and holds that true freedom exists only beneath the waves. In keeping with his detestation for the nations of the surface he uses no products that are not marine in nature, be it food, clothing, furnishing or even, tobacco.
Little is revealed about his political opinions except that he's an almost maniacal hatred of oppression, with which he identifies all the
imperialistic nations of the world and doesn't hesitate to identify himself with those oppressed, be they
Cretans rising against the
Turks ruling them or poor
Ceylonese pearl-divers eking out a living or even
grey whales being attacked by
cachalots. In
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, when Professor Arronax insinuates that he was violating maritime and international law, by sinking war-ships, he states that he was merely defending himself from his attackers and that the laws of the world on the surface didn't apply to him any longer.
He is devoted to his crew, and can barely contain his grief when one of them happens to be killed, as is portrayed in the aftermath of the giant-squid attack in the
Bahamas and the mysterious midnight encounter with a surface ship. He also appears to retain loving memories of his family, for Professor Arronax witnesses him weeping over the portrait of a young lady and two children, apparently his family. He betrays the same compassion in his treatment of the castaways in
The Mysterious Island.
Though short-tempered, he maintains very great control over himself, giving vent to his anger but rarely. He was also a man of immense courage, in the forefront of every activity, releasing the
Nautilus from the Antarctic ice in which she gets trapped, and in fighting off the squids at the Bahamas. Professor Arronax states that he was a man of superhuman stamina working consecutive eight-hour shifts without a break, with little oxygen, to free the
Nautilus from the ice. He is also an intrepid explorer, having discovered
Atlantis, according to Jules Verne, a glimpse of which is had by Professor Arronax.
An extraordinary engineer, he designed and built the
Nautilus, besides inventing most of her outstanding features, such as her electric propulsion and navigation systems. He has an exceptional mastery of under-sea navigation, taking upon himself the most difficult passages of the voyage described in
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, such as those under the
Isthmus of Suez and that under the Antarctic ice-sheet.
He had an immense knowledge of
marine biology, and it was his respect for Professor Arronax's expertise in that field which led to his befriending the professor when the latter was cast upon the
Nautilus by chance. Further he's said to have read and annotated all the tomes he possessed in the Nautilus's vast library. In addition to these indubitable indications of an exceptional intellect, he repeatedly demonstrates his ability to create innovative solutions.
He had very fine taste in art, possessing several masterpieces of both painting and sculpture, from ancient and modern European masters, all of which were housed in the Grand Salon of the
Nautilus, along with his inestimably valuable collecion of pearls, corals and such other marine products, which he'd gathered with his own hands. In the opinion of Professor Arronax, the collection of the Grand Salon far outstripped that of the
Louvre. However, the Captain regarded them as little more than the remainder of a past life, a life he chose to forget, but yet retain some memories of, for according to him, these were but a part of his original collection.
Despite the opulence that's visible all through the
Nautilus, he's a man of spartan habits, retaining for his own use the barest minimum. In Professor Arronax's opinion, the Captain's cabin resembled a monk's cellar, furnished with little besides a bed and the navigation instruments so integral to the
Nautilus.
The Captain tells Professor Arronax that his intention was to have the story of his life, which he was even then in the process of writing when the Professor and his companions were cast upon the
Nautilus, would be sealed in an unsinkable casket and thrown overboard by the last survivor of the Nautilus's crew, in the hope that it would be washed up somewhere.
He appears to have some sort of hatred, fear or remorse, never revealed to the reader, for the last words heard from him by Professor Arronax, before abandoning the
Nautilus, were
"Almighty God, enough! Enough!".
Emblem
His emblem, as given in a description of the flag he raised when claiming
Antarctica, is a large golden
N, on a black field. The motto of the
Nautilus, was
Mobilis in mobili, which may be rougly translated from Latin as,
"moving amidst mobility"
Origin
In the initial draft of
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Nemo was a
Polish noble, Szlachta, vengeful because of the murder of his family during the Russian repression of the
Polish insurrection of 1863-1864. Verne's editor
Pierre-Jules Hetzel feared a book ban in the Russian market and offending a French ally, the
Russian Empire. He made Verne obscure Nemo's motivation in the first book. In the second book of
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, Nemo comes close to revealing his
Indian ancestry, though this isn't obvious except in retrospect, in a scene where he saves a
Ceylonese fisherman while on a pearl diving expedition in the
Gulf of Mannar.
Chronological inconsistency
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea was written between 1869 and 1870 and records the voyages of the Nautilus between 1867 and 1868.
The Mysterious Island was written in 1874 but plays immediately after the
American Civil War, from 1865 to 1867. This would mean that the Captain Nemo appearing in
The Mysterious Island dies
before the Captain Nemo in
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea sets out on his undersea voyages. Also, when Captain Nemo is finally met in
The Mysterious Island, he mentions having met Aronnax 16 years previously.
Portrayals
Captain Nemo in popular culture
Besides his original appearance in
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and
The Mysterious Island, Captain Nemo also appears in numerous other works though none written by Jules Verne, and all works were created decades after the original books:
The comic book The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (and its film adaptation), which suggests that Nemo actually faked his death in 1867.
The Japanese anime, by Gainax.
In episode 1 in season 2 of The Simpsons Bart has to do a book report on Treasure Island, which he hasn't read. When his teacher Ms. Krabappel asks the name of the pirate on the cover, one of the names he thinks of before he answers is 'Nemo'.
The villain in the Mighty Max episode "Around the World in Eighty Arms."
In the Philip José Farmer novel The Other Log of Phileas Fogg, Nemo is depicted as being rather more sinister and self-serving. In addition, he's said to be an agent of the Capellans, one of two extraterrestrial factions (and, in the context of the novel, the less ethical) vying for control of the Earth and of all surviving examples of offworld technology. (As suggested by the title, Phileas Fogg is an agent of the other faction, the Eridaneans.) As well, there was allegedly more than one Captain Nemo, one of whom was James Moriarty, the nemesis of Sherlock Holmes.
The novel by K.J. Anderson.
The novel Valhalla Rising by Clive Cussler.
The graphic novel trilogy Robur (based on Verne's Robur the Conqueror) by Jean-Marc Lofficier.
The series "Der Hexer von Salem" by German author Wolfgang Hohlbein, which is based on H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.
The manga Captain Nemo by Jason DeAngeles and Aldin Viray.
The developer working for Three Rings Design, mainly on Puzzle Pirates.
Ace of Base's song in Flowers (Ace of Base album), Captain Nemo.
The Dive (Swedish band) song (later covered by Sarah Brightman), Captain Nemo (song).
The book by James A. Owen, "Here, There Be Dragons".Further Information
Get more info on 'Captain Nemo'.
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