Children of Dune

Lady Jessica is the enigmatic mother of Paul and Alia Atreides. Jessica represents stoicism, indoctrination, and regret, and she often struggles to prioritize her family’s welfare over the strictures of her Bene Gesserit training. She is often an unreliable narrator who hides her motivations, and she has the power of Voice to command her listeners. She is also attuned to the political inner workings of the empire and the Bene Gesserit’s breeding program, which makes many people suspicious of her intentions. Like Alia, she is often called a “witch.” Even Ghanima acknowledges that her grandmother is capable of killing the twins to uphold the Bene Gesserit’s agenda. Despite Jessica claim that she loves the twins, Ghanima retorts, “But that love wouldn’t stop you from destroying us” (75). Jessica also shows no emotions when her son Paul is murdered, having pragmatically accepted that her son no longer exists. The death of The Preacher coincides with her own desire to rid the world of the zealotry of Muad’Dib. She finds the religious obsequiousness on Arrakis distasteful and offensive, and believes Paul would feel the same. Jessica’s inner feelings are often revealed through Ghanima and Leto’s abilities to access some of her most repressed ego-memories, much to her surprise and resistance.

Jessica declares that she is loyal to the Fremen and not the Bene Gesserit, yet she struggles to recognize her deep indoctrination by the Sisterhood. Leto must bring it to her attention to think for herself and “Look inward!” (146) to discover her own will. When she realizes that Leto’s assessment of the Bene Gesserit’s plan to blackmail her or dispose of her is accurate, Jessica is surprised to have not seen the obvious signs of her role as a pawn. Leto declares, “Now you know how profoundly you were conditioned by your precious Bene Gesserits” (147). Despite her surprise, she seems to hold little resentment and continues to teach the Bene Gesserit ways.

Jessica regrets abandoning Alia but never expresses her sorrow or asks for forgiveness. She is responsible for creating her daughter’s taboo condition and acknowledges her role in Alia’s suffering and premature death when she admits, “I fled in terror of what I’d created […] I gave up. And my burden now is that…perhaps I gave up too soon” (426). She realizes too late what Leto and Ghanima already knew; Alia was a victim. Jessica’s cold demeanor suggests a repression of further pain, a skill the Bene Gesserit excel at with their mantra, the Litany against Fear. In some ways, her abandonment of Alia is connected to the pain of losing her beloved Duke Leto I, the only person who made her turn against her loyalty to the Bene Gesserit’s order for her to produce a daughter instead of a son with her first-born. Since the Duke’s death, she has put up “barriers” (72, 74), suggesting that she never fully recovered from her grief and fled back to Caladan, leaving Alia alone.

Leto II, named after his paternal grandfather Duke Leto I, is the nine-year-old son of Paul Atreides and Chani Kynes. Leto represents sacrifice, solitude, and symbiosis. His ultimate sacrifice is his decision to follow the Golden Path and forfeit his human life to transform into a giant sandworm. Throughout most of the novel, he remains an isolated figure; he travels alone and is both physically and psychically split from the one person who understands him the most, Ghanima. When he undergoes his worm transformation, Leto commits to being the only one of his kind for the next 4,000 years. Ghanima recognizes the sacrifices Leto has made and cries, “But Leto! He’s all alone, never to be duplicated” (587). In this way, Leto fulfills the archetype of the martyr. The imagery at the end of the novel where Leto must spend his life metaphorically turned away from Ghanima illustrates a commitment to the greater good and the forfeiting of personal needs and pleasures.

At the end of the novel, Leto also fulfills the archetype of the superhero, gaining supernatural strength as a consequence of his merging with the sandtrout. He destroys the qanats that enable the disastrous terraforming project, revives Ghanima’s memory, and preserves the Atreides empire. To convince the Fremen to submit to his reign, he performs acts of indestructibility that instill fear and awe in his followers. As a hybrid, Leto also represents the importance of ecology and interdependence among living things. He is a living system, both human and worm, whose survival depends on protecting the vital balance of his natural surroundings. Extoling a return to a renewed nature, he promises to teach lessons against tyranny to protect humanity from extinction.

Ghanima is Leto’s twin sister and a pre-born like her brother and aunt. She represents compassion and self-control. Her name means “Spoil of War” (14), an ironic name chosen by Paul to subvert its negative connotation, as she is considered a prize amidst the brutal wars under Paul’s regime. The name also references Harah, who was mockingly called a spoil of war when Paul defeated her husband Jamis in Dune. Following Fremen custom, Harah worked for Paul and raised Alia and subsequently the twins, teaching them Fremen ways. Ghanima strongly identifies as a Fremen and has an equally strong relationship with Stilgar. Jessica observes that Ghanima “loved the old Fremen as one would love a parent” (198).

Ghanima demonstrates her compassion for Leto when she agrees to the Golden Path and incurs several injuries from the Laza tigers rather than put Leto at further risk. Under self-hypnosis, she believes Leto to be dead and thinks, “I wish it’d been me the tiger killed instead of him” (395). She is the only character to fully comprehend Leto’s life and the sacrifice involved in his sandtrout transformation. Leto acknowledges the vital role his twin plays in making him feel seen and understood. He thinks of “how people looked at him, that universal mistake in every glance except Ghanima’s” (352). Ghanima is also compassionate toward Alia and her descent into Abomination. In a thought addressed to Alia, Ghanima tells herself, “I know you—Abomination. And perhaps I’ll go as you have gone, but for now I can only pity you and despise you” (391). Even though she is incensed by Alia’s plan for her betrothal, Ghanima nevertheless knows that her aunt is worthy of empathy.

Unlike Alia, who is forced to accept a narrative of doom concerning Abomination, Ghanima challenges the fatalism of her condition. Early in the novel, she decries, “I don’t believe this Abomination nonsense!” (14). Although possession is a real threat to her, Ghanima’s denial of its powers helps keep her from succumbing. Compared to Alia and Leto, Ghanima has mastery over the voices and “conquered the clamorous past” (579), having combined her benevolent ancestors with the power of self-hypnosis to silence the multitude and escape Abomination. In Alia’s final tortured moments, Ghanima does not give up on her aunt and offers to teach her how to control the voices rather than condemn her to suffering. Although she is unable to save Alia, Ghanima plays a vital role in the Golden Path, which saves both her and her brother from Abomination and—on a larger scale—saves humanity from extinction through the transmission of her valuable genes.

Farad’n is the son of Princess Wensicia and the grandson of the deposed Emperor Shaddam IV. He is almost 18 years old. Though he is the heir, he would rather read and study than pursue the throne. Farad’n represents patience, contemplation, and the pursuit of knowledge. In contrast to his mother, Farad’n objects to the assassination attempt of the twins, yet he also participates in the preparation for his rise as Emperor. Farad’n’s interest in leadership is academic rather than opportunistic, and he studies Atreides history to learn about models of governance. When The Preacher visits him, Farad’n demonstrates his preference for intellect over brawn when he becomes intrigued by the mysterious man’s ability to interpret dreams and dispense political and philosophical advice: He “studied the old man for a long space, wondering at the deeper issues implied by such thoughts, at the persistence of such discredited concepts” (132). Farad’n also covets Jessica’s instructions in the Bene Gesserit arts and learns quickly. Jessica is impressed by his discipline and comments, “This Farad’n was a deep one” (412). The mentorship of Jessica and the brief but significant interaction with The Preacher provides Farad’n with the training to be patient and observant. In this way, he parallel’s Leto’s education.

Farad’n fulfills the archetype of the convert, as his training with Jessica requires that he abandon his past learning and accept the precepts of the Bene Gesserit. He converts yet again to House Atreides, serving both as the Royal Scribe and Ghanima’s consort, yet he disapproves of Leto’s plan to enforce a stagnant peace. He claims, “I’ll resist you every day of my life” (604), earning Leto’s respect and fulfilling the purpose of his role. Farad’n functions as Leto’s historian and storyteller, and he proves to be a reliable narrator in his insistence on challenging Leto’s reign, suggesting that he will be truthful in his accounts. Several chapters begin with epigraphs that are excerpts from the writings of Harq al-Ada. It is not revealed until the final chapter that Farad’n is the author of the excerpts, having been renamed “Breaker of the Habit” (604) by Leto.

Stilgar is the Fremen leader who feels conflicted about his collusion with the Atreides empire and the unforeseen consequences of Paul’s rise to power. Stilgar represents tradition, loyalty, and stubbornness. He finds the changes to the Fremen culture distasteful and weak, especially the way the terraforming project has made their life of harsh survival and strict water conservation irrelevant. Stilgar regards himself as “a dying breed” (175) and ironically considers the new homes built for the planetologists as “an offense against the thing this planet had been” (169). At the same time, Stilgar recognizes that suppressing change and creativity has been Alia’s way of hording her absolute power.

At the end of the novel, Stilgar has an uneasy reconciliation with Leto. The power of Muad’Dib’s water contained in the canopic urn still holds sentimental and mystical power over Stilgar, yet Leto’s promise to lead a tyrannical regime and permit the extinction of the sandworms—all under the name of the Golden Path—leads Stilgar to question if Leto is not repeating his father’s mistakes.