The themes of free will and fate weigh heavily throughout Frank Herbert’s epic science fiction novel Dune. The protagonist, a young nobleman named Paul Atreides, is an individual who shows uncanny abilities of foresight. These talents result from generations of careful selective breeding as dictated by the cunning Bene Gesserit organization; Paul’s ability to view potential futures is then heightened by his use of the powerful drug called spice. In his visions, he sees many pathways that lead him to overthrow the treacherous ruling Empire and save the galaxy from destruction. This occurs with the support of the Fremen—a hardy people who have adapted to the harsh desert climate on planet Arrakis and regularly ingest the planet’s spice. Through his actions, Paul will become the Bene Gesserit’s Kwisatz Haderach, who is prophesized to save humanity from annihilation. However, Paul sees that this triumph will come at a great human cost: his Fremen army will become an uncontrollable force who will sweep the galaxy in a violent religious crusade. Although Paul tries to assert his free will to avoid this violence, he comes to realize and accept that he cannot escape his destiny. In playing out the tension between free will and fate, Herbert uses Paul’s character arc to demonstrate that people are ultimately powerless against fate’s determinism.
As Kwisatz Haderach, Paul is able to see visions of all the potential paths that lie in his future, which suggests that he possesses free will in making different choices. Ultimately, though, fate dictates that all of the future pathways have the same outcome. As he grows into the Kwisatz Haderach role over the course of the novel, Paul becomes powerful individual possessing ancestral memories and powers of foresight. The Bene Gesserit have prophesized the Kwisatz Haderach as a benevolent messiah who will guide humanity toward peace and stability. As he develops into this messianic figure, he experiences increased visions of a future characterized by the Fremen’s religious warfare in the name of “Muad’Dib” (Paul’s chosen Fremen name). Paul’s identity and actions are thereby shaped by both past realities and future certainties. He desperately tries to avoid his visions and the Bene Gesserit prophecy that predicts his destructive rise to galactic power. However, Paul eventually accepts that regardless of which pathway he chooses to try and save humanity from destruction, the final outcome is going to be the same—a violent religious war in his name. Herbert thus encloses his protagonist’s being in a foretold narrative arc, suggesting that his fate is inescapable.
Dune’s narrative structure reflects its thematic deterministic universe, as readers know that Paul Atreides will overthrow the corrupted Empire, but they don’t know how this will occur. Each of the novel’s chapters begins with an excerpt of Princess Irulan’s future historical writings, offering insights on Paul (her future husband in a marriage of political convenience) whom she refers to by his Fremen name, Muad’Dib. Irulan’s writing lends a (fictional) scholarly weight to Paul’s prophecy as the Bene Gesserit’s Kwisatz Haderach, confirming him by that title as well as “Lisan al-Gaib” (Paul’s messianic title in Fremen culture). These (future) historical excerpts play into Herbert’s dramatic conceit that readers are aware of the novel’s end but not the means of getting there; this reflects Paul’s foresight that a future religious war will occur in his name, but his uncertainty of how actions and events will lead there. He sees many pathways and is able to choose the means but not the destination, emphasizing that no amount of free will and choice can allow a person to outrun their destiny.
Paul is a protagonist characterized by his uniquely singular abilities to tap into a collective consciousness to experience the past and foresee the future. His transformation into the Kwisatz Haderach collapses time and space and reveals his predetermined future as the prophet who overthrows the Padishah Emperor and unleashes a religious war on the universe. Paul’s dilemma is that he wants to save humanity and avenge his family, but he also longs to avoid the accompanying Fremen war that will take a huge cost in human lives and material damage. Ultimately, though, this is not possible—the two are tied by fate, and there is nothing Paul can do to sidestep his destiny.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Free Will and Fate ThemeTracker
Free Will and Fate Quotes in Dune
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
The willow submits to the wind and prospers until one day it is many willows—a wall against the wind. That is the willow's purpose.
Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never consistent. It depends in part upon the myth-making imagination of humankind. The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in. He must reflect what is projected upon him. And he must have a strong sense of the sardonic. This is what uncouples him from belief in his own pretensions. The sardonic is all that permits him to move within himself. Without this quality, even occasional greatness will destroy a man.
There should be a science of discontent. People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.
And Paul, walking behind Chani, felt that a vital moment had passed him, that he had missed an essential decision and was now caught up in his own myth. He knew he had seen this place before, experienced it in a fragment of prescient dream on faraway Caladan, but details of the place were being filled in now that he had not seen. He felt a new sense of wonder at the limits of his gift. It was as though rode within the wave of time, sometimes in its trough, sometimes on a crest—and all around him the other waves lifted and fell, revealing and then hiding what they bore on their surface.
And through it all, the wild jihad still loomed ahead of him, the violence and the slaughter.
My mother obeyed her Sister Superiors where the Lady Jessica disobeyed. Which of them was the stronger? History has already answered.
“When your opponent fears you, then’s the moment when you give the fear its own rein, give it the time to work on him. Let it become terror. The terrified man fights himself. Eventually, he attacks in desperation. That is the most dangerous moment, but the terrified man can be trusted usually to make a fatal mistake. You are being trained here to detect these mistakes and use them.”
“I will tell you a thing about your new name,” Stilgar said. “The choice pleases us. Muad’Dib is wise in the ways of the desert. Muad’Dib creates his own water. Muad’Dib hides from the sun and travels in the cool night. Muad’Dib is fruitful and multiplies over the land. Muad’Dib we call ‘instructor-of-boys.’ That is a powerful base on which to build your life, Paul-Muad’Dib, who is Usul among us. We welcome you.”
Survival is the ability to swim in strange water.
“When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movement becomes headlong—faster and faster and faster. They put aside all thought of obstacles and forget that a precipice does not show itself to the man in a blind rush until it’s too late.”
“I’m sorry, Grandfather,” Alia said. You’ve met the Atreides gom jabbar.”
The Guild Navigators, gifted with limited prescience, had made the fatal decision: they’d chosen always the clear, safe course that leads ever downward into stagnation.
“If I hear any more nonsense from either of you,” Paul said, “I’ll give the order that’ll destroy all spice production on Arrakis … forever.”
[…]
“Do it!” Paul barked. “The power to destroy a thing is the absolute control over it. You’ve agreed I have that power. We are not here to discuss or negotiate or compromise. You will obey my orders or suffer the immediate consequences!”
“He means it,” the shorter Guildsman said. And Paul saw the fear grip them.
"Do you know so little of my son?" Jessica whispered. "See that princess standing there, so haughty and confident. They say she has pretensions of a literary nature. Let us hope she finds solace in such things; she'll have little else." A bitter laugh escaped Jessica. "Think on it, Chani: that princess will have the name, yet she'll live as less than a concubine — never to know a moment of tenderness from the man to whom she's bound. While we, Chani, we who carry the name of concubine — history will call us wives.”
