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Chapter 5
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
On Dune, Alia looks down from her spyhole at the Guild visitors filing into the reception hall. The Guild’s orange and grey robes and Edric’s orange gas container cover the beautiful aquatic tiles of the hall. Paul sits on his throne. He’s wearing his crown, which depicts fish and fists. Alia senses that Paul is agitated. He is looking at an orange-robed Guild member with metal eyes. The Guild member looks familiar to Alia. Paul’s memories, which Alia absorbed while in her mother’s womb, tell her that this man is Duncan Idaho. Astonished, she realizes this man must be a ghola—revived flesh.
The ghola emerges as a force of nostalgia that operates in contrast with the forces of prescience present in Dune Messiah: Hayt is a strong reminder of the past before the oracle that instructed Paul to create the new world. However, Hayt’s metal eyes also reveal that he is the robotic creation of the people who revived him. In this way, Hayt contains two potential beings, and it is unclear which one is his true nature.
Themes
The Guild Ambassador and the ghola, who walks like a swordsman, come to a halt before Paul’s throne. Paul, who is not looking at the ghola, greets Edric. Popping a melange pill, Edric offers Paul a gift: the man who looks like Duncan Idaho (the ghola). Paul asks Edric to explain his gift. Edric says that the body of Duncan Idaho was sold to the Tleilaxu after he died saving Paul’s life, and the Bene Tleilaxu revived him into a man named Hayt. The Guild thought Hayt would please Muad’Dib. Edric says that Hayt is just a name, and as far as the Tleilaxu knows, Hayt is Duncan Idaho. Paul is suspicious of this “Tleilaxu thing” and what the Tleilaxu might have incorporated into its flesh.
Despite Hayt’s resemblance to Duncan Idaho and Edric’s insistence that Hayt is fully revived, Paul worries that there is no such thing as a true revival of a dead person. In being a ghola whom the Tleilaxu revived, Hayt becomes a “thing” that naturally possesses some of their attributes. Paul cannot answer the question of whether or not Hayt is a machine or his former self—Duncan Idaho—and so the ghola is both temptation and a threat.
Themes
Paul addresses Hayt. Hayt smiles and says that Paul’s voice is familiar. In her spyhole, Alia trembles at recognizing Duncan Idaho’s voice. Hayt explains that he has no memory of his past life, but that many things are familiar to him. Paul wonders what he owes to the flesh of Duncan Idaho. Although the ghola is not Duncan Idaho, he is the mind and body that taught Paul how to use a sword. Hayt says that he is here to serve Paul in whatever way he can. Alia feels that the new Duncan Idaho is purified—a blank page on which the Tleilaxu wrote. In this way, the gift is dangerous; the Tleilaxu have been known to create killers of all kinds from human flesh.
Hayt’s potential to become Idaho is a temptation to Paul and makes him feel that he has a responsibility to his old master. In this way, Hayt is as potentially dangerous as he is potentially beneficial: he could either lose his old self entirely and become a pawn of Paul’s enemies, or he could resume his role as Paul’s trusted friend and ally.
Themes
Edric says that Hayt’s training attempted to improve his swordsmanship. Paul thinks the name Hayt is ominous, and he senses dangers without being able to identify them. He asks whether the ghola prefers the name Duncan Idaho or Hayt. The ghola says either is fine; he says that he enjoys recognizing signs from his past and knows that Paul admired and trusted the man he used to be. Frustrating Paul with his vagueness, the ghola says that his cleansed mind makes decisions without cause and effect. Paul decides to call the ghola Hayt. Hayt nods and steps back, and Alia wonders how he knew the conversation was over.
The nostalgia that Hayt arouses in Paul complicates Paul’s prescience, which senses danger in Hayt. In this way, Paul is caught between two forces outside of his control: the temptation of the past, and the palpable danger in his future. In deciding to call the ghola Hayt, Paul decides to obey his prescience and distrust the ghola for the time being, thinking of him as a weapon of destruction and not as his old friend.
Themes
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Paul informs Edric that he removed the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam from the Guild’s plane, and that he will discuss this with Edric later. He dismisses the Guild and tells Hayt to stay. Having accepted the Guild’s gift, Paul is regretful; he knows Hayt is some kind of bait. Stilgar tells Paul that Hayt is not the real Duncan Idaho and urges him to send him back. Paul tells Stilgar to guard the Reverend Mother while he sees to Hayt.
Paul accepts the Guild’s gift without really meaning to, against his better judgement. As soon as he accepts, he regrets his decision, knowing that he made it irrationally; he gave into his nostalgia for the past and his curiosity about Hayt’s identities. In this way, Paul’s human weaknesses make him vulnerable to the danger of his enemies’ pawn.
Themes
When Stilgar is gone, Paul asks Hayt why the Guild has sent them. Hayt says that the Guild intends for Hayt to destroy Paul. Hayt’s honesty disturbs Paul, and he looks up at Alia’s spyhole, wishing he could ask her for advice. Hayt says that if Paul wants to protect himself, he should send Hayt away. When Paul asks how Hayt will destroy him, Hayt asks Paul how he came to hold so much power. Paul answers that he gained his power through strong decisions, and Hayt recites a cryptic aphorism about how decisions temper life. Paul tries to figure out how the ghola will destroy him. Hayt insinuates that he will hamper Paul’s will with ideas, and then he warns Paul to send him away. Unable to resist the voice of Duncan Idaho, Paul says Hayt will stay.
Hayt’s blunt truth-telling does not persuade Paul to turn him away. This suggests that Hayt is succeeding in doing what the Guild hoped he would do—enlarge Paul’s “moral nature.” Instead of protecting his position of power, the appearance of Paul’s old friend tempts Paul. Acting against his rational judgment, Paul acts emotionally and allows Hayt to stay. This emotional—or “moral”—nature in Paul is self-destructive: it makes him vulnerable, against his better judgement, to his enemies. In this way, Paul’s human nature undermines his power.
Themes
Paul looks up at Alia’s spyhole, and silently urges her to spy on Hayt and discover his secrets. He feels that the ghost of Duncan Idaho is in Hayt’s flesh, but he also feels that Hayt is someone else. He wonders why he didn’t see Hayt coming and asks Hayt for an explanation. Hayt says that he does not have the power of prescience. Paul wonders if he will have to choose “the terrible way” and the word “disengage” tolls through his mind. From above, Alia feels a magnetic attraction to Hayt and senses that the ghola is a danger to both her and Paul.
Paul believes that his lack of foresight about Hayt’s arrival is either a good or bad sign: either it means that his enemies found a way to work outside of his gaze, or that his future is not as certain and doomed as it often appears to be. Paul alludes to a reserve plan of action that he dreads—a “terrible way”—suggesting that Paul already knows his fate but is choosing to ignore it for the time being.
Themes
