How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Perhaps I would never know who he was, where he came from, where he was going, but I could see the man more and more distinctly from the scientist. It was not common misanthropy that had enclosed Captain Nemo and his companions in the flanks of the Nautilus, but a monstrous or sublime hatred that time could not diminish.
Was this hatred still seeking revenge? The future would soon show me. (2.21.1-2)
If Nemo's hatred is "monstrous," does that make him a monster? If it's "sublime," does that make him sublime? What Big Life Questions is Aronnax really struggling with here?
Quote #8
"I am the law, I am the justice!" he said. "I am the oppressed, and they are the oppressor! It is because of them that everything I loved, cherished, venerated—county, wife, children, parents—perished as I watched! Everything I hate is there! Keep quiet!" (2.21.59)
Here, Nemo seems to have lost sight of the specificity of the actual warship that's attacking him. It's not really a ship anymore, it's a symbol for all of the atrocities that have been perpetrated against him. This is yet another sign that our man Nemo's gone off the deep end (haha) of hatred, straight down into Crazy Town.
Quote #9
I turned to Captain Nemo. That terrible lawgiver, that archangel of hate, was watching still. When everything was finished, Captain Nemo headed for the door of his room, opened it, and went in. My eyes followed him.
On the far well, below the pictures of his heroes, I could see the portrait of a woman, still young, with two small children. Captain Nemo looked at them for a few moments, stretched out his arms to them, and then knelt down sobbing. (2.21.91-2)
Nemo's hatred is so intense, it transforms him into an "archangel of hate"—it places him above (or below, depending on your perspective) humanity. This description of Nemo isn't the only time Aronnax thinks of his Captain as larger-than-life, though. Is Nemo more myth or man?