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 “Arrakis Awakening” discusses Muad’Dib’s powers of foresight. He can see the future, but she likens it to being limited in the same way that sight is limited by perspective and light. The future is also impacted and changed by the smallest of decisions, even someone’s simple choice of words. Irulan notes that Muad’Dib always rebelled against choosing a seemingly straightforward option of the future paths he sees before him, stating “That path leads ever down into stagnation.”
Although Paul Atreides has the greatest powers of foresight in the Imperium, he is not all-knowing. To this end, he has some element of free choice in his life, despite all future possibilities being laid out before him—sometimes they are shrouded by his perspective. He believes that making safe choices will lead to humanity’s destruction and therefore makes risky decisions.
Themes
The ornithopters that rise over Paul and Jessica in the desert are flown by Duncan Idaho, who has brought Dr. Kynes and several Fremen with him. They rescue the pair and the group watch as the enemy ornithopters sweeping the desert with lasguns are blown to pieces due to a large shield that Idaho buried in the sand—the power of the lasgun and shield charges meeting causes a subatomic explosion.
Violent destruction continues on Arrakis as Harkonnen forces destroy desert landscapes in the hope of wiping out the Fremen who dwell there.
Themes
Kynes then guides the group to one of the old Imperial bases that he had earlier refused to show Duke Leto. It is a cave chamber where the Fremen now undertake ecological experiments with the aim of restoring surface bodies of water on Arrakis. Paul is struck by the strangeness of Idaho calling him “Sire.” Now that Duke Leto is dead, Paul is officially head of House Atreides.
Paul seems more surprised at his new role as Duke than his ascent to Kwisatz Haderach. He now learns, too, that the Fremen are successfully learning how to terraform Arrakis to result in a more hospitable climate. This will prove powerful knowledge that will save his life and allow him to inspire a Fremen following.
Themes
In the base, Kynes wonders for a moment if he has made the right choice in choosing to help Paul and Jessica and therefore endangering himself and the Fremen. He is comforted in his decision, though, when he observes the mantle of adulthood and leadership that Paul now wears as head of a dukedom. He is further convinced that Paul is worth aiding when the young man comments that he would like to use the Imperial bases to work out how to make Arrakis more hospitable for human life. In the base, Paul and Jessica discover that Kynes is the mysterious leader that the Fremen call “Liet.” He seemingly holds both political and religious power in his Fremen leadership role.
For the first time in his life, Liet-Kynes has risked the Fremen dream of creating an Eden-like Arrakis by endangering the Fremen and their ecological experiments when helping Paul and Jessica escape. His concern at the repercussion of his actions will prove valid as his Imperial defection is later punished with death by the Harkonnens.
Themes
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Liet-Kynes leads Paul and Jessica to private chambers in the cavern, where Paul and Kynes negotiate. They each forcefully try to impose their own authority over one another, with Paul pushing his legal nobility while Kynes presses his Arrakeen mantle of authority. Paul then speaks to his likely identity as the prophesized Fremen messiah Lisan al-Gaib, which Kynes tries to dismiss as superstition. Kynes changes the subject by asking Paul what his plan is to take back power from Emperor Shaddam IV and House Harkonnen.
Liet-Kynes is not willing to give up anything more than he already has in aiding Paul’s escape. Their exchange demonstrates their similarities in personal conviction and leadership style. Kynes demonstrates his wiles when he tries to distract Paul and sound out his big picture plans by asking him about his revenge on the Padishah Emperor and House Harkonnen.
Themes
Using the Fremen’s talents to prove that the Padishah Emperor’s Sardaukar soldiers are secretly fighting for House Harkonnen, Paul wants to blackmail Emperor Shaddam IV into abdicating his throne to the young Atreides Duke. Paul will threaten the Emperor with a violent civil war by bringing the truth of the Arrakis attacks before Landsraad High Council. This will enrage the Great Houses of the Landsraad: if they learn that the Emperor helped to attack House Atreides, the Great Houses will fear similar treatment and unite to take on Imperial forces. Paul will then offer the Emperor an alternative to civil war—that the young Duke marry one of the Imperial princesses, and the Emperor step down to allow Paul Imperial rule. Paul is betting on the Emperor’s wish to preserve the Imperium rather than see the Great Houses tear worlds apart in their fighting.
The narrator reveals that Paul has designed a complex and ambitious plan to gain the Imperial throne—as per his father’s hopes, he needs to secure Fremen support to carry them out.
Themes
Liet-Kynes and Jessica are wary about this course of action, seeing flaws as well as advantages in Paul’s plan. However, Kynes is won over to the Atreides cause by Paul’s integrity when the young man apologizes for an overstep in communication. Paul furthermore pledges his loyalty—even his life—to Kynes if the planetologist will return the loyalty. Kynes is shaken by the sincerity and magnitude of Paul’s offer. However, their conversation is cut short as Sardaukar forces attack the group in the old Imperial base.
Since his escape from Baron Harkonnen with Jessica, Paul has been chillingly cold in his relations with everyone around him, including his mother. Now, though, he secures Liet-Kynes’s support by reverting back to his father’s favorite strategy in gaining power—treating people with care and loyalty.
Themes
Duncan Idaho is killed protecting Paul during the fight with the Sardaukar soldiers, but Liet-Kynes, Paul and Jessica escape through a secret exit. Kynes splits from his companions, directing them to continue down a passage until they reach a hidden ornithopter, and to pilot the ship into an approaching sandstorm to escape their attackers. It is highly dangerous, but Kynes assures the mother and son that Fremen have succeeded in such ploys before. They must keep the ornithopter high in the storm to survive it. Before he departs down another passage, Kynes promises to send Fremen back to guide the pair to safety.
Liet-Kynes follows through on his pledge to support Paul even at the risk of his own and his Fremen’s deaths.
Themes
Paul and Jessica follow Liet-Kynes’s instructions to escape the Imperial Base, but are pursued in the air. Jessica trusts that Paul’s training and talents will get them through this ordeal as he daringly pilots the ornithopter into the sandstorm, where they are immediately buffeted by immense winds. Paul wrestles the ship into a safe flying zone, where he finds that they are stuck. Paul begins reciting the Bene Gesserit litany against fear when he realizes his mother is terrified that the two of them must ride out the sandstorm.
Paul must combine his Mentat and Bene Gesserit talents with his new skills in foresight to successfully enter the deadly sandstorm and find a safe pocket of air to fly in. The recently aloof young man shows compassion in supporting his mother through her fear by reciting the calming Bene Gesserit refrain—this is now one of many instances where the litany has protected Paul or Jessica by calming them into a state of self-control.
Themes
