Difference between revisions of "Captain Nemo"

Latest revision as of 18:22, 21 April 2016

Captain Nemo (Latin for "Nobody") -- also known as Prince Dakkar -- is a fictional character invented by the French science fiction author Jules Verne (1828–1905).

Description

Nemo appears in two of Verne's novels, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870) and The Mysterious Island (1874), a cameo appearance in Verne's play Journey Through the Impossible (1882) and one of the lead characters in the 2003 movie The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen played by Naseeruddin Shah.

Nemo, one of the best known antiheroes in fiction, is a mysterious figure. The son of an Indian Raja, he is a scientific genius who roams the depths of the sea in his submarine, the Nautilus, which was built in pieces all over the world and shipped to the builder. Nemo tries to project a stern, controlled confidence, but he is driven by a thirst for vengeance and a hatred of imperialism focused on the British Empire. He is also wracked by remorse over the deaths of his crew members and even by the deaths of enemy sailors.

Nemo has appeared in various adaptations of Verne's novels, including films, where he has been portrayed by a number of different actors. He has also been adopted by other authors for inclusion in their novels, most notably in Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Philip José Farmer's The Other Log of Phileas Fogg.

Etymology

Nemo is Latin for "no one", and also (as νέμω) Greek for "I give what is due" (see Nemesis).

Nemo is, moreover, the Latin rendering of Ancient Greek Outis ("Nobody"), the pseudonym adopted by Odysseus, in Greek mythology—a ruse employed to outwit the cyclops Polyphemus.

See also

• Literature
• Jules Verne

External links

• Captain Nemo @ Wikipedia