Captain Nemo - Definition and Overview

Captain Nemo is the protagonist of Jules Verne's novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870) and its sequel, Mysterious Island (1874).

He is prince Dakkar, the 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.

Appearances

Beside his original appearance in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Mysterious Island, Captain Nemo also appears in the comic book The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen where it is revealed that he was not really dead after the events of Mysterious Island and joins the League. However after the end of the tales, he withdraws again to that island.

In Leagues, Nemo's nationality is not clearly described and possibly as a result most early and the most well known adaptions of Leagues had Nemo portrayed by a white actor. However, Island revealed Nemo's Indian origin. Most modern portrayals of Nemo present Nemo as an Indian or in any case as non-European.

Personifications

• James Mason played Captain Nemo in the Walt Disney film Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1954).
• Herbert Lom played Captain Nemo in Mysterious Island (1961)
• Omar Sharif played Captain Nemo in Jules Verne's Mysterious Island of Captain Nemo (1973)
• In the 2003 film adaptation of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, he was played by Naseeruddin Shah.

Trivia

• He has also been the subjects of a song by Sarah Brightman and another by the band Ace of Base. The song Nemo by Nightwish is also about him.

• His name is the Latin for "nobody", an allusion to the answer given by Odysseus to Polyphemus in the Odyssey.

• The clownfish character Nemo in the animated movie Finding Nemo by Disney and Pixar is named after him.

• His personal flag is Argent letter "N" on sable field.

External links

• The Mysterious Island: The Secret of the Island: Chapter XVI (http://jv.gilead.org.il/kravitz/3/16.html). A summary of his life. It contains spoilers.
• Literary analysis of the novels of Jules Verne (http://perso.wanadoo.fr/jules-verne/CIEH.htm)