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 “Songs of Muad’Dib” is a lament for the fallen Duke Leto and his legacy.
Like Jamis’s funeral dirge, another song remembering a death illustrates the harsh realities of life in the Imperium.
Themes
Fleeing from the pursuing ornithopter, Paul and Jessica are caught quickly. They turn to face the ship, prepared to face Harkonnen troops, and Paul is consumed by anger. However he recognizes that the ornithopter is piloted by Duncan Idaho—an assumption he makes quickly from the subtle clues in the pilot’s flying technique. He reaches the conclusion that it is Idaho chasing them much faster than his mother, who only recognizes the swordsman when he leans out of the landed to ship to urge them to hurry—a sandworm is approaching.
Paul’s cognitive agility seems to be outstripping his mother’s impressive mental abilities. Jessica is perhaps affected by her near-certainty that Duke Leto has died. The narrator harshly reminds readers that Harkonnens and Imperial troops are not the only forces threatening Paul and Jessica—Arrakeen wildlife can be just as deadly.
Themes
Idaho, Paul and Jessica take flight in the ornithopter, and Idaho conceals Paul and Jessica in a ring of desert rocks. Idaho escaped the Harkonnen attack with Yueh’s aid, and the doctor directed him to help Jessica and Paul. Jessica and Paul wait in a stilltent—a Fremen temporary shelter—while Idaho leaves to aid other House Atreides survivors. Paul feels cowardly, hiding in the desert while others fight for his House, but he acknowledges it is the wisest action.
Paul and Jessica are able to read the final message that the Dr. Yueh left for them alongside Leto’s ducal ring in their bundle of supplies. The Suk doctor has arranged the escape of key House Atreides members even as he betrayed Duke Leto. He writes that by the time they read his message, the Duke will be dead, but they can take some comfort in the knowledge that Baron Harkonnen will also have been killed. Paul and Jessica realize that the Suk doctor hated the Baron, even though he worked for House Harkonnen. Yueh writes that he does not want forgiveness for his unspeakable actions; Jessica confirms aloud that Yueh’s betrayal of House Atreides must have stemmed from the Harkonnen kidnapping of his wife, Wanna.
Yueh’s letter allows Paul and Jessica to gain the same understanding that readers have likely held for some time now: Yueh was a fundamentally ethical man who was driven to evil actions through a serious threat to his beloved wife.
Themes
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In this time of terrifying change, Paul feels a heightened intelligence and awareness of the events occurring around him. He finds he is able to process information more quickly than even his Bene Gesserit mother Jessica, becoming surprised by her slow and even poor understanding of their situation. Paul is “unable to stop the inflow of information. […] It was Mentat power and more.” This newfound power feels like a “cold precision” in his mind, reflected outwardly in a new cold and “steel” command that Jessica recognizes in her son’s voice and attitude. Paul is suffused with the “sense of terrible purpose” that has visited him since his meeting with Reverend Mother Mohiam.
Paul’s cognitive abilities continue to surpass his mother’s. He cannot stop the Mentat-like calculations that continuously race through his mind, suggesting that he is developing a higher level of conscious and perhaps evolving into the prophesized Kwisatz Haderach figure. Once more, the unstoppable sense of predetermined fate envelops Paul. For the first time in his life, Paul’s behavior shocks Jessica in his seemingly uncaring logic.
Themes
Jessica hopes that Idaho can connect with Kynes, who might provide sanctuary to the two Atreides. She also wants to join with any of Duke Leto’s household who have escaped the Harkonnen attack. Paul overrides her desires, stating that that mother and son must depend on themselves and that their first priority is securing the Atreides atomic weapons. Paul has also realized that it is unlikely any of their household will also escape the Harkonnens: with the Padishah Emperor’s support, they are determined to wholly exterminate House Atreides.
Paul does not hesitate in overruling his mother’s desires in favor of his own. For the first time, and in direct contrast to his father’s values, Paul seems to be prioritizing political advantage of the safety of his people.
Themes
Paul uses advanced reasoning to grasp that the Fremen are paying the Guild to program their surveillance satellites to ignore Fremen activities on Arrakis. There are unknown depths to Fremen culture that the young Atreides wants to explore. Meanwhile, Jessica thinks of her lost Duke Leto and his unborn daughter that she carries. Paul and Jessica receive news of the Harkonnen victory in Arrakeen over the radio. They also learn that Sardaukar soldiers in Atreides uniform have sacked the Guild bank. Paul realizes that the Padishah Emperor and Baron Harkonnen are leaving nothing to chance—by turning the Guild against House Atreides, survivors are trapped on Arrakis.
Paul’s perspective extends well beyond his immediate situation, considering Fremen and Guild cultures at large. He is still certain that Fremen society hides valuable knowledge about spice production and desert survival. Jessica’s private revelation that she is pregnant is surprising and devastating because it seems that Duke Leto didn’t know about his daughter before his death. Paul is too busy calculating his situation to notice his mother’s introspection.
Themes
Jessica learns from Paul that Duke Leto never suspected her of betraying him; this was merely a pretense to gain political power over the Harkonnens. Paul also reveals that his father regretted never marrying Jessica. Jessica grieves for Leto, but Paul finds he is unable to do the same. His mind is spinning as he experiences foresight, seeing visions of thousands of possible futures stretching in all directions. Paul grasps onto the idea that this foresight must be key talent that the Guild navigators rely on to undertake interstellar travel.
Paul now turns to his mother to fulfil his promise to Duke Leto that he would tell Jessica of the Duke’s unwavering faith in her. Paul reaches another new level of conscious as he suddenly experiences manifold future possibilities before him, once again suggesting he is transforming into a powerful prophesized messiah who can see into the future to save humankind.
Themes
Paul also realizes that there is increased spice in the air and in the food he has been eating. This mind-altering substance must have augmented his already impressive cognitive powers, pushing his mind into a new state of awareness. He relates future events to Jessica, claiming that she will give birth to a daughter. His gift of foresight is strong, as Jessica had not revealed her pregnancy to anyone yet.
Spice is foregrounded as the key substance that is enabling Paul’s sudden cognitive leaps. If he is having this extreme a reaction, it is likely that the spice affects the Fremen who live permanently in the spice-rich deserts.
Themes
Paul also reveals the terrible truth that he and Jessica are Harkonnens—the Baron Harkonnen is Jessica’s father, his identity purposefully withheld from her by the Bene Gesserit program. Throughout Paul’s visions of possible futures, he sees many paths in which the Fremen give he and Jessica sanctuary. He also predicts that the Fremen will call him “Muad’Dib,” meaning “The One Who Points the Way.”
Paul’s increased powers of foresight reveal the terrible truth of his and Jessica’s familial relationship to the man who has just killed Duke Leto. Bene Gesserit superiors hid Jessica’s paternal identity because they hoped to inbreed her daughter with Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen to produce a child who would be the Kwisatz Haderach. Finally, too, the narrator confirms that Paul is, in fact, Muad’Dib, the subject of Princess Irulan’s many historic texts.
Themes
