Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea has some very dynamic character relationships. There are four main characters across the entirety of the book. They are Professor Aronnax, Conseil his servant, Ned Land the harpooner, and Captain Nemo of the submarine Nautilus. The Professor is the protagonist to the story, and Captain Nemo is the antagonist. Conseil and Ned Land are side characters in this story.
Professor Aronnax is the protagonist of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. He, along with Conseil and Ned Land, are taken aboard the Nautilus by Captian Nemo, shortly after being attacked. The Professor is a smart and well-learned naturalist, and is fascinated by the wildlife that he is shown underneath the waves. He is also very reluctant to leave the Nautilus when Ned Land decides the time is ripe to attempt to escape. Over the course of the book Professor Aronnax has a lot of character development, and his heart softens towards Captain Nemo.
Conseil is Professor Aronnax’s faithful servant. He has been serving the Professor for at least fifteen years, and is a grown man, despite being referred to as “boy†a lot of the time. Conseil is very loyal to his master, and, when Professor Aronnax was knocked off of the ship, he dived in after his master. Conseil stays by the Professor’s side throughout the book, and finds no more satisfaction than in serving him to the very end.
Ned Land was a harpooner that had embarked on the same whaler as the Professor and Conseil. He was also thrown off the ship at the same time, and was admitted into the Nautilus with the others as prisoners. Over the course of the book, Ned develops claustrophobia, as well as a burning hate for Captian Nemo. Several times over the course of the book, Ned attempts to plot an escape. At the climax of the book, Ned finally succeeds in escaping the Nautilus, bringing Professor Aronnax and Conseil with him.
Captain Nemo is the man who built the Nautilus, and the antagonist in the book. He is an Indian who had endured the tortures that the Europeans had placed on his people in India. He is a great scientist, and designed the Nautilus with the sole intention of quarentining himself from the world. He has a crew of men from around the world, and has taught them all to speak only a special language that he either created or is not very well known. Captian Nemo has decided to keep the professor, Ned Land, and Conseil prisoners on board the Nautilus so that he will never be tracked by people in Europe. He is also writing a book about his travels under the sea. He doesn’t mistreat his passengers, but rather provides for their needs and everything they could possibly want for their comfort. The Nautilus is very self-sustaining, and so Nemo never needs to go to inhabited land (he does visit islands occasionally) to procure anything.
Overall, these characters share a very interesting dynamic. The protagonist and antagonist aren’t as clear-cut as some other books. Captain Nemo is actually quite kind and generous to his prisoners, the only problem is that he won’t let them leave. The professor also respects Captain Nemo, and doesn’t take his trip under the seas for granted.