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 “Manual of Muad’Dib” quotes the short lines “What do you despise? By this you are truly known.”
By Muad’Dib’s words, readers can consider his distain of cautious decision-making and of House Harkonnen. This suggests that Paul’s identity is built on the recognition that he must take risks to save humanity, and that he is driven be the fierce need to avenge familial injustices by destroying the Harkonnens.
Themes
Baron Harkonnen is in a grounded space frigate on Arrakis. Iakin Nefud, Harkonnen guard captain, reports to the Baron that Paul and Jessica escaped a Sardaukar troop by flying an ornithopter into a sandstorm. With winds above 800 kilometers, the captain assumes the two must now be dead. The Baron pretends to be furious to intimidate the guard, stating they cannot be certain Paul and Jessica are dead without seeing their bodies.
Nefud also reports that it is likely that the Imperial planetologist Dr. Kynes has been helping House Atreides. Baron Harkonnen is irritated at the Imperial planetologist’s betrayal and orders him killed. Nefud is aghast, stating that they cannot murder an Imperial servant for fear of repercussions from the Padishah Emperor. The Baron orders Nefud to make it seem like an accidental death. The guard captain reveals the Sardaukar managed to capture Kynes and he is now in Harkonnen custody.
The narrator draws a comparison between Baron Harkonnen and Paul Atreides—both are willing to risk the Padishah Emperor’s extreme crushing power due to their dangerous decision-making tendencies.
Themes
Finally, Nefud reports that Duke Leto’s Mentat Thufir Hawat has been captured, and that the Atreides Mentat still believes that Jessica was the traitor who enabled a Harkonnen victory. Baron Harkonnen knows that Hawat is a talented Mentat and decides that “one doesn’t waste a Mentat,” especially after the death of Piter de Vries. He will use Hawat’s anger at Jessica to try and persuade him to work for the Baron. The Baron will also use a residual poison to control Hawat by withholding its antidote if the Mentat does not comply with Harkonnen orders.
The Baron’s conviction that he cannot “waste a Mentat” confirms the rarity and value of Hawat’s profession in the Imperium—human computers are essential now that thinking machines are banned. However, this moment also reveals that the Baron sees his Mentat as a commodity rather than a human being, which points to the Baron’s callous nature more generally. Baron Harkonnen’s plan to use deceit and poison to manipulate Hawat again shows the Baron’s ruthless leadership style.
Themes
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After dismissing Nefud, Baron Harkonnen sits back, very satisfied with the situation he finds himself in. Contrary to his claims made to Nefud, the Baron is quite certain that Paul and Jessica must have died in the sandstorm. He is thrilled to have exterminated all of the Atreides. He is also satisfied with his plan for House Harkonnen to keep climbing in power—in the future, the Baron wants one of his relatives to sit on the Imperial throne. He thinks that his favored nephew, Feyd-Rautha, has the potential.
The Baron’s plan pits his nephew Feyd-Rautha against his (unknown) grandson Paul in a fight to win the throne from the Padishah Emperor.
Themes
Baron Harkonnen calls for another one of his nephews, Count Glossu Rabban, to assign him control of Arrakis. The Baron boasts of his successes and intimidates his nephew into submission. He then instructs Rabban that he can do whatever he pleases on the planet, so long as he undertakes everything in his power to make the biggest profit possible. The Baron has spent an inordinate fortune on financing Sardaukar troop transport as well as his own soldiers’ transport.
Baron’s Harkonnen’s use of bullying as well as intellect as his political tools to maintain power once again demonstrates his callous, self-serving attitude toward human life.
Themes
When Rabban wonders if the Harkonnens have underestimated the power of the Arrakeen Fremen, Baron Harkonnen dismisses his concerns as foolish. But Rabban notes that the Sardaukar think the Fremen are a threat and have vowed to go back to Arrakis and exterminate them. The Baron instructs Rabban that the people of Arrakis must be forced to agree with the false story that the Arrakis invasion was merely a House-to-House battle and that Duke Leto died in an accident. The Baron dismisses Rabban, who remains unaware that Baron plans to shortly replace him with his younger brother, Feyd-Rautha, to rule Arrakis.
Rabban proves cleverer than his uncle believes him to be because he recognizes the potential danger that the Fremen pose on Arrakis. Baron Harkonnen’s dismissal of his nephew’s concern is arrogant, as he fails to acknowledge that an opinion other than his own might have value, and that a people other than his own might be significantly strong and threatening.
Themes
