Captain Nemo - Character

Character

The best account of Nemo's character may come from the observations of Professor Pierre Aronnax, the narrator of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, who embarks upon the voyage with Nemo when the latter is about forty years of age. He is described as a reticent man throughout the account; tall and swarthy in appearance, with a straight nose and wide-set eyes, an attribute which gives him 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, he does so only when the land is uninhabited, such as Antarctica, and desert islands such as Lincoln Island of The Mysterious Island. He is enamored 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 his almost maniacal hatred of oppression, with which he identifies all the imperialistic nations of the world. He does not hesitate to identify himself with those oppressed, be they Cretans rising against the Turks, poor Ceylonese pearl divers eking out a living, or even black whales being attacked by cachalots (sperm whales).

When Professor Aronnax alleges that Nemo violates maritime and international law by sinking war-ships, Nemo responds that he is merely defending himself from his attackers, and that the laws of the world on the surface do not apply to him any longer. In one scene, Nemo exclaims:

"On the surface, they can still exercise their iniquitous laws, fight, devour each other, and indulge in all their earthly horrors. But thirty feet below the (sea's) surface, their power ceases, their influence fades, and their dominion vanishes. Ah, monsieur, to live in the bosom of the sea! .... There I recognize no master! There I am free!"

Nemo is devoted to his crew and grieves deeply 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 shows the same compassion in his treatment of the castaways in The Mysterious Island. He also appears to retain loving memories of his family, for Professor Aronnax witnesses him weeping over the portrait of a young lady and two children, apparently his family.

Though short-tempered, he maintains great control over himself, rarely giving vent to his anger. He is also a man of immense courage, in the forefront of every activity, from releasing the Nautilus from the Antarctic ice to fighting off squids in the Bahamas. He was also a man of superhuman stamina, being able to work consecutive eight-hour shifts without a break, with little oxygen, to free the Nautilus from the ice. He was also an intrepid explorer, having discovered Atlantis, according to Jules Verne, a glimpse of which is had by Professor Aronnax.

An extraordinary engineer, Nemo has 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 underwater navigation, taking upon himself the most difficult submarine passages, such as those under the Isthmus of Suez and the Antarctic ice sheet.

He has an immense knowledge of marine biology, and it is his respect for Professor Aronnax's expertise in the field which led to his befriending the professor when the latter was cast upon the Nautilus. Further, he is 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 has very fine taste in art, possessing several masterpieces of both painting and sculpture, from ancient and modern European masters, all of which are housed in the Grand Salon of the Nautilus, along with his inestimably valuable collection of pearls, corals and such other marine products, which he had gathered with his own hands. In the opinion of Professor Aronnax, the collection of the Grand Salon far outstrips that of the Louvre. However, Nemo regards 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 are but a part of his original collection.

Despite the opulence that is visible all through the Nautilus, he is a man of spartan habits, retaining for his own use the barest minimum. In Professor Aronnax's opinion, Nemo's cabin resembled a monk's cell, furnished with little besides a bed and the navigational instruments integral to the Nautilus.

Nemo tells Professor Aronnax that his intention was to have the story of his life, which he was in the process of writing when Aronnax and his companions were cast upon the Nautilus, 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.

An unsinkable casket does wash up in The Mysterious Island, the book that includes the details of Nemo's life. The casket contains tools, guns, scientific instruments, an atlas, books, blank paper, and even clothing. The crate is lashed to empty barrels, and the contents sealed in a waterproof zinc envelope, showing careful preparation and packing. This is one example of how Nemo grants the castaway's wishes, acting as an agent of Divine Providence.

One of the castaways, the sailor Pencroft, laments that whoever packed the crate did not include tobacco, the one thing he misses from his former life. A hunting party comes across a strange plant that the young naturalist Harbert identifies as tobacco. The other castaways keep the discovery secret until they can dry and cure the leaves. One evening, Pencroft is offered some coffee by his friends. When he declines, they say, "A pipe, then?" and produce a homemade pipe stuffed full, with a coal to light it. Pencroft exclaims, "O, divine Providence! sacred Author of all things!...Nothing more is now wanting to our island."

Finally, Nemo appears to have some sort of hatred, fear or remorse that is never revealed to the reader, for the last words heard from him by Professor Aronnax, before abandoning the Nautilus, are "Almighty God, enough! Enough!"