Dune Messiah Themes

While Dune tells the story of one man’s rise to power, Dune Messiah portrays the nature of his power once he has attained it. Author Frank Herbert intended Dune Messiah to be an inversion of the science fiction novel’s typical subject matter: the hero’s rise to power. Instead, Dune Messiah deals with a hero’s downfall and the failures of power. Dune’s hero, Paul Atreides, enters the scene as Dune Messiah’s protagonist—the ruler, or…

Frank Herbert’s Dune Messiah explores the dangers of religion, especially when mixed with forces of government. In Dune Messiah’s prequel, Dune, the Fremen people of Arrakis choose Emperor Paul Atreides as their messiah, and Paul starts a religious jihad. When Dune Messiah picks up 12 years later, the powerful jihad continues to reign supreme. Paul struggles to steer humanity toward safety while also maintaining his role as messiah for the Fremen people. Not…

Dune Messiah explores the nature of fate and the power to see the future. Not only is the world of Dune Messiah subject to fate, but its protagonist—the Emperor of the fictional planet Dune, Paul Atreides—is gifted with the power of prescience, or the power to see the future. From the outset, this power is not a positive thing. In fact, as an omniscient narrator claims at the outset of the novel, “completely accurate…