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
In the epigraph from Princess Irulan’s text “Collected saying of Muad’Dib,” Muad’Dib speaks of the way that a person who is angry will refuse to hear the truths of their inner consciousness.
Paul’s Bene Gesserit training allows him to effectively read other people’s emotions. His discussion of anger matches many of the events in Dune, most particularly the inability of the furious Thufir Hawat to realize that Lady Jessica did not betray House Atreides to the Harkonnens.
Themes
Despite mounting pressure for Paul to challenge Stilgar’s leadership in deadly combat, Paul announces to Stilgar and the Fremen that he will not do so. He has found a different method of claiming leadership, showing the tribe his ducal ring inherited from Duke Leto. Paul proclaims himself Duke of Arrakis and his first official act is to knight Stilgar. Stilgar can accept Paul’s leadership as Duke Paul rather than Fremen Usul. He works to convince the tribe to accept this too. Paul furthermore convinces them that he is taking on his legacy as the religious figure Lisan al-Gaib, a different kind of authority to Stilgar’s operational leadership.
Paul is committed to fulfilling his destiny as the Mahdi who will bring the Fremen power and glory through his triumph over the Padishah Emperor and House Harkonnen. His decision to promote his leadership as the mystical Lisan al-Gaib sees him giving in to the unstoppable chain of events that will result in the devastating Fremen violence across the Imperium.
Themes
Paul has just learned that Baron Harkonnen is withdrawing his support for Count Rabban on Arrakis. In effect this means that the Fremen can attack Rabban without fear of his calling for military aid from House Harkonnen. Paul announces this to the Fremen and charges them with fighting to take control of Arrakis at large. He whips them into an excited frenzy so that the Fremen are ready to fight and also accept Paul’s new leadership role as Duke Paul-Muad’Dib and Lisan al-Gaib. Paul reminds them that Stilgar leads the tribe and that he commands with Paul’s voice.
Through a delicate political ploy, Paul has sold his unofficial leadership to the Fremen as working through his trusted right-hand man, Stilgar. Paul uses his mythic status as the prophesized messiah to inspire the Fremen into a fanatic frenzy, ensuring that they will follow his cause without question and even to their deaths.
Themes
Gurney Halleck, reunited with Paul and accompanying him to meet with his Fremen, is shocked to learn that Lady Jessica is alive and living within the sietch. Halleck still believes that Jessica was the traitor who sold out House Atreides to the Harkonnens. Halleck unexpectedly attacks her in Paul’s rooms, meaning to kill Jessica. He has a knife at her throat when Paul enters.
Despite her safety as Reverend Mother in Fremen society, Jessica has not escaped the political danger associated with the Great Houses.
Themes
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It is only quick thinking and a vulnerable speech from Paul about Jessica’s honor and love for Duke Leto that finally convinces Halleck she is not at fault. Jessica is also stirred by the great emotion and love that Paul reveals for her and for his father. When Halleck drops his blade, she is almost in tears. She crosses the room to Paul and states that she has failed him in her teachings—she urges him to charter his own course now to find a real happiness. She acknowledges that he should marry Chani if he loves her.
Paul’s unexpected vulnerability causes Jessica to doubt all of her plans supporting him in his rise to power and revenge on the Padishah Emperor and Harkonnens. She gives up her long desire of his identity as the Kwisatz Haderach and begs him to change his course to find personal happiness. Her change of heart is also striking because she has previously strongly counseled Paul that he must undertake a political marriage rather than a love match. Jessica doesn’t realize that it is too late for her son to prevent his rise to Imperial power, pointing to the idea that people are ultimately powerless in the face of fate’s determinism.
Themes
Halleck interrupts the touching moment, shocked to the core and heavily shamed that he has believed a lie about Jessica for so many years. He feels that he has failed Paul and Duke Leto as well as her. He demands that Paul kill him for his mistake, but Paul will not accept such foolishness. Neither will Jessica move against him when he asks her to kill him, instead offering him forgiveness and love.
As with Stilgar, Paul refuses to kill Halleck—it is senseless to dispose of such a valuable asset. Jessica also forgives Halleck immediately, as she knows he is true in his loyalty to House Atreides.
Themes
Jessica is suddenly weary, and Paul is distracted by the many decisions he needs to make for the Fremen. They request that Halleck play them a tune on his new baliset, with Paul leaving the weapons master playing in his rooms with Jessica while he leaves to attend to his duties. A Fedaykin guard reports that many Fremen leaders are arriving for a council.
Paul is once more torn between personal desires and collective responsibilities, required to leave his reunion with Halleck and his support of Jessica.
Themes
Instead of attending to his responsibilities, Paul walks to deep reaches of the cavern where, as per every sietch, a small sandworm is kept in stunted growth near the tribe’s water basin. It is trapped in this space by the water which is poisonous to sandworms. The drowning of the sandworm results in its liquid expulsion of the Water of Life, the poison that can be deactivated by a Reverend Mother.
Paul’s decision to forego the impending council for the Fremen water basin suggests that some mystical power is drawing him to continue his journey to becoming prophesized messiah.
Themes
Paul has decided it is time see if he is indeed the Kwisatz Haderach of Bene Gesserit prophecy. He will drink the poisonous Water of Life to attain Reverend Mother status, a move that no man has yet attempted and survived.
Paul suddenly chooses to prioritize his personal desire for increased power and takes the perilous risk of beginning the trial to become Kwisatz Haderach.
Themes
