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Book 1, Part 18
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Dune, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Power and Violence
Free Will and Fate
Environment and Human Culture
Human Cognitive Advances
Summary
Analysis
The epigraph from Princess Irulan’s text “Collected Sayings of Muad’Dib” states that “there should be a science of discontent.” People need hardships to develop mental strength.
After being drugged in her bedroom, Jessica awakes in darkness and can feel that she is bound and gagged on a floor. She has been kidnapped by House Harkonnen and hears four sets of footsteps coming toward her. A door opens, revealing she is in the palace cellar where Paul slept, although he is not here now.
Despite awaking to a terrifying situation, Jessica’s Bene Gesserit training ensures that she keeps calm and assesses her surroundings.
Themes
Lady Jessica is confronted by Baron Harkonnen and his Mentat Piter de Vries, with two guards posted outside the room. The Baron tells the Mentat that Piter can choose one of two rewards for helping achieve the Atreides downfall—ruling Arrakis, or claiming Jessica as his prize. Jessica knows through her truthsense that the Baron is lying either way; Piter chooses Arrakis. Jessica realizes that Yueh is the traitor who has handed the Atriedes to the Baron. When she realizes that Emperor Shaddam IV has supported House Harkonnen’s attack on House Atreides, she accepts the likelihood that Duke Leto is dead.
Jessica continues to use her Bene Gesserit training to read the room and search for any advantage she can use to escape. She demonstrates courage in accepting that Duke Leto is dead; she is likely holding on to the hope that Paul is still alive.
Themes
Shortly after, Harkonnen troops bring Paul to the room on a litter. Although he is seemingly unconscious, Paul is secretly awake, trying to calm his despair and work out an escape plan for him and Jessica. The pair are then flown into the desert by two Harkonnen guards. At Yueh’s suggestion, Baron Harkonnen has ordered the mother and son to be killed there so that their bodies will be disposed of by sandworms. Upon their landing, Jessica notices another ornithopter covertly land some distance away on the desert’s Shield Wall.
Like his mother, Paul is relying on his Bene Gesserit training to ascertain what is happening and decide how he can escape. The narrator notes that Yueh has influenced Baron Harkonnen’s plan for Paul and Jessica, implying that they may be able to escape the Harkonnens with the Suk doctor’s help.
Themes
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Paul, who is not gagged like Jessica, is able to use his limited power of the Bene Gesserit Voice to persuade the guards to remove his mother’s gag. The other guard is deaf and cannot be controlled by the Voice, but Jessica convinces the hearing guard to fight his ally. One of the guards is killed, and Jessica distracts the remaining one long enough for Paul to be able to attack and overpower him.
Once more, Paul and Jessica use their Bene Gesserit training to outsmart and overpower the Harkonnens.
Themes
Raiding the ornithopter that brought them to the desert, Paul and Jessica discover a bundle hidden by Yueh that contains stillsuits, food, and Leto’s ducal ring. Suddenly another ornithopter appears in the distance, flying toward them. Paul and Jessica flee the scene.
Paul and Jessica are in survival mode, hoping to escape being recaptured by Harkonnen forces. They will need more than their Bene Gesserit training to survive in the hostile Arrakeen deserts.
Themes
