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 “The Wisdom of Muad’Dib” imparts his quote that “God created Arrakis to train the faithful.”
This epigraph plays into the idea that environment crucially impacts human culture. In this case, Arrakeen hardships condition the Fremen into superior fighting forces.
Themes
As evening falls, Jessica feels uncomfortable in the stillsuit that envelops her body and runs across her face. She also worries about Chani’s growing attachment to Paul. Jamis’s funeral takes place and Paul is offered his water—Fremen law states that reclaimed water from the dead belongs to the tribe unless it was death by combat. Chani does not understand why Paul does not want Jamis’s water. Jessica commands her son to accept, as she has learned that water equals power in the Arrakis desert. Her insistence makes him pause to reevaluate his refusal, and he grasps that refusing the water would cause a rift within the tribe.
Stilgar calls forward friends of Jamis, while Chani leads Jessica to sit opposite the men. Anyone who has a claim of friendship with Jamis steps forward to choose an appropriate item from the dead man’s belongings, with Stilgar starting the proceedings. As the ceremony continues, Paul does not know what to do except that the Fremen expect him to take part. Jessica steps forward to pay her respects to the dead man and chooses a kerchief from the items. Her actions trigger Paul’s memory of her teachings, and he suddenly knows what he must do.
Paul feels the weight of Fremen expectation and is unsure about the right move. Jessica once again supports her son, approaching Jamis’s funeral collection to show Paul how he might do it. His mother’s Bene Gesserit training helps him through yet another cultural hurdle.
Themes
Approaching the pile, Paul acknowledges that he was a friend of Jamis. He chooses a baliset (stringed instrument) from items on the ground, perhaps because it reminds him of his troubadour-warrior friend, Gurney Halleck. Paul shares that through his friendship with Jamis, the Fremen has taught him that to kill takes a toll. Paul states he wishes he had known Jamis better and chokes up tearfully. The Fremen are astonished at the depth of respect that Paul pays to Jamis—Jessica realizes even more now the value of water to Fremen, as tears are a sacred offering. Fremen approach Paul to touch his wet cheeks in wonder.
Paul’s natural compassion for Jamis and the death Paul was forced to inflict on him awes the Fremen. To the Fremen, who live on a parched planet and conserve water as much as possible, tears are considered an incredible, selfless gift for another person—an echo of Stilgar’s gift of loyalty to Duke Leto when he spat on the table in the Arrakeen tower.
Themes
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After ritual chanting, the final funeral rite is to pass on Jamis’s water. Stilgar and Chani ensure that the water goes to Paul along with the customary instructions for its usage—Paul must guard it carefully and share it if a need arises. Instead of collecting the water bags directly, though, Paul receives metal rings that act as water markers, with the liquid stored with the tribe’s catchments. Paul asks Chani to hold the rings for him until he learns how to carry them without noise—he does not realize immediately that his offer to Chani is a form of Fremen courtship.
There are many Fremen customs that accompany the transactions and storage of water, once again highlighting water’s momentous value for the tribe. Paul’s innocent mistake in courting Chani—yet another custom he doesn’t understand—foreshadows their future romantic relationship.
Themes
The tribe begins moving once more. They pass by a windtrap, an invention that precipitates moisture and which is novel to Jessica and Paul. They hear a Fremen remark that the windtrap is has a good catch in it, which must be Jamis showing them he is at peace.
Fremen are extremely superstitious and spiritual, evidenced in the belief that Jamis’s peaceful spirit has bestowed a good moisture catch on the tribe. It is this superstition and spirituality that allows Jessica and Paul to take advantage of their Bene Gesserit religious training to persuade the Fremen to accept them into the sietch.
Themes
Soon they reach a large open cavern with a high ceiling and a large pool of water. Jamis’s water is poured into the pool with extremely precise measurements matching the Fremen’s earlier calculations. Jessica is impressed by their accuracy. Stilgar tells her that this place is so sacred that even a thirst-addled Fremen would not take a sip. The pool is an enormous treasure of sacred water that is safely “walled off from the little makers,” and the Fremen have created thousands more sites like it. Jessica thinks that Paul will be able to inspire such a fanatical people to his cause with relative ease.
The narrator again highlights water’s importance to Fremen by sharing the extreme discipline they exhibit in refusing to touch the community’s water stores without permission, even if they are in great physical need. Once again, it is clear that the Fremen prioritize the community’s well-being over that of the individual. Jessica remains confused at yet another mention of mysterious “makers” but is relieved that Paul can secure his future with the Fremen fairly easily. Jessica’s future with them still remains uncertain.
Themes
The Fremen observe the water pouring process with a reverent mysticism. Paul is overcome once more about the inevitability of a future violent crusade under his figurehead. He greatly desires not to let it happen, but knows that it will be the result of an overwhelmingly powerful chain of events looming out of the future. Even if Paul dies, the fate will resolve itself through his mother Jessica or his unborn sister. He realizes that the only way to stop the violent wave of slaughter is if he, his mother, and all of the Fremen die right now in this cavern. The tribe moves on, with Paul believing that “a vital moment ha[s] passed [by] him.”
Paul has a sudden insight that this moment in the cavern is his last chance to take action—the difficult action of mass murder—to prevent the greater violence of a future Fremen religious crusade. Either event will be marked by violence, pain, and bloodshed, but if Paul kills the Fremen, it will be him committing the violence, while if he lets the religious crusade play out, it will be other people committing widespread murder and destruction across the Imperium in his name. Since Paul does not choose to act, consequently paving the way for the religious crusade, he is now wholly tied to the myth of the Mahdi now known as Muad’Dib.
Themes
Chani asks Paul to sing a song and play the baliset. Jessica reminds herself that she needs to warn Paul about the dangers of becoming involved with Chani. Paul plucks the baliset and sings one of Gurney Halleck’s simple tunes about dusk and nighttime. Jessica is alarmed that Paul has chosen to sing Chani a love song. After the song, Paul sits in darkness and thinks that his mother is his enemy—she is the source of the violent religious war because she gave birth to Paul and then trained him.
Jessica wants Paul to make a marriage of political benefit rather than a love marriage; therefore, she doesn’t want to encourage his attachment to the Fremen girl Chani. Paul’s dejection in being caught up in the future violence of his fanatical Fremen followers emerges as resentment toward Jessica for defying the Bene Gesserit order in birthing and then training Paul.
Themes
