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 primary characters in this novel are Captain Nemo, Professor Aronnax, Ned Land, and Conseil. Nemo, whose name means "nobody" in Latin, is a mysterious figure. His age and nationality remain undisclosed. However, it is clear that he is a brilliant engineer, inventor, and marine biologist. Nemo has sought refuge and a way of life in the sea, driven by a past tragedy inflicted upon his family by a tyrannical government. He takes pleasure in impressing his guests with his scientific knowledge and seems to genuinely enjoy their company, yet he neither confides in them nor abandons his quest for revenge against the ships of colonial powers. Nemo's loyalty to his crew is absolute, as evidenced by his tears when one of them dies, contrasting sharply with the silent fury he exhibits while attacking his enemies. His character remains an enigma: is he a heroic revolutionary with an international political agenda, or a deranged pirate ruthlessly destroying innocent lives?

Ned Land stands as Captain Nemo's primary adversary aboard the Nautilus. Although Nemo grants his guests "the liberty of the ship," Land finds no "liberty" in being confined and unable to come and go freely. At forty years old, the harpooner is a man of action rather than scientific inquiry, accustomed to the sea's surface rather than its depths. Land persistently attempts to escape from the Nautilus, trying to persuade Conseil and Aronnax to join him, but they continually resist. His frustration with their confinement eventually makes his companions realize the true nature of their stay on the Nautilus. Interestingly, Nemo is both angered by Land's actions and sympathetic to his desire for freedom, reflecting his own wish to escape self-imposed isolation.

Professor Aronnax is deeply fascinated by the sea and its myriad life forms. Consequently, he is torn between staying with Nemo to uncover the ocean's mysteries and escaping with Ned Land. Until Nemo's brutal attack on a warship near the novel's end, Aronnax is captivated by the Nautilus, the journey, and his scientifically enlightening experiences. Even after deciding to escape, he remains in awe of Nemo.

Conseil is intelligent and well-educated, but his excessive devotion to Aronnax is notable. In one scene, Conseil is rendered unconscious by an electric ray, but upon regaining consciousness, he immediately begins to scientifically classify the creature that nearly killed him. This behavior provides much of the novel's rare humor.

The characters in Verne's story highlight his thematic interests. Ned Land is adamant about seeking...