Captain Nemo

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Image:20000 Nemo second.jpg

This page is about the fictional character Captain Nemo. For the single by Sarah Brightman, see Captain Nemo (single).

Captain Nemo is the protagonist of Jules Verne's novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870) and also appears in Mysterious Island (1874). His name comes from the Latin nemo which is a pun meaning no-one (or nobody) or fish. This name is aptly chosen. Nemo is a mysterious figure without a past and without a clear interest in the present either. His only occupation is to roam the depths of the sea in his submarine, the Nautilus. In Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea he repeatedly states that the world on the surface, and even humanity in general has ceased to interest him and that therefore human rules do not apply to him any longer. Verne illustrates this by having the Nautilus ram and sink an English warship and then having Nemo watching emotionlessly as the ship's crew drowns. Verne however also has Nemo go out of his way to accommodate Professor Arronax and his companions. Also during a diving expedition Nemo risks his life to save a pearl diver from a shark attack. In the Mysterious Island, a still mysterious but gentler Nemo secretly helps the castaways of the island and in the end warns them that the island will perish in a volcanic eruption. Nemo dies of old age just before the eruption and is buried in his ship that is then sunk.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In the initial draft of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Nemo was a Polish noble 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.

It's in the sequel (Mysterious Island), where Nemo presents himself as Prince Dakkar, the Hindu son of an Indian rajah and nephew of Tippoo Sahib, having a deep hatred of the British conquest of India. After the Sepoy mutiny, he devotes himself to scientific research and develops an advanced electric submarine, the Nautilus. He and a crew of his loyals cruise the seas, battling injustice, especially slavery. The gold of Spanish ships sunk at the Bay of Vigo provided them with money.

It is interesting to note, however, that Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea was written between 1869 and 1870 and records the voyages of the Nautilus between 1867 and 1869. 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 (this is explained in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, however, that Nemo actually faked his death). Also, when Captain Nemo is finally met in "The Mysterious Island," he mentions the Frenchman as being 16 years ago.

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Appearances

Beside his original appearance in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and 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:

He is also the subject of numerous songs.

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Portrayals

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Trivia

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External links

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Images

Nemo facing a giant octopus in Vingt Mille Lieues Sous les Mers

Captain Nemo raises his personal flag on the South Pole in Vingt Mille Lieues Sous les Mers

Captain Nemo playing the organ

Captain Nemo's death in Mysterious Island

Captain Nemo played by James Mason.

Captain Nemo played by Omar Sharif.

es:Capitán Nemo

fr:Capitaine Némo it:Capitano Nemo ja:ネモ船長 pl:Kapitan Nemo (bohater literacki) pt:Capitão Nemo

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