Children of Dune

“Abominations, the holy witches of the Bene Gesserit said. Yet the Sisterhood coveted the genophase of these children. The witches wanted sperm and ovum without the disturbing flesh which carried them.”

Like many of the characters in the novel, Stilgar regards the Bene Gesserit as “witches” for their secretive and seemingly supernatural abilities. The designation reveals a gender bias that demonizes powerful women, as the Bene Gesserit are in fact highly trained individuals who exercise the utmost self-discipline. Stilgar is suspicious that Jessica has a distorted interest in the children and is more concerned with the propagating value of their genes than their welfare as members of her family. His hyperbolic claim that the Sisterhood regards people as just “disturbing flesh” reveals his perspective of the women as cold, callous, and calculating.

“It was a reasonable choice […] You were the one person who knew what it was like to be born as we were born.”

Ghanima tells Alia that Paul had chosen her to take his place for a good reason. Leto chimes in that Alia was the appropriate choice because she could empathize with their condition as pre-borns and prevent them from feeling ostracized. Alia had experienced isolation and alienation in her own upbringing, which likely contributed to her inability to escape Abomination. The twins recognize that Alia’s likeness to themselves helped them experience some normalcy in their unique lives. They are grateful for her and defend her, even when it is evident that Alia may not recover from her possession. The scene emphasizes the importance of having someone who can relate to difference and offer recognition and understanding.

“There were stillsuit hoods of dull grey, garments of Fremen from the deep desert […] there were scattered pockets of rich merchants, hoodless in light clothing to flaunt their disdain for water loss in Arrakeen’s parching air.”

Upon her arrival in Arrakis, Jessica notices the rich dress conspicuously without any water-conserving garb. With the terraforming project underway, water is less scarce on the planet, yet the resource indexes their social hierarchy. Those who have the means never need worry about their supply and waste water, whereas those who know what it’s like to be without continue to wear the stillsuit and practice conservation.

“For a few brief heartbeats, Jessica and the Princess stood silently studying each other—two Bene Gesserits who had broken with the Sisterhood for the same reason: love…both of them for love of men who now were dead.”

Jessica and Irulan prioritize romantic love over the higher authority of the Bene Gesserit, demonstrating that their emotional fulfillment outweighs their social standing. While they both lose the men they loved, each woman represents a different way of coping with loss. Jessica abandons Arrakis and Alia to repress her grief and the memories of her beloved Duke. In contrast, Irulan, whose love for Paul was unrequited and only realized after his death, transfers her affection to his children, Leto and Ghanima. Herbert uses the phrase “a few brief heartbeats” to denote the short duration of time that the women exchange glances, but the phrase also connotes their fleeting experience of romantic love.

“He was an ugly lump of trained reflexes, a killer, and altogether terrifying to some, but Jessica loved him and prized him above all other living men. The scar of an inkvine whip rippled along his jaw, giving him a sinister appearance, but a smile softened his face as he saw Stilgar.”

Herbert describes Gurney Halleck as a man whose intimidating physical appearance instills fear and alarm. Yet, from the perspective of those who know the Atreides Warmaster, Gurney is a sensitive soul whose talents and loyalty are beyond measure. Gurney’s inkvine scar hints at his torturous past under Harkonnen enslavement, which explains his hardened exterior and deft skills as a warrior. He earns Jessica’s love and respect, and he is Stilgar’s esteemed ally. Like Stilgar, Gurney is a man of integrity and balance. At the end of the novel, Leto rewards both men for their steadfastness and reinstates Stilgar’s leadership over Sietch Tabr with Gurney as his advisor.

“Even love can’t protect us from unwanted facts. And she knew then that she still loved her daughter, crying out silently against fate: Alia! Oh, Alia! I am sorry for my part in your destruction.”

Jessica laments her role in creating Alia’s condition, both by her consumption of spice while pregnant and her subsequent abandonment of her daughter to rule Arrakis alone. Two pervasive thoughts inform Jessica’s despair: The first is her implicit acceptance of the Bene Gesserit’s judgment that Alia has fallen to Abomination, while the second is her own dejected attitude after losing her Duke. She claims that love cannot protect anyone but directs the assertion inwardly toward herself. Jessica feels remorse and love for Alia, yet she never expresses her sorrow directly to her daughter. In Jessica’s mind, these emotions will not save Alia from Abomination.

“You must be the stern mother of your people. It’s your duty to maintain order.”

The woman-as-nation allegory is a restrictive trope of female power and constrains female leadership to an essentialized category of mothering. Just as Ghanima functions as an allegory for the state, Alia is also constructed as a maternal figure to her people. During one of her possessed episodes, the Baron tries to convince her that she must play the role of the “stern mother.” The allegory reveals the Baron’s philosophy of leadership that compares the people to children who need discipline and punishment. The mother figure is meant to evoke feelings of love and protection, yet underneath, the true motivation is to instill order and obedience.

“A large populace held in check by a small but powerful force is quite a common situation in our universe. And we know the major conditions wherein this large populace may turn upon its keepers.”

Alia studies the Bene Gesserit model to understand the three conditions that enable the masses to revolt against a small, elite power that rules over them. To incite a revolt, the masses must have their own leader, ask questions, and have hope. Alia realizes that The Preacher fulfills the three conditions for revolution, as he challenges the religious rhetoric that keeps the population obedient to a higher spiritual and political authority. Under the Bene Gesserit model, oligarchy is maintained not from coercion but consent. As a response to The Preacher’s growing influence, Alia appeals to the senses of fear and greed: She punishes her detractors and rewards her supporters.

“The Atreides might play a devious game against enemies, but never against friends and allies, and not at all against Family. It was ground into the Atreides manner: support your own populace to the best of your ability; show them how much better they lived under the Atreides. Demonstrate your love for your friends by the candor of your behavior with them.”

The ghola Duncan Idaho recalls the ethical foundations of House Atreides when he served under Duke Leto I. As a loyal servant who gives his life twice to save the Atreides family, Duncan does not waver from his principles. In this way, he shares the integrity and resoluteness of men like Stilgar and Gurney, who cannot be swayed by influences that contradict their own moral standards. The old House Atreides valued family, the welfare of the populace, and transparency. By contrast, Alia (under the possession of the Baron) conspires to kill the twins and her mother, punishes her dissenters, and feigns love for Duncan, all the while planning his execution.

“Allegiance, once changed, could change again.”

Alia is constantly anxious and suspicious of those who claim to be her ally. She invites Irulan and Duncan to a council meeting under the pretense of seeking their input. However, she covertly expects Duncan to use his mentat abilities to calculate whether Irulan is a traitor or not. Alia believes in the adage that loyalties never remain permanent. Instead of striving to inspire genuine commitment and trust from her allies and followers, Alia relies on a system of spies to root out elements that compromise her authority. Doing so creates a cycle where trust must constantly be verified.

“One uses power by grasping it lightly. To grasp too strongly is to be taken over by power, and thus to become its victim.”

Jessica invokes Duke Leto I’s axiom that good leaders should never abuse power by holding it too tightly. The warning applies to Alia, who abuses her power in this way and thus becomes the possessed victim of the archetypical villain, the Baron. The imagery of a fist clutching power connotes absolutism, tyranny, and insecurity; it also suggests a dogmatic ideology that disallows dissenting opinions. In contrast, a light grasp suggests cooperation, confidence, and adaptability. The idealism of ruling with a light grasp is an Atreides tenet, which is in stark contrast to the Harkonnens’ and Corrinos’ brutality.

“The stillsuit is the key to that planet’s character, Tyek. It’s the hallmark of Dune.”

Farad’n perceptively draws the connection between the terraforming project and its ramifications on Fremen traditions. As an avid scholar, Farad’n has been attentive to the cultural changes on Arrakis and notices seemingly innocuous details, such as the change in fashion from functioning stillsuits to decorative ones. Tyekanik regards the information as irrelevant to issues of government, but Farad’n recognizes that the stillsuit is a symbol of the resilience and ingenuity of the Fremen people and their key to survival on Dune. In understanding the garb, he understands the people and the planet, and implicitly, how to rule them. As a strategist, Farad’n sees how the shift in fashion indicates a vulnerability in the Fremen’s power that the Corrinos can exploit. Although Farad’n does not crave the throne the same way his mother Wensicia does, he enjoys engaging in political strategizing.

“‘I’m tired,’ Idaho said. ‘You’ve no idea how tired I am.’”

While Duncan is under House Corrino’s custody, Farad’n suggests sending Duncan back to his “loving wife” (312). The comment triggers Duncan to let his razor-sharp bindings cut his wrists. Duncan’s only response is that he is tired, and the vague utterance suggests that his failed marriage provoked him to despair. Additionally, his existence as a ghola may also play a role in his attempt to end his life. As a replicant manufactured from the cells of the original Duncan Idaho, the ghola Duncan has a complex investment in his identity and purpose. The original Duncan was a proud Swordmaster for House Atreides under Duke Leto I. He died valiantly fighting the Sardaukar to save the lives of Paul and Jessica. However, as a ghola serving Alia’s Regency, House Atreides is no longer the prestigious family he once knew. No system of honor exists in his current world, and Duncan may have felt equally tired of the political scheming that offered little rewards or recognition for his valor.

“He had not told her all of his vision, nor all of the reasoning derived from it.”

Leto refrains from telling Ghanima the full extent of his role in the Golden Path to spare her from the horrors of his sacrifice. He keeps silent about his impending transformation, knowing that Ghanima will mourn the loss of his humanity or perhaps try to prevent him from going through with it. Unlike the political schemes surrounding Alia that require keeping secrets and telling lies, Leto withholds information out of love and protection for his twin sister. The bond between Leto and Ghanima is one of the strongest relationships in the novel and one of the few occasions where two people work in unison toward the same goal.

“If certainty is knowing absolutely an absolute future, then that’s only death disguised!”

Paul’s sermons as The Preacher highlight the destructive role that prescience has played in his life. The Bene Gesserit have spent millennia breeding for a superior being, the Kwisatz Haderach. However, Paul’s experience of absolute prescience only brought him pain, suffering, and stagnation. The certainty of his future was akin to death, robbing him of the experiences of creativity, discovery, and surprises—the essence of what it means to be human and alive.

“You’re to take the worm trip, lad. You must go through it. Otherwise, what your father dared and you dare not would hang over you for the rest of your days.”

Under Jessica’s orders, Gurney injects Leto with a concentration of spice to induce the spice trance and test him for Abomination. The scene parallels Paul’s own experience of undergoing the spice agony ritual to become the Kwisatz Haderach. Gurney compares Leto to his father and insinuates that Leto will regret his cowardice if he refuses. The tension between what Paul has done and what Leto refuses to do highlights the concept of legacy. However, Gurney’s comparison ignores that Leto’s pre-born condition puts him at a risk of Abomination. Paul had willingly undergone the ritual, whereas Leto actively abstained from spice consumption. Ironically, after Leto survives the test, he chooses to follow the Golden Path—a course that Paul didn’t dare take. The scene begins with Gurney accusing Leto of not taking a risk, yet Leto ends up undertaking the most daring act anyone has ever attempted.

“And his skin was not his own.”

Throughout the novel, Leto makes obscure references to the Golden Path that foreshadow his drastic transformation. He describes visions of running through the desert and mentions that “his skin was not his own” verbatim four times. His visions are illuminated in the climactic scene where Leto merges with the sandtrout, which form a layer that covers his entire body. Leto’s outer skin is literally no longer his own. Figuratively, Leto has never been in his own skin. As a pre-born, he is always a congregation of ego-memories and never an individual consciousness. In some ways, Leto’s condition as a pre-born eased his transition into a symbiote, since he did not have to contend with fulfilling his personal desires in the same way that Paul did.

“There’s no mystery about a human life. It’s not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”

Leto’s understanding of the world gains clarity after his spice trance, and he concludes that life thrives on uncertainty. He deems the possession of absolute knowledge, particularly the type of knowledge gained through prescience, as counter to the experiential nature of living. His denial that life contains mystery also critiques religion’s claim to provide explanations for life’s meaning and purpose. Leto’s realization will hold further significance in God Emperor of Dune, where the future threat to humanity is more explicitly revealed to be prescient machines that hunt down and destroy all humankind. Leto’s claim that life is “not a problem to be solved” suggests that life is not about calculations and equations. Machines will be incapable of threatening humanity if humankind remains unpredictable, diverse, and indefinite.

“I’d throw myself into the worm’s mouth for you. Yes, I’m what you call me, the childless wife of your father, but you’re the child I never had.”

The novel depicts most of the female characters as either literal or symbolic mothers in a perpetuation of traditional and restrictive gender roles. Despite her small part in the novel, Irulan is no exception. Although she is childless, Irulan pleads with Ghanima to recognize that she is nevertheless a devoted mother at heart and would sacrifice her life to save her. She is depicted as the archetype of the “good mother” in her maternal instincts and self-sacrificing nature. In stark contrast, Irulan’s sister, Wensicia, is the selfish “bad mother” who supplants her child’s personal desires for her own pursuits and is willing to kill another woman’s children to get want she wants.

“What a pass they’d come to, Atreides against Atreides.”

Gurney Halleck laments the stark changes on Arrakis that have pitted the Atreides family members against each other. Not only do Jessica and Alia have an open rivalry, but Jessica’s command to have Leto killed if he falls to Abomination is contrary to the principles of Atreides ethics. Gurney has always been a loyal servant to House Atreides, and the changing values implicate his own collusion with a corrupt House. In this way, Gurney is like Stilgar, as both men played vital roles in building Paul’s empire. Just as the Atreideses are fighting among each other, so too are the Fremen in their civil war. The breakdown of filial and communal loyalties is an indictment of the larger corruption of politics and religion in the Imperium.

“There was no Alia here. Alia was dead.”

Duncan comes to terms with the irrefutable loss of Alia to Abomination. As a mentat, he knows how to calculate the odds of her survival and concludes that not only is Alia possessed, but the true Alia is dead. Duncan’s verdict draws a parallel between the symbolic deaths of Paul and Alia. Both characters appear in the novel as specters of their former selves. The Preacher no longer identifies as the Kwisatz Haderach, and Alia no longer has a grasp on her autonomy. The demise of brother and sister functions as a foil for the rise of the next generation of siblings, Leto and Ghanima. The parallels continue as Leto overcomes the trappings of prescience that destroyed his father, and Ghanima conquers the ancestral voices that destroyed her aunt.

“I’m already a different chemistry.”

Leto’s extreme metamorphosis represents a break from tradition and the promise of a new and transformative future. The merging of man and worm into a single organism symbolizes a union between humankind and nature that recognizes their interdependence. His “different chemistry” reveals that Leto is changing on an internal and structural level. The transformations in his body also function as an analogy to politics, where institutional and ideological change makes more of a difference than the replacement of different leaders in an unaltered system. Leto becomes stronger, almost invincible, in his sandtrout skin, suggesting that the planet’s ecosystem and society will benefit from this radical change.

“Would you really have pitted this lad against his sister in the test-Mashhad? What deadly nonsense! Each would have said: ‘No! Kill me! Let the other live!’”

The Preacher explains to Gurney that any spiritual test that pits the twins against each other will fail because of their loyalty to each other. In some ways, Leto and Ghanima’s bond is like that of Duncan’s political loyalty to House Atreides and Irulan’s maternal protection of the twins. What is significant about the twins’ willingness to die for each other is that their feelings are mutual. The logic of competition to the death loses its power with them, since such a brutal contest would always end at an impasse.