Captain Nemo

Captain Nemo (NEE-moh), a mysterious man who designs and builds the submarine Nautilus on a desert island. It provides its own electricity and oxygen, and the sea supplies food for its crew. Nemo hates society but uses gold recovered from sunken ships to benefit the unfortunate.

Professor Pierre Aronnax

Professor Pierre Aronnax (pyehr ah-roh-NAKS), of the Paris Museum of Natural History, who heads an expedition aboard the American frigate Abraham Lincoln to track down a mysterious sea creature that has attacked and sunk ships all over the world.

Ned Land

Ned Land, a harpooner taken along on the theory that the killer is a gigantic narwhal. An explosion aboard the Abraham Lincoln tosses him, along with Aronnax and Conseil, aboard the Nautilus, where he and Nemo save each other’s lives.

Conseil

Conseil (koh[n]-SEHY), the servant of Aronnax, who shares their adventures aboard the Nautilus in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Polar Oceans. After a maelstrom overcomes the submarine in Norwegian waters, Aronnax, Land, and Conseil recover consciousness on an island, in ignorance of the fate of Captain Nemo and the Nautilus.

The main characters in this novel are Captain Nemo, Professor Aronnax, Ned Land, and Conseil. Nemo (which is Latin for "nobody") is an enigma. His age and nationality are unknown. But it is obvious that he is a gifted engineer, inventor, and marine biologist. Nemo has turned to the sea for his freedom and livelihood in response to some past horror, perpetrated upon his family by an oppressive government. He enjoys impressing his guests with his scientific prowess and genuinely seems to desire their company, but he cannot or will not confide in them. Nor will he abandon his intention to revenge himself on the passing ships of the colonial powers. Nemo is absolutely loyal to his crew and weeps when one dies. This is in sharp contrast to the quiet rage he feels when he attacks his enemies. The enigma of his character continues: is he a heroic revolutionary bent on promoting some international political cause or merely a demented pirate who ruthlessly destroys innocent people?

Ned Land is Captain Nemo's chief adversary on board the Nautilus. Captain Nemo has granted his guests "the liberty of the ship," but Land sees no "liberty" in being deprived of his freedom to come and go as he pleases. The forty-year-old harpooner is a man of action, not of scientific analysis, and he is used to the sea's surface, not its depths. Ned Land tries repeatedly to escape from the Nautilus and to bring Conseil and Aronnax along with him, but they continually resist. His anger at constraint eventually forces his companions to become aware of the terms of their stay on the Nautilus. Paradoxically, Nemo is angered by Land's actions yet sympathetic to his desire for freedom. It somehow echoes his own desire to escape from his self-imposed isolation.

Professor Aronnax is fascinated by the sea and all its life forms. Consequently, he is torn between staying with Nemo and learning the ocean's secrets, or escaping with Ned Land. Until Nemo attacks and ruthlessly destroys a warship toward the end of the novel, Aronnax is intrigued by the Nautilus, the voyage, and his scientifically enlightening experiences. He remains awed by Nemo even after he finally decides that he must escape.

Conseil is intelligent and well educated, but his slavish devotion to Aronnax is excessive. In one scene, Conseil is shocked unconscious by a ray, but on regaining consciousness he scientifically classifies the animal that nearly killed him. Such behavior provides most of the...