47 pages • 1 hour read
Frank HerbertDune Messiah
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1969A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 6-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary
Alia watches from a secret chamber as the new Spacing Guild ambassador, Edric the navigator, greets Paul in his throne room. Alia senses Paul’s agitation and realizes that Edric has brought a ghola replicated from Duncan Idaho, who died before she was born but whom she recognizes through her access to her mother’s memories.
Paul accepts Edric as ambassador and demands an explanation of the ghola. Edric introduces the ghola as Hayt, explaining that the genetic manipulations of the Tleilaxu make it impossible to be certain that Hayt is Duncan Idaho but that he is presumed to be so. Gholas retain no conscious memories of their previous selves, though they maintain some qualities of personality. Hayt was augmented to be a mentat and Zensunni philosopher, a kind of mystic, in addition to possessing Duncan Idaho’s legendary swordsmanship. Paul questions Hayt and is deeply moved by the evidence that some element of Duncan Idaho exists within him. Paul recognizes a trap, sensing that “this flesh was full of false impressions easily misread” (91). He is tempted to refuse the gift, but his loyalty and affection for his lost mentor motivates him to accept despite Stilgar’s fear and disgust.
Edric leaves and Paul dismisses Stilgar to deal with Gaius Helen Mohiam, who accompanied Edric and whom Paul imprisoned; the Bene Gesserit are not permitted on Dune. Paul questions Hayt further, and Hayt admits that he is there to destroy Paul. Calling Paul “young master,” Hayt begs to be sent away but Paul insists that he remain. Paul worries that he was not able to see Hayt’s arrival with his prescience and wonders what else he cannot see. Alia senses Paul’s distress and wonders at her own attraction to the ghola.
Chapter 7 Summary
Irulan visits Gaius Helen Mohiam in her cell, where the Reverend Mother has been meditating and reading the Dune tarot, a newly popular method of divination. Gaius Helen Mohiam fears she will not leave Arrakis alive.
The Reverend Mother tells Irulan that she has missed her chance to bear Paul’s heir and scolds the princess for her failure. Gaius Helen wonders whether Paul and Alia could be manipulated into an incestuous relationship to preserve their bloodline. Irulan admits that Chani has begun eating a Fremen fertility died, and Irulan can no longer administer the contraceptive poison.
A guard arrives, so Irulan and Gaius Helen continue their conversation in a secret sign language. Fearing the introduction of Fremen genetics to the carefully manipulated Atreides bloodline, Gaius Helen instructs Irulan to administer an abortifacient to Chani if she becomes pregnant. If Paul successfully establishes a dynasty on his own, the entire Bene Gesserit mission may be lost.
Irulan realizes that the Bene Gesserit are willing to sacrifice her own life to ensure Chani never produces an heir. Insulted at being “spent” so callously, Irulan resolves to “buy them more than they expected” (108). Gaius Helen fears that Irulan will expose their plot.
Chapter 8 Summary
Alia wanders through the crowds of pilgrims at her temple, the Fane of the Oracle. She chafes at her role as godhead and wonders about the new popularity of the Dune tarot; so many people attempting to divine the future has made prescience generally more difficult.
Alia retreats to her chambers. Agitated, she takes a bath and contemplates the “shadow figure of a man” she senses in her future (113). At 16 years old, Alia is experiencing a sexual awakening and is frustrated by her inability to see her own romantic future. Uncomforted by the bath, Alia recklessly trains naked, fighting a training device beyond reasonable levels of danger.
Paul and Stilgar arrive, and Paul deactivates the training device with a perfectly timed dagger. He scolds Alia for her lack of caution and tells her to get dressed. Sensing Alia’s pent-up sexual energy, Stilgar announces that they must find a partner for her soon.
Paul tells Alia that Irulan indicated that the Guild plans to abduct a sandworm to manufacture spice. Alia deduces that this must mean they have Fremen conspirators, and Paul admits that they should assume the Guild will succeed. Stilgar expresses confusion that Paul and Alia cannot use their prescience to uncover the plot, and Alia reminds him: “All power is limited” (124). Paul and Alia wonder what the Guild navigators have seen that they have not.
Chapter 9 Summary
Paul holds a private audience with Edric, who is accompanied by Scytale disguised as an aide. Paul recognizes the danger behind Scytale’s benign appearance. Edric repeats myths about Paul’s father—that he killed his nemesis the Baron Harkonnen and died at the site of his shrine on Arrakis—which Paul dispassionately corrects. Alia killed the Baron Harkonnen at just four years old; Paul’s father Duke Leto Atreides died in Harkonnen captivity.
Edric provocatively questions Paul’s motives and suggests that Paul contributes to the religious myth surrounding him to weaponized faith and cement his hold on power. Stilgar is outraged, and Paul realizes that Edric’s words are meant to manipulate Stilgar and his guards, not Paul. Paul insists that his religious role was “thrust upon” him and not something he sought (133), but declares Alia a true goddess, suggesting that she would not hesitate to kill Edric for his insults. Paul ends the audience, now certain that the conspirators are setting him up.
Stilgar has pressing business, but Paul instructs him to study ancient history instead, insisting that Stilgar learn about Genghis Khan and Adolf Hitler. Paul compares himself to the two despots, who murdered by bureaucratic decree, and notes that his Jihad has killed billions more than either man. Paul wonders out loud if his “legions” realize that they have true control over the universe, even though they answer to him. Korba reports a disturbance in the palace gardens where strangers from Edric’s entourage sow suspicion of Paul’s motives. Paul orders Edric’s agents to be killed, again meditating on the violence of his path and the violent futures in which he is not emperor.
Chapter 10 Summary
In the desert, Alia investigates the body of a murdered girl, likely Lichna, although Alia does not know this. Alia is unable to deduce anything concrete about the murder but experiences persistent thoughts about semuta and Tleilaxu Face Dancers. Feeling more at home in the open desert, Alia laments that “she and her brother could not be people” (145).
Hayt flies Alia back to Arrakeen in an Ornithopter, a bird-like flying machine. He and Alia banter and debate natural law. Hayt admits that he is disturbed by mentions of Duncan Idaho and feels a deep need to know who he was before. Alia questions Hayt about his intentions toward Paul, and Hayt confesses that he is there to destroy Paul but also feels loyal to him and advised Paul simply to “keep his friends and destroy his enemies” (157). As they fly over the shrine of Duke Leto Atreides’s skull, Hayt experiences a profound disturbance, as Leto was a close friend of Duncan Idaho’s. Alia commiserates, telling Hayt that she knows her father both as his daughter and—because of her access to the Lady Jessica’s memories—his lover. Arriving at Arrakeen, Hayt kisses Alia, announcing that they both felt sexual tension. Alia notes that the real danger about Hayt is his honesty.
Chapters 6-10 Analysis
As the action rises, Paul prioritizes his personal motivations over his political motivations, even as he recognizes aspects of the plot against him. Paul finds both disturbance and hope in the idea of future possibilities he has not seen; he is not sure if those possibilities offer a way to escape his inevitable doom while saving humanity, or if they are merely alternate routes to calamity. Despite his temptation, Paul chooses the difficult future he has seen over uncertainty. However, his acceptance of the ghola Hayt, motivated by his friendship with Duncan Idaho, puts him at personal risk and alienates his Fremen allies. Paul is able to see the shape of the plot against him after the audience with Edric, and Herbert suggests that Paul’s greatest enemy is himself. Much of the novel’s dramatic tension stems from what future exactly Paul has foreseen and which aspects of the unfolding plot match or subvert Paul’s expectations, exacerbating his struggle against the fate he has nonetheless chosen.
Paul’s methods of government are also closely examined in these chapters. Rather than portraying Paul as a delusional despot, Herbert shows that Paul is aware of his own tyranny. Paul ignores Stilgar’s pleas to focus on the business of the empire, directing him to study history instead. Paul is too preoccupied with his struggle against fate and endeavors to shape the universe to concern himself with the minutiae of governance. As he later explains to Hayt, “People don’t want a bookkeeper for an Emperor; they want a master, someone who’ll protect them from change” (155). Paul’s cynical philosophy of government explains his embrace of dictatorship. Paul never considers that humanity might ensure its own survival without his influence guiding them toward that future; he believes people want to be dominated, rather than make decisions for themselves, even as he wishes for his own personal freedom. Paul’s authoritarian hypocrisy undermines his heroic status, and his tyranny also throws into relief the Fremen disillusionment; the messiah and Jihad they longed for, and the supremacy of their religion and culture throughout the universe have paradoxically resulted in a kind of diminishment, as Farok laments in Chapter 4 and as the Fremen Otheym will note later in the novel.
Paul’s enemies face similar dilemmas of their own making. As leader of the Bene Gesserit, Gaius Helen Mohiam is partly responsible for the breeding program that created Paul Atreides. In her cell, she experiences “the sick feeling that she was caught in a web of her own spinning” (103), knowing that Paul’s power to defeat her as the kwisatz haderach was designed by her own order. Irulan, too, sees her own demise being shaped by the order to which she has devoted her life.
These chapters also firmly establish Alia and Hayt/Duncan as secondary protagonists of the novel. As Hayt struggles to reclaim his lost identity, Alia’s emerging womanhood complicates her ability to establish an identity unique from the ancestral memories she carries. Alia’s inability to see her own romantic future foreshadows her love story with Hayt; she cannot see him in her future because he is shielded by Edric’s prescience as part of the conspiracy. Alia’s reluctance to accept her role as goddess further emphasizes that for her and Paul, religion is a tool, and not a fervently held belief.
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