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Chapter 11
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Dune Messiah, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Power
Religion
Guilt and Longing
Fate and Choice
Summary
Analysis
The Reverend Mother hobbles along, surrounded by guards. She is answering Paul’s summons. She remembers when she tested Paul as the kwisatz haderach and silently curses Lady Jessica for ruining everything. The Reverend Mother feels powerless in her aged body. The guards lead her through vaulted passages. Passersby stare, but she keeps her gaze on the guard in front of her. She laments her personal loss that Paul refuses his Bene Gesserit posterity. She fears the “abominable” Alia—a wild Reverend Mother who wasn’t trained by the Bene Gesserit.
The Reverend Mother’s decrepitude increases her feeling of betrayal at Paul’s hands. Like an aged and neglected parent, she feels that Paul shows her no gratitude for having raised him and trained him to be the person he is today. She also resents Alia for becoming who she is with the Reverend Mother. The Reverend Mother feels that she is an old woman about whom the world has forgotten.
Themes
Paul’s immense citadel reeks “of terrifying physical power.” The Reverend Mother senses that the long walk is meant to gradually oppress her by the time she gets to Paul. However, she also senses that Paul wants something from her and isn’t planning to simply kill her. The Reverend Mother is glad that she will have the opportunity to bargain.
The immensity of Paul’s citadel illustrates how Paul’s reign of power is oppressive and pushes out all things of the past. The citadel makes the Reverend Mother feel small and weak during her walk through the huge halls, as though the new world has no room for the old.
Themes
The passages become increasingly larger until they come to a huge set of double doors that swing inward, revealing Paul’s reception hall. The Reverend Mother is made to hobble a great distance towards Paul’s throne—an action which “dwarfs” her before the Muad’Dib. The hall’s genius engineering makes Paul seem huge on his emerald throne, which is cut from an emerald to represent life and death. The Reverend Mother counts the minutes it takes her to reach the throne. Stilgar, Alia, Hayt, and several attendants flank Paul, who is also surrounded by a shimmering force field shield. Notably, Chani and Irulan are not present.
Not only does Paul rule through laws and values, but he also rules through fear and oppression. The Reverend Mother feels increasingly powerless as she approaches Paul’s enormous throne, revealing Paul’s intention to slowly wear away at her self-confidence in order put more control of their meeting into his own hands. In this way, Paul’s power is not wholly just and honest; it relies on his ability to make others afraid of and dependent upon him.
Themes
The Reverend Mother quips at Paul, and he can tell that she knows he wants something from her. The Reverend Mother asks if it was necessary to make her walk that long way. Paul says it was to make her appreciate his magnanimity. The Reverend Mother asks Paul to name the thing he wants. Alia looks at Paul, reluctant to participate in this bargaining. Calling the Reverend Mother “old woman” as he did in the past, Paul suggests that they go into a private chamber where they can sit and discuss. While Stilgar and Hayt help her to the chamber, the Reverend Mother wonders whether to trust or fear Paul.
In the same way that Hayt’s ambiguous identity keeps Paul in his thrall, Paul intentionally makes his behavior ambiguous make the Reverend Mother doubt his trustworthiness. First, he oppresses and embarrasses her by making her walk to his grand throne. Then, he promises that he will be forgiving. He also addresses her as he used to in the past, further confusing her as to whether he is the old Paul she knows and trusts or a new Paul who will deceive her.
Themes
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In his chamber, Paul seats The Reverend Mother and offers her water. Paul says that he wants to bargain for the life of Chani. When the Reverend Mother asks, Paul says he merely suspects that she has designs against Chani. The Reverend Mother fears Hayt, even though he is with the conspiracy. Paul says that, in return for Chani’s life, he will give the Guild his sperm so they can impregnate Irulan artificially on their planet. Hayt smiles and Alia studies him. The Reverend Mother asks who will bear Paul’s heir, and he says that Chani is two days pregnant.
Paul’s willingness to give the Guild his sperm reveals that he does not care about the Reverend Mother’s politics of breeding. Rather, he is concerned with preserving the genuine relationship he has with Chani by allowing only her to bear his heir. In this way, true love and family obligations motivate Paul—not the desire for a purebred lineage.
Themes
The Reverend Mother is appalled at Paul’s suggestion that he breed his valuable genes in the manner of animals. If Irulan had Paul’s child by artificial insemination, the Bene Gesserit could never claim its right to the throne because everyone would disapprove of its birth. The Reverend Mother looks around the room, wondering what to do. Alia asks what is hidden in the offer. The Reverend Mother doesn’t look at Alia, but she respects her Reverend Mother wisdom. Hayt insinuates that artificial insemination could lead the Bene Gesserit to the abominable Tleilaxu method of genetic mutation, and the Reverend Mother shudders.
In essence, the Reverend Mother’s wish for a union between Paul and Irulan is artificial; she asks them to bear a child together even though they are not in love. Therefore, her shock at Paul’s willingness to artificially inseminate Irulan is somewhat hypocritical. On the one hand, the Reverend Mother is old-fashioned and natural, not approving of artificial breeding; on the other hand, her obsession with pure breeding leads her to seek out similarly inhuman solutions.
Themes
Alia wonders aloud what will happen if the Atreides genes are “set adrift in the Bene Gesserit river.” The Reverend Mother feels a moment of communion with Alia and wonders, just as she wonders what lies behind the “Tleilaxu thing” (the ghola), what would lie behind the baby made by artificial insemination. Feeling tempted by the idea of controlled genetic mutation, the Reverend Mother recognizes that her pitfall (and the pitfall of anyone powerful) is vanity. The Reverend Mother knows that the ideal offspring for Paul is lost, but there is one more possibility.
The comparison between the ghola and a child of artificial insemination suggests that artificially created things may be dangerous. In the same way that Hayt poses a threat because he has two potential identities—his creators and Duncan Idaho—an artificially conceived baby would contain both its original genes and something from its inseminators. This comparison critiques technological advances in human breeding, and also considers its negative consequences.
Themes
The Reverend Mother says that there are two Atreides. Paul tells her to be careful what she suggests. He reminds her that Irulan was made to be used for the purpose of bearing Paul’s child. When the Reverend Mother asks, Paul confirms that he plans to put Chani’s baby on his throne. The Reverend Mother obtains permission to consult with her council before she makes a decision. Paul says that he and Chani will leave for sietch to have their baby. Alia, feeling that this is the wrong decision, asks Paul if the Tleilaxu have offered him their breeding services. Paul says no and sends Stilgar away with the Reverend Mother.
The Reverend Mother’s hint suggests two possibilities. Either she intends Paul and Alia to breed, or to breed Alia with someone else of Bene Gesserit descent. Either way, The Reverend Mother’s obstinance for purity causes her to seek perverse unions that rival the artificiality of the proposed artificial union between Paul and Irulan. As with the paradox of power, the Reverend Mother proposes the inhuman under the guise of the human.
Themes
Alia asks Hayt what he thinks the Tleilaxu will do. Paul realizes that Alia did not understand what The Reverend Mother meant when she insinuated that there are two Atreides. Paul turns to Alia, letting her see the tears on his face. In this moment, Paul feels that Hayt is Duncan Idaho. He wonders if Hayt’s metallic eyes have another function besides sight. Alia touches Paul’s tears and tells him not to grieve before it's time. Paul asks Alia what she means by before.
Paul’s prescience does not allow him to know what Alia means by “before.” Since he can see all of the future, time is not segmented into the present by an invisible future that lies beyond it. Therefore, Paul cannot experience the emotions of the present or the bliss of the unknown. He cries about the future because the future is already present to him.
Themes
