101 pages • 3 hours read
Frank HerbertDune
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1965A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
The Power of Prophecy
Dune is a novel concerned with the power of prophecy. Visions of the future are littered throughout the novel’s cultures, with many believing that a messiah-type figure will arrive to lead them to glory. The Kwisatz Haderach, Lisan al-Gaib, and the Mahdi are all such messianic figures in various prophecies, many of which are seemingly realized in the rise of Paul Atreides. Paul embraces his role as the foretold leader of the Fremen and the product of generations of Bene Gesserit breeding, anointing himself the Kwisatz Haderach and then becoming Emperor, seemingly satisfying the terms of the prophecy. However, Paul’s role as a prophesied leader reveals the inauthentic nature of such divinations in Dune. The Fremen prophecy is a deliberately manufactured cultural artifact, inserted into the Fremen religion by the Bene Gesserit. Meanwhile, the Bene Gesserit breeding program that is designed to produce the Kwisatz Haderach is not so much a prophecy as it is a eugenics program, which Jessica defies when she chooses to give birth to Paul. As a result, Paul is not a supernatural product of a long-held authentic prophecy. Rather, the true power of prophecy is to lend credibility to the emergence of a powerful figure who has been deliberately trained and fabricated to satisfy the terms of a similarly manufactured prophecy. Prophecies in Dune are more like conspiracies than supernatural phenomena. The true power of prophecy when concerning messiah figures is to lay the groundwork for the people behind the scenes, lending them the credibility needed to seize and exert power and control in important moments.
However, authentic prophetic visions of the future do exist in Dune. Paul is the main practitioner of such visions but even his spice-infused mind accepts that there is no way to be certain about the future. Rather than seeing definitive events, Paul recognizes that his visions show him glimpses of many possible futures. As such, the power of Paul’s prophecies is more akin to a highly refined intuition. The intuitive abilities of the Bene Gesserit and the Mentats seem supernatural and prophetic to those who have not been trained, while Paul’s intuitive abilities are an even more refined version of these institutions. Paul sees many possible futures and can alter his actions to achieve his goals, though he is never quite certain of the consequences of his behavior or how he will reach the destinations he has foreseen. In addition, these glimpses of the future are sometimes a curse. Paul sees the religious war that could be fought in his name and the scale of death and destruction terrifies him. The burden of prophecy weighs heavily on Paul, causing him to feel guilt for events that have not yet transpired. Prophecy empowers Paul, but it also restricts his ability to embrace his true potential. He is scared that he might unleash forces beyond his control, as foreseen in his vision, so he deliberately limits his own power. The true power of prophecy is shown through its limitations, where even a glimpse into a possible future is enough to seem like a messiah and enough to terrify the most powerful person in the galaxy.
The Environment and Ecology
The environment and ecology are central to Dune. Arrakis is a seemingly hostile ecosystem, yet it produces the more important substance in the universe. The presence of something as essential as the spice in an environment as inhospitable as Arrakis hints at the unbound potential that can remain hidden to the unobservant. This is seen elsewhere, when the Fremen are dismissed by the Harkonnens as irrelevant while harboring immense potential as warriors. Likewise, Paul is dismissed as dead by the Harkonnens while secretly training to bring about their downfall. The hidden potential of the environment reminds the audience not to dismiss the seemingly inhospitable or irrelevant. The importance of the Fremen and the spice shows how the environment is a bountiful and vital concern, even in a place as seemingly barren as Arrakis.
Given that most of the narrative takes place on the hostile desert planet of Arrakis, the environment the characters inhabit dictates their behavior and worldview. The Fremen’s culture is shaped by their environment, from their choice of clothes to their reverence of water. One of the Fremen leaders, Dr. Kynes, is a planetologist who believes the environment will be the key to the Fremen’s salvation. He preaches of a future in which the ecology of Arrakis has been permanently changed to something more hospitable. His cause becomes the cause of the Fremen and then the cause of Paul Atreides, meaning that environmental issues are a point of contention in the battle for control of Arrakis and the key to imagining a better, greener future for the Fremen people. In many ways, Paul is attempting to regain what he lost when he left the lush green planet of Caladan. Changing the environment of Arrakis is not just a benevolent act for Paul; introducing more water to Arrakis is a deliberate act of nostalgia and an attempt to reassert a lost idea of home in the place where he now lives.
Unlike the Fremen, the Harkonnens have no respect for the environment. To the Baron and his underlings, Arrakis exists only as a source of spice—and therefore as a source of income. They harvest the spice without any regard for the inhabitants of Arrakis or for the planet itself, even hoping to worsen conditions and destroy the environment to replicate the Emperor’s prison planet and increase their profits. Paul and the Fremen want to change the environment of Arrakis for the benefit of the people whereas the Harkonnens seek to change the environment for their own personal gain. The contrast between the motivations shows how the environmental themes of the novel divide the characters along moral and ideological lines. The relationship between characters and the environment is instructive, revealing to the audience which characters are benevolent, moral, and well-intentioned and which characters are the opposite.
Religious Violence
Throughout Dune, Paul is haunted by the specter of a devastating religious war fought in his name. Referred to as a crusade or a jihad, this war has the potential to kill billions of people. The war is never realized in the book, but the prospect of religious conflict appears throughout the text as a recurring theme. In Paul’s vision, the Fremen will fight in this war on his behalf. The Fremen’s religion emerges from the hostile environment in which they live. Unfortunately for the Fremen, their religious disposition and their hardiness means that a series of people use their beliefs as a form of manipulation. Dr. Kynes and his father, for example, begin to integrate ecological ideas into the religion of the Fremen. The raids against the Harkonnens and the idea of Arrakis as a paradise are rallying calls for the devout Fremen. Kynes’ intentions are benevolent, in that he hopes to turn Arrakis into a more hospitable world. This change will benefit the Fremen immensely. However, to affect the change requires a great deal of violence, removing the occupying forces through any means necessary. Kynes and other Fremen leaders use the Fremen religion to motivate their people in this fight, using religious violence to bring about much needed change on Arrakis.
When Paul emerges as Muad’Dib, he uses similar tactics to seek revenge against the Harkonnens. He shares Kynes’ goal of one day making Arrakis an easier place to live, and he shows great love for the Fremen people. Whether by coincidence, opportunism, or deliberate manipulation, Paul becomes a cornerstone of the Fremen religion. He adheres to the prophecies that tell of a great messiah who will bring success to the Fremen people. Paul recognizes the dangers of his position but he cannot stop himself from employing the religious violence of the Fremen for his own gains. Religious violence becomes another weapon in Paul’s arsenal, inspiring the same level of devotion among the Fremen as the Emperor enjoys among his elite Sardaukar soldiers. Paul takes the violent religious ideas that were bubbling beneath the Fremen belief system and turns up the heat, turning the scattered violence of the early novel into a full-scale war. Paul exploits the Fremen even though he fears their power. Religious violence—like atomic weapons or shields—becomes another weapon he can use to seek revenge against the Harkonnens and the Emperor.
Religious violence is not unique to the Fremen. One of the most feared and violent groups in the universe is the Bene Gesserit, a religious sect commonly referred to as witches by those who are subject to their violence or their manipulation. The violence of the Bene Gesserit is more subtle than the martial crusade of the Fremen. The Bene Gesserit use pain to test Paul’s humanity, they manipulate and dominate people’s minds using techniques like the Voice, and they spend centuries carefully enacting a policy of eugenics in the name of their religion. To reach their goals, they manipulate entire civilizations. Jessica realizes that the idea of the messiah in the Fremen religion was inserted and cultivated by one of her Bene Gesserit forebears. The Bene Gesserit bake the idea of religious violence into the cultures and religions they encounter, then manipulate these cultures to achieve their own cryptic religious goals. The religious violence of the Bene Gesserit is the foundation on which all other religious violence in the novel is built.
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By Frank Herbert
