Dune

Dune

by

Frank Herbert

Bene Gesserit Term Analysis

An ancient and powerful matriarchal order operating on values of secrecy, whose members are accomplished in mental and physical training. Bene Gesseit sisters can wield control over others using tonal controls learned in their practice known as the Voice. Members also become proficient in prana-bindu (muscle control) and prana nervature (nervous system control). Bene Gesserit members who survive a ritual involving the transformation of toxic spice into a non-toxic substance then become Reverend Mothers, with the ability to access the Other Memory (the combined memories of female ancestral Bene Gesserit). The order’s overall mission is to harness genetic breeding to produce the Kwisatz Haderach, a male individual whose mental abilities go beyond all others.

Bene Gesserit Quotes in Dune

The Dune quotes below are all either spoken by Bene Gesserit or refer to Bene Gesserit. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Power and Violence Theme Icon
).
Book 1, Part 1 Quotes

“A duke’s son must know about poisons,” she said. “It’s the way of our times, eh? Musky, to be poisoned in your drink. Aumas, to be poisoned in your food. The quick ones and the slow ones and the ones in between. Here’s a new one for you: the gom jabbar. It kills only animals.”

Related Characters: Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam (speaker), Paul Atreides / Muad’Dib, Lady Jessica
Related Symbols: Gom Jabbar
Page Number: 11
Explanation and Analysis:

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

Related Characters: Paul Atreides / Muad’Dib (speaker), Lady Jessica, Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam
Related Symbols: Gom Jabbar
Page Number: 12
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 1, Part 3 Quotes

The willow submits to the wind and prospers until one day it is many willows—a wall against the wind. That is the willow's purpose.

Related Characters: Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam (speaker), Paul Atreides / Muad’Dib, Lady Jessica
Related Symbols: Gom Jabbar
Page Number: 42
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 1, Part 16 Quotes

Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never consistent. It depends in part upon the myth-making imagination of humankind. The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in. He must reflect what is projected upon him. And he must have a strong sense of the sardonic. This is what uncouples him from belief in his own pretensions. The sardonic is all that permits him to move within himself. Without this quality, even occasional greatness will destroy a man.

Related Characters: Paul Atreides / Muad’Dib (speaker), Dr. Liet-Kynes, Princess Irulan
Page Number: 205
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 2, Part 2 Quotes

And Paul, walking behind Chani, felt that a vital moment had passed him, that he had missed an essential decision and was now caught up in his own myth. He knew he had seen this place before, experienced it in a fragment of prescient dream on faraway Caladan, but details of the place were being filled in now that he had not seen. He felt a new sense of wonder at the limits of his gift. It was as though rode within the wave of time, sometimes in its trough, sometimes on a crest—and all around him the other waves lifted and fell, revealing and then hiding what they bore on their surface.

And through it all, the wild jihad still loomed ahead of him, the violence and the slaughter.

Related Characters: Paul Atreides / Muad’Dib, Lady Jessica, Stilgar, Chani Kynes
Page Number: 518
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 2, Part 11 Quotes

My mother obeyed her Sister Superiors where the Lady Jessica disobeyed. Which of them was the stronger? History has already answered.

Related Characters: Princess Irulan (speaker), Paul Atreides / Muad’Dib, Lady Jessica, Duke Leto Atreides, Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV
Page Number: 480
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 2, Part 12 Quotes

Survival is the ability to swim in strange water.

Related Characters: Lady Jessica (speaker), Paul Atreides / Muad’Dib, Chani Kynes
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 504
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 3, Part 3 Quotes

“When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movement becomes headlong—faster and faster and faster. They put aside all thought of obstacles and forget that a precipice does not show itself to the man in a blind rush until it’s too late.”

Related Characters: Lady Jessica (speaker), Paul Atreides / Muad’Dib
Page Number: 620
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 3, Part 10 Quotes

“I’m sorry, Grandfather,” Alia said. You’ve met the Atreides gom jabbar.”

Related Characters: Alia Atreides / St. Alia-of-the-Knife (speaker), Baron Vladimir Harkonnen
Related Symbols: Gom Jabbar
Page Number: 753
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 3, Part 11 Quotes

"Do you know so little of my son?" Jessica whispered. "See that princess standing there, so haughty and confident. They say she has pretensions of a literary nature. Let us hope she finds solace in such things; she'll have little else." A bitter laugh escaped Jessica. "Think on it, Chani: that princess will have the name, yet she'll live as less than a concubine — never to know a moment of tenderness from the man to whom she's bound. While we, Chani, we who carry the name of concubine — history will call us wives.”

Related Characters: Lady Jessica (speaker), Paul Atreides / Muad’Dib, Duke Leto Atreides, Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV, Chani Kynes, Princess Irulan
Page Number: 794
Explanation and Analysis:
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Bene Gesserit Term Timeline in Dune

The timeline below shows where the term Bene Gesserit appears in Dune. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book 1, Part 1
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...census. Paul makes note of his own anxiety and uses one of Lady Jessica’s teachings—a Bene Gesserit mind-body technique—to calm himself. (full context)
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...notices that she is similarly tense. She informs Paul that the old woman, who is Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, has summoned Paul to meet her. Paul says that he... (full context)
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...Paul has passed the test. He learns that she passed the same test during her Bene Gesserit training. The Reverend Mother Mohiam explains the history of the matriarchal Bene Gesserit program, including... (full context)
Book 1, Part 3
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...Lady Jessica about her decision to bear Duke Leto a son instead of following the Bene Gesserit instructions to bear a daughter (Bene Gesserit women are able to dictate the sex of... (full context)
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...but ultimately knows that she cannot act to change this course of events: she is Bene Gesserit and “exists only to serve.” (full context)
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The Reverend Mother Mohiam acknowledges that Paul may be the Bene Gesserit ’s prophesized Kwisatz Haderach, but doubts it. However, she offers him hints about how to... (full context)
Book 1, Part 4
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...(and later traitorous) Dr. Wellington Yueh. Muad’Dib also benefitted greatly from his mother Lady Jessica’s Bene Gesserit teachings, and Duke Leto’s fatherly qualities. (full context)
Book 1, Part 7
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The epigraph from Princess Irulan’s text “Analysis: The Arrakeen Crisis” reveals the success of Bene Gesserit “sowing implant-legends” throughout the worlds of the Imperium since ancient times. The Arrakeen implant-legend of... (full context)
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While considering Lady Jessica’s great beauty, Duke Leto also ponders her mysterious heritage, as the Bene Gesserit order has deliberately kept her ancestry a secret. (full context)
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...a head housekeeper for Jessica named Shadout Mapes. The Duke has learned that there are Bene Gesserit legends embedded in Fremen culture, which Jessica attributes to the sisterhood’s protective practice of planting... (full context)
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...The Duke’s concubine uses her impressive skills of observation and analysis, as well as the Bene Gesserit ’s embedded legends, to prevent Mapes from killing her. Jessica realizes that Fremen prophecy predicts... (full context)
Book 1, Part 8
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...him into the role of traitor. Jessica learns that Yueh’s wife, Wanna, who is also Bene Gesserit , was taken and presumably killed by House Harkonnen. Yueh thinks “Wanna might not be... (full context)
Book 1, Part 10
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...from Princess Irulan’s text “Muad’Dib: Family Commentaries” meditatively considers how Lady Jessica kept to her Bene Gesserit program during her trials on Arrakis. (full context)
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...In the conservatory Jessica finds a note addressed to her from Lady Margot Fenring, a Bene Gesserit sister. In a secret Bene Gesserit code she warns Jessica of an attack on Paul... (full context)
Book 1, Part 13
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...Outer World.” The Fremen are also fascinated by Lady Jessica’s power and status as a Bene Gesserit sister. (full context)
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...them in prophecy, which states that “a leader will come to them, child of a Bene Gesserit , to lead them to true freedom.” (full context)
Book 1, Part 14
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...a foreboding that the Fremen belief is linked to the possibility he will become the Bene Gesserit ’s Kwisatz Haderach. (full context)
Book 1, Part 16
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...who insults Kynes as living like the uncivilized “mobs of Fremen.” Jessica wonders if the Bene Gesserit order planted the Kwasitz Haderach prophecy on Arrakis, which encourages her secret hope that Paul... (full context)
Book 1, Part 17
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...changes tack and asks Hawat why he has never trusted her to use her full Bene Gesserit abilities in Duke Leto’s service. The Mentat angrily replies that he does not have faith... (full context)
Book 1, Part 19
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...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... (full context)
Book 1, Part 22
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...around him. He finds he is able to process information more quickly than even his Bene Gesserit mother Jessica, becoming surprised by her slow and even poor understanding of their situation. Paul... (full context)
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...are Harkonnens—the Baron Harkonnen is Jessica’s father, his identity purposefully withheld from her by the Bene Gesserit program. Throughout Paul’s visions of possible futures, he sees many paths in which the Fremen... (full context)
Book 2, Part 1
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...House Harkonnen. The Emperor blames many parties for the Duke’s death—Baron Harkonnen, the Guild, the Bene Gesserit order, even the Emperor’s own wife and daughter. Irulan attributes her father’s extreme and unreasonable... (full context)
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...awareness, Paul comes to terms with the fact that he is a result of the Bene Gesserit efforts to refresh the human gene pool. However, Paul sees that this will take the... (full context)
Book 2, Part 3
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...a safe flying zone, where he finds that they are stuck. Paul begins reciting the Bene Gesserit litany against fear when he realizes his mother is terrified that the two of them... (full context)
Book 2, Part 9
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...a Fremen give the command to “Get their water” in the common language. Through her Bene Gesserit training, Jessica can understand their indigenous language as Chakobsa and deduces that the Fremen are... (full context)
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...they should offer her and Paul sanctuary. She calculates that Fremen culture was implanted with Bene Gesserit legends many generations ago and plays on these myths and prophecies to demonstrate that she... (full context)
Book 2, Part 11
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...the face of the ancient House Corrino dynasty. The Princess draws a distinction between her Bene Gesserit mother and Lady Jessica, with the former obeying her superiors’ orders to produce daughters while... (full context)
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...Fremen’s right. Jessica tries to persuade Jamis to fight her, then threatens him using the Bene Gesserit Voice. When Jamis invokes the right of silence on her, she must step back and... (full context)
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...in such a moment on the edge of death. He calms himself by reciting the Bene Gesserit litany against fear. (full context)
Book 2, Part 13
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...he kills his one hundredth slave-gladiator in the public arena. Count Hasimir Fenring and his Bene Gesserit wife Lady Margot Fenring have been invited to the special occasion, and the day is... (full context)
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...introduces his nephew Feyd-Rautha to Count Fenring and Lady Fenring. Feyd-Rautha is disconcerted by the Bene Gesserit Lady’s calm manner. He is also attracted to her beauty. The Baron thinks to himself... (full context)
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...for his fight, she wonders as to whether this is the young man that the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother has asked the order to look out for—Feyd-Rautha’s Harkonnen bloodline is important for... (full context)
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...Baron by elevating Feyd-Rautha to Head of House Harkonnen. The Fenrings would prefer this, as Bene Gesserit Lady Fenring knows that she can control Feyd-Rautha through his physical attraction to her. (full context)
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As per Bene Gesserit order, Lady Fenring is planning to become pregnant with Feyd-Rautha’s child in the near future,... (full context)
Book 2, Part 15
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...substance that can “open the universe” to Jessica. After drinking the liquid, Jessica uses her Bene Gesserit talents to analyze its chemical makeup and learns that the liquid is a poisonous drug.... (full context)
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...now has access to all previous Reverend Mothers’ ancestral memories, even going back beyond the Bene Gesserit order, and so will her daughter. Jessica can tell that her unborn child is in... (full context)
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...his Fremen forces and those of the Padishah Emperor, the Harkonnens, the Guild, and the Bene Gesserit . He is once again conflicted by his visions of the Fremen religious war that... (full context)
Book 3, Part 3
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...undertook when Alia was in the womb; like her mother, Alia can also access ancestral Bene Gesserit memories. Many of the Fremen dislike Alia due to her strange and worldly ways. (full context)
Book 3, Part 4
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...according to their guardian father’s powerful status. She surprises Jessica with her revelation of some Bene Gesserit talents. Harah has also decided to marry Stilgar, becoming one of his wives. Jessica reflects... (full context)
Book 3, Part 7
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Paul has decided it is time see if he is indeed the Kwisatz Haderach of Bene Gesserit prophecy. He will drink the poisonous Water of Life to attain Reverend Mother status, a... (full context)
Book 3, Part 8
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...and female energies that can cross the boundaries of space and time. He is the Bene Gesserit ’s Kwisatz Haderach and the Fremen’s Lisan al-Gaib. (full context)
Book 3, Part 10
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Inside an Imperial ship, Emperor Shaddam IV interrogates Baron Harkonnen with the aid of his Bene Gesserit truthsayer, who is Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam. Also present are two Guild members and... (full context)
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...Alia as an “abomination” because the young girl is cursed with the ability to access Bene Gesserit ancestral memories. Through the collective memory pool, Alia can stand in the Reverend Mother’s mind... (full context)
Book 3, Part 11
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...of his son Leto’s death. Then, though, Paul affirms to Jessica that he is the Bene Gesserit ’s Kwisatz Haderach. He has “lived billions upon billions of lives” and “plumbed the depths... (full context)
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...for the first time Paul sees fear in the Padishah Emperor’s eyes. Paul uses his Bene Gesserit Voice training to put every ounce of contempt into his address of “Majesty.” The Emperor... (full context)
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...to forgive Jessica for anything. And he informs her that despite ninety generations of the Bene Gesserit program’s genetic breeding, now that the Kwisatz Haderach is here, he will never help with... (full context)
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...Mother Mohiam trembles as she realizes that Paul knows his maternal grandfather’s heritage that the Bene Gesserit kept hidden all of Lady Jessica and Paul’s lives. She is terrified at the outcome... (full context)
Appendix II
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...also many Ancient Teachings practiced widely and based on Islamic, Buddhist and Hindu origins. The Bene Gesserit order is an elite sisterhood founded on religious mysticism and ritual. There is also an... (full context)
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...through its growth toward a monopoly over space travel, attended such meetings. So did the Bene Gesserit , who were networking with the sorceresses. (full context)
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...fear that nothing would come of it all.” Only the stability of the Guild, the Bene Gesserit , and the Landsraad prevented total lawlessness. (full context)
Appendix III
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This appendix details a “report on Bene Gesserit motives and purpose.” The narrator introduces it by noting that Lady Jessica commissioned the report... (full context)
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Despite the Bene Gesserit order’s significant influence over the Imperium, the matriarchal program was guilty of error on the... (full context)
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The Bene Gesserit ignored further warnings that Paul Atreides would become the Kwisatz Haderach: that he demonstrated the... (full context)
Appendix IV
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...hands of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. Next, Lady Jessica is acknowledged as a member of the Bene Gesserit order, daughter of Baron Harkonnen, and mother of Paul Atreides. Lady Alia Atreides is listed... (full context)