Journey to the Center of the Earth is a story with few main characters. For the entirety of the book, the two main ones are Axel, the nephew, and his Uncle Lidenbrock. They serve as foil characters to each other, which makes for an intriguing and often exasperating tug of war throughout the book.
Axel
Let’s take a look at Axel first, as he is also the narrator and protagonist.
One humorous point of the story is Axel’s relationship with his beloved fiancé, Grauben. At the beginning of the story, he expects her to try to talk him out of going on a perilous, potentially fatal journey to the center of the earth. Instead, she surprises him by encouraging him to risk his life for the scientific glory:
“Yes, Axel, a journey worthy of the nephew of a savant. It is right for a man to distinguish himself by some great enterprise.”
“What! Grauben! Wouldn’t you dissuade me from attempting such an undertaking?”
“No, dear Axel. I would gladly accompany you and your uncle, but a poor girl like me would only be an encumbrance.”
Jules Verne. Journey to the Center of the Earth.
In their conversation, Axel’s fiancé basically tells him to man up and go on this quest where he might die. And he’s thinking: if she cares about him, why does she want him to go? Axel is perplexed by this, as he is a very logical, level-headed thinker. Why take an unnecessary risk for unlikely glory? he wonders.
Axel is a pragmatic who only takes necessary risks. At times he appears “wimpy,” but only in comparison to his uncle. He is unadventurous and spends most of the book being angry at his uncle for dragging him on a fool’s errand, and for disregarding his safety and wellbeing.
Uncle Lidenbrock
Axel’s Uncle Lidenbrock is the opposite of him. Lidenbrock is called a savant throughout the book, and has a vast knowledge of linguistics and geology. He knows many theories, yet is skeptical of them. At times, it seems he would like nothing better than to die in the glory of disproving a scientific theory.
Lidenbrock is stubborn, intelligent, domineering, and eccentric. When he gets an idea, he will follow it, aggressively recruiting others to do the same.
Near the beginning of the story, the first incident of Lidenbrock’s eccentricity is when he makes the cook and Axel stay in the house, locked and without food, until he cracks the code on the piece of parchment. He is willing to starve Axel to death for the sake of making a scientific discovery, even though starving him does not help Lidenbrock in any way.
Lidenbrock continues this brand of madness throughout the story. He sees it as weakness to give into basic human needs. Lidenbrock later risks the life of Axel and their guide, Hans, to make a scientific discovery greater than anything anyone else has made.
Adaptations of Journey to the Center of the Earth
There have been many film adaptations of this story, and all of them add characters and more excitement than the book (very little actually “happens” in the first 2/3 of the book).
Here’s a 1959 version.
There was one made in 1988, and is free on Amazon Prime (at least, right now).
And then there’s the most recent version, from 2008.
All versions put their own twist on it to make it more appealing to a modern audience. To be honest, this was one book where I understood why people lose patience with Classics. You have to dig beneath a mountain of 101 facts that Jules Verne thinks are cool to find the storyline.
Still, it was an enjoyable read and I recommend it to those who enjoy a good nerdy read.
Classic Reads 