Throughout Dune Messiah, melange symbolizes power and its negative consequences. As an addictive drug from which withdrawing is fatal, melange is Paul’s primary tool for power. Melange subjugates the universe to Paul because everyone depends on him to provide them with the life-giving drug. However, Paul’s dependence on melange for power also makes his power incomplete. Throughout the novel, he is often struck by a feeling that the more power he gains, the more the universe eludes him; he decides that it is impossible for one man to hold power over the entire universe. Melange and the unnatural state of power it creates represents this idea.
Melange also symbolizes the negative consequences of having power. Paul and Alia both suffer from melange addiction themselves. While melange heightens their powers of prescience, both of them resent their ability to see the future, and they spend much of their time wishing they did not possess such a power. Moreover, Paul’s prescience forces him to witness the negative effects of melange on his loved ones. His lover Chani even takes melange while pregnant with her and Paul’s child, an action which causes her fetus to grow alarmingly quickly and further endangers Chani’s life. In this way, melange symbolizes the guilt and the futile longing for a normal life that accompany a state of power.
Melange Quotes in Dune Messiah
She should have understood long ago this similarity between the spice and the ghola. Melange was valuable, but it exacted a price—addiction. It added years to a life—decades for some—but it was still just another way to die.
Melange Symbol Timeline in Dune Messiah
