From the beginning through Paul’s meeting with Dr.
Yueh
Summary
“A duke’s son must know about poisons.
. . . Here’s a new one for you: the gom jabbar. It kills only animals.”
(See Important Quotations Explained)
Dune begins on the planet Caladan, which
is ruled by Duke Leto of the House of Atreides. The House of Atreides
is one of the families that rules over the planets and planetary
systems of the universe. Duke Leto’s son, Paul, is in bed when his
mother, Jessica, and Reverend Mother Mohiam check in on him. The
old reverend mother mutters that Paul may be the Kwisatz Haderach,
the one who brings about important changes in the universe. Reverend
Mother Mohiam says that the next day, Paul will meet her gom jabbar,
an instrument that poisons and kills instantly, unless he passes
her test. To test whether Paul is human, the Reverend Mother Mohiam
has him put his hand into a small box. The box brings great pain
to Paul, but he knows that if he moves, the Reverend Mother Mohiam
will stab him with the gom jabbar. He passes Mohiam’s test, which means
he is a human being and not an animal. He then discovers that Jessica
took the same test long ago; the reverend mother was her teacher
at the Bene Gesserit school. The two women reveal to Paul that something
terrible will soon happen to the House of Atreides and that his
father will die. The two women tell Paul that the duke’s death will
happen soon after the Atreides move to Arrakis, the desert planet,
now ruled by the Atreides’s mortal enemies, the Harkonnens.
On another planet, the fat Baron Harkonnen reveals his
plot to his nephew Feyd-Rautha and his servant, Piter, a Mentat,
a person who thinks using logic and no emotions. The baron has maneuvered the
emperor, the leader of the universe, into giving the planet Arrakis
to the Atreides in exchange for the planet Caladan. Though Arrakis
is a desert planet and Caladan a lush one, this trade does not seem
good for the baron; Arrakis is rich in melange, a drug and spice that
is an addiction for millions of people throughout the galaxy. The
baron has arranged this trade because he plans to kill Duke Leto and
all his family once they are on Arrakis by using one of their own people
to betray them. Piter trades barbs with his fat master as Feyd-Rautha
looks on passively.
Back on the planet Caladan, the Reverend Mother Mohiam
confronts Jessica and asks her why she did not have a girl, in accord with
the Bene Gesserit’s orders. Jessica replies that she did so because
the duke wanted a son, an heir, very badly. The reverend mother
chides her, saying that now there is no daughter to wed a Harkonnen,
the rival house of the Atreides, and “[seal] the breach.” Jessica
and the reverend mother both know that the planet Arrakis is already
lost and that the duke is as good as dead. They talk to Paul, and
he recites a dream he had in which he met a girl who calls him Usul.
Later, Paul meets Thufir Hawat, the duke’s main strategist,
in the training room. Hawat warns Paul of the dangers he will face
on Arrakis, but he tries to dispel Paul’s fears that his father
will be killed. He also mentions the Fremen, the native inhabitants
of Arrakis. Hawat explains that the Fremen are a tough, resilient
people, and they will have to be dealt with in some way by the Atreides. After
Hawat leaves, Gurney Halleck, the duke’s war master, appears and
challenges Paul to a training duel. Paul fights well, but Halleck makes
the battle difficult for him, since he knows that Paul may actually
have to fight someone soon. Finally, Paul meets with Dr. Yueh, a
doctor of the Atreides, who gives him some information about the
life-forms on Arrakis—including the planet’s sandworms.
Analysis
Within the first few pages, Dune buries
us in an avalanche of names—people, places, things, and concepts.
Many of these new terms are explained, but many are not. We are
forced either to wait until they are explained or try to figure
things out using context clues. Most editions of Dune contain
a glossary in the back, but it is not exhaustive, and there was
no glossary when Dune was published serially in
Startling Stories magazine in the early 1960s.
It is comforting to realize that once we finish the book, almost
everything makes sense. A second reading of Dune,
particularly after reading the appendices, is often as enjoyable
as the first, since we are then more aware of the implications of
each event, small and large.
The novel immediately introduces us to Paul Atreides,
who is the novel’s main character. Although Paul is fifteen years
old when the story begins, he never seems to act like a child or
even a teenager. When the reverend mother tests him, he shows some
mild arrogance and petulance, but no more than any adult undergoing
such a test would. Paul’s success with the test and his resistance
to a great amount of pain make him seem even older. One idea that
is not fully explored in Dune is the reverend mother’s
suggestion that Paul may be an animal instead of a human being.
Prior to the test, Paul recites to himself a kind of mantra that
partially explains the differences between animals and human beings:
“Animal pleasures remain close to sensation levels and avoid the
perceptual . . . the human requires a background grid through which
to see the universe.” These semiscientific, semireligious phrases
are puzzling, and since they are never really explained, it is difficult
to understand the difference between the author’s definitions of
animal and human. Judging from the test, however, it seems that
people like the reverend mother believe that some human beings act
just like animals and react to everything by instinct. What separates
animals from humans, she believes, is the ability for humans to
close off pain mentally and to use the rational mind to overcome
instinctual and irrational impulses. The mantra that Paul recites
seems to help him withstand the pain of the reverend mother’s test.
