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” quotes a saying by St. Alia-of-the-Knife that a Reverend Mother must “become a wellspring of cunning and resourcefulness” in order to survive beyond youth and beauty.
St. Alia-of-the-Knife’s name foreshadows Alia Atreides’s actions at the novel’s end in callously stabbing to death injured Sardaukar soldiers on the battlefield in order to reclaim their water, a Fremen cultural ritual.
Themes
Back on Caladan, it is the evening on the same day of Paul Atreides’s gom jabbar test. The Reverend Mother Mohiam challenges Lady Jessica about her decision to bear Duke Leto a son instead of following the Bene Gesserit instructions to bear a daughter (Bene Gesserit women are able to dictate the sex of their children). Jessica is not wholly certain why she chose to rebel and bear a son, but tells the Reverend Mother it is because Duke Leto wanted a son. This has ruined the Bene Gesserit genetic breeding program, as the sisterhood wanted to wed Duke Leto and Jessica’s daughter with Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen. It was hoped their union would produce a child who would be the prophesized Kwisatz Haderach, the result of thousands of years of secret genetic breeding. Jessica is unrepentant for her decision.
The Bene Gesserit sisterhood are a powerful order who have amassed great worldly power through its members’ absolute obedience. Lady Jessica’s rebellious actions are therefore surprising, demonstrating that she does not fit the Bene Gesserit mold. Ironically, her breach of loyalty catalyzes the events that produce the Kwisatz Haderach that the sisterhood constantly strives towards creating and controlling.
Themes
The Reverend Mother Mohiam warns Jessica that the Atreides family are in danger due to the Emperor Shaddam IV and Landsraad’s political manipulations. She suggests that Duke Leto will die on Arrakis, and Jessica and Paul will be become fugitives. Jessica is both furious and heartbroken, but ultimately knows that she cannot act to change this course of events: she is Bene Gesserit and “exists only to serve.”
Despite her refusal to obey Bene Gesserit orders to bear Duke Leto a daughter, Lady Jessica accepts that she cannot change the fact that her beloved Duke Leto will be killed. This suggests that Bene Gesserits have access to foresight, and that their order believes in a predetermined future—individual free will cannot change predicted future events.
Themes
The Reverend Mother Mohiam calls for Paul and speaks to him about his dreams of foresight. He recounts a dream in which he meets a girl who calls him “Usul” and puts “a stamp of strangeness” on him. She requests that Paul tell her about the waters of his home planet, Caladan, and so he recites her a poem on the subject. Paul is certain he will meet this girl in the future.
Paul demonstrates his creative and intellectual talents, playing into his visionary casting of character. The details of Paul’s dream are suggestive of myth and prophecy due to the unfamiliar name that the girl calls him, alongside the otherworldly “strangeness” she casts on him.
Themes
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The Reverend Mother Mohiam acknowledges that Paul may be the Bene Gesserit’s prophesized Kwisatz Haderach, but doubts it. However, she offers him hints about how to successfully control the Truthsayer drug. Paul feels afflicted by a “terrible purpose.” He also reveals he overheard the conversation about Duke Leto’s approaching death and is furious the Bene Gesserit will not help his father. The Reverend Mother instructs Jessica to continue to teach Paul Bene Gesserit training, including the way of the Voice. She wishes Paul well and departs Caladan; Jessica is unnerved as she catches signs of tears on the old woman’s face as she leaves.
The Reverend Mother is a Bene Gesserit superior who believes in the predetermined future—for example, she knows that nothing can be done to save Duke Leto from being killed upon his move to Caladan. However, her hints to Paul about what he must achieve to become Kwisatz Haderach—even though she doubts he is that figure—sets up a tension between the concepts of fate and free will. This scene is also the first of many in which Paul feels afflicted by an unknown “terrible purpose” of his fate.
Themes
