Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Dune, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Power and Violence
Free Will and Fate
Environment and Human Culture
Human Cognitive Advances
Summary
Analysis
The epigraph from Princess Irulan’s text “Muad’Dib: Family Commentaries” meditatively considers how Lady Jessica kept to her Bene Gesserit program during her trials on Arrakis.
The narrator once again prioritizes the value of heightened human cognition in Dune by suggesting that Jessica’s Bene Gesserit mental strength ensured her survival on Arrakis.
Themes
After leaving her conversation with Dr. Yueh, Lady Jessica discovers a secret conservatory in the palace. It is a lush space filled with greenery such as roses and must use exorbitant amounts of water daily. In the conservatory Jessica finds a note addressed to her from Lady Margot Fenring, a Bene Gesserit sister. In a secret Bene Gesserit code she warns Jessica of an attack on Paul involving his bed, as well as the threat of a House Atreides betrayal that “involves defection of a trusted companion or lieutenant.”
The flourishing vegetation in the conservatory is totally unexpected on Arrakis and reminiscent of Caladan’s lush environments. It therefore highlights the significant ecological and lifestyle differences between Jessica’s previous home and her new one. Lady Fenring’s message suggests that she either has the power of Bene Gesserit foresight or has some insight into House Harkonnen’s plans. The fact that Fenring and Jessica have never met before demonstrates the loyalty between Bene Gesserit sisters.
Themes
Paul rushes into the conservatory clutching the hunter-seeker and informs Jessica of the attack as well as Shadout Mapes’s warning about a traitor. She instructs him to submerge the weapon in water. An Atreides guard intrudes to say that they caught the man controlling the hunter-seeker from the palace cellar, but the man was killed in a skirmish. The guard posts himself outside of the conservatory to guard Paul and Jessica. Jessica relays Lady Fenring’s warnings to Paul, and they consider whether the traitor could be Thufir Hawat, Dr. Yueh, Gurney Halleck, Duncan Idaho, or another trusted household member. Before leaving the conservatory, Jessica notices flashes of light from distant desert cliffs and believes them to be signals between Harkonnen agents.
Water proves useful in sustaining life by eliminating the hunter-seeker’s threat. Events are taking place quickly, with the Harkonnen attacks that the Atreides and Bene Gesserit order have been expecting now coming to fruition. Despite the warnings and hints about a traitor from Shadout Mapes and Lady Fenring, Paul and Jessica have no real idea who the betrayer is. And despite their powerful personal abilities, they are at the mercy of the Harkonnens.
Themes
