Dune

Lady Jessica is Duke Leto’s concubine and the mother of Paul Atreides. Like her son, she is a complicated character with allegiances to many organizations and people. She was trained from an early age by the Bene Gesserit but defied the instruction of their selective breeding program and gave birth to a son rather than a daughter. Jessica was torn between her allegiance to the Bene Gesserit and her love for the Duke, while the Reverend Mother accuses her of being arrogant enough to think that she could give birth to the Kwisatz Haderach. Jessica’s character is defined by the tension between these external and internal motivations that are often contradictory. She loves the Duke but resents that he never made her his wife. She feels indebted to the Bene Gesserit but rejects their meticulous eugenics plan. She believes that she could play a key role in history but only vicariously through her son, rather than taking on the mantle herself. These frequent tensions and conflicting allegiances turn Jessica into a character filled with regret.

In addition to her regret and conflicts, Jessica is defined by her practicality. Her practical view of the world is a result of her Bene Gesserit training, but she applies this view to all areas of her life. She wishes the Duke would marry her, but she understands that his reasons for not doing so are political. She knows that he loves her, and she mourns his death, eventually accepting that Paul must make a similar decision when he proposes a marriage to the Emperor’s daughter rather than take Chani as his wife. Jessica accepts the practicalities of politics, even when she feels personally hurt. She has learned to remove herself from the burden of emotion and deal with the world on a practical level.

This practical approach to life is more apparent when Jessica takes on the mantle of Reverend Mother in the Fremen tribe. After years spent as the mother to Paul and her unborn daughter Alia, Jessica becomes the mother-figure for tens of thousands of Fremen. This role allows her to redress her sorrows from earlier in life. She regrets that she spent so many years training Paul to be the Kwisatz Haderach, as this training and expectation robbed Paul of his chance to be a normal child. A loss of innocence also afflicts Alia, who is born with the mind of an adult and therefore never experiences childhood. Jessica cannot go back in time and change the way she raised her actual children, so her role as Reverend Mother is a practical way for her to compensate for her regrets. She becomes a guiding figure for thousands of people to make up for the burden she placed on her own children.

Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is the powerful head of the Harkonnen family and the chief antagonist of the novel. Armed with a dangerous mind that allows him to plot many steps ahead of his rivals, he is relentless in his quest for power. This need for power and control means that the Baron lies, murders, tortures, exploits, extorts, and betrays his rivals, justifying his behavior by insisting that they would do the same to him if only they were bold enough. This belief extends to his family, meaning that the Baron has no qualms about betraying or killing family members whom he considers to be useless or a threat. Despite the Baron’s insistence that he is working for the benefit of his family, he takes immense pleasure in settling personal disputes. He loathes Duke Leto and cannot resist bragging to the Duke once he retakes Arrakis, in a moment of arrogance that nearly kills him. The same arrogance eventually causes the Baron’s death when he underestimates the danger of Alia, who stabs him with a poisoned needle.

The Baron is also defined by his hedonism. He is a rich and powerful figure, meaning that he does not have to deal with the consequences of his actions. He drugs, rapes, and kills sex slaves, while he orders the execution of staff members for no other reason than to spite people who annoy him. One of the most frequent examples of the Baron’s hedonistic indulgence is his love of food. At moments of triumph, he gorges himself on food, and this tendency results in his massive weight. Again, however, the Baron does not have to deal with the consequences of his actions because he uses technology to suspend his body and to travel from place to place. The Baron’s fall from grace coincides with a limit on his ability to indulge himself. When he meets with the Emperor, he craves a meal but realizes that he has no one he can order to fetch the food for him. The end of the Baron’s power is marked by the end of his ability to indulge every impulse and desire, no matter how hedonistic.

The Baron is presented as an evil and disgusting figure, but the novel implies that the Baron’s behavior is a result of his upbringing rather than his genetics. Many characters share the Harkonnen bloodline, but only those who are raised on Giedi Prime in the vicinity of the Baron can measure up to his despicable behavior. Glossu Rabban and Feyd-Rautha spend time with the Baron, and they are shown to be as cruel and as vindictive as their mentor. However, Paul and Jessica are both direct descendants of the Harkonnen bloodline, and they are appalled by the Baron. The Baron’s behavior and personality illustrate that environment is more influential on a character’s personality than genetics. In the context of Dune, the way a character is raised is far more important than the character’s genetic history, even if the Bene Gesserit may think otherwise.

Duke Leto Atreides is the head of House Atreides until his untimely death. He is a man marked by a melancholic nostalgia, who feels the intense pressures of his position and a compassion for the people under his command. The Duke is aware that he has been born in a difficult moment. He is unable to measure up to the achievements of his ancestors, as the circumstances of history guide him inescapably toward a terrible trap. He knows that the Harkonnens and the Emperor are plotting against him, but he sees no way to proceed other than to try to outsmart them.

Unlike the Baron, the Duke feels a compassion for the individuals under his command. He frequently asks for medical updates regarding anyone injured while executing his orders, and he personally saves a team of spice harvesters shortly after arriving on Arrakis. The Duke’s compassion only increases his melancholy. He cares about the people in House Atreides, but he recognizes that he lacks the capacity to save them all. He is born too late to measure up to the successes of his ancestors. Instead, the Duke is stuck in a compassionate bind, forced to care about people as he slowly loses his grip on the course of history.

Feyd-Rautha is the nephew of Baron Harkonnen. In the context of the novel, he functions as a counterpart to Paul Atreides. Feyd-Rautha and Paul are the heirs to important houses, and they have been trained for their entire lives to eventually succeed the Baron and the Duke, respectively. While Paul has been trained to be compassionate, however, Feyd-Rautha is trained to be ruthless. Feyd-Rautha takes on the qualities of the Baron while Paul takes on the qualities of the Duke, becoming products of the ideological environment in which they were raised.

Similarly, both Feyd-Rautha and Paul are tested in single combat. While Paul overcomes a difficult challenge, Feyd-Rautha cheats to ensure that he will emerge victorious. This different approach to combat resolves itself in the final duel between Paul and Feyd-Rautha. While Feyd-Rautha tries to cheat in the duel, Paul relies on his natural abilities and emerges victories. The duel allows Paul to symbolically defeat the insidious Harkonnen side of himself, eliminating any idea that he might somehow follow in the Baron’s footsteps. Paul kills Feyd-Rautha and publicly ends the Harkonnen line, performatively rejecting his own Harkonnen lineage in favor of House Atreides. Feyd-Rautha’s role in the novel is to demonstrate how an individual like Paul could be corrupted by their environment.

Chani is a young Fremen woman who meets Paul while traveling through the desert with other Fremen. The daughter of Dr. Kynes and a Fremen woman, Chani is a fierce fighter with red hair and deep blue eyes, thanks to her upbringing in close proximity to the spice. Although she does not appear in person until late in the book, she is central to Paul’s predictive visions, allowing him to recognize her when they finally meet.

Shortly after Paul joins the Fremen, he and Chani fall in love. She produces Paul’s son and heir in Leto II, however the child is killed in an Imperial raid while Paul is away.

Despite his deep love for Chani, Paul marries Princess Irulan at the end of the novel for purely political reasons. This leaves Chani as his official concubine, placing her in a role much like the one Jessica played for Duke Leto. However, as Jessica tells Chani, history will remember both women as the true wives and partners to these great men.

Thufir Hawat is an elderly man who serves as Mentat on behalf of House Atreides. Mentats are individuals with exceptional cognitive abilities who, in a galaxy where artificial intelligence is prohibited, are trained to calculate complex equations at computer-like speed. Along with Duncan Idaho and Gurney Halleck, Thufir is one of the three mentors charged with training Paul to inherit his father’s dukedom; Thufir specializes in military tactics.

Despite his formidable intelligence, Thufir overlooks Yueh as a possible Harkonnen spy, wrongly suspecting Jessica instead. Following the Harkonnen invasion and fall of the House of Atreides, Thufir is coerced into working on behalf of the Baron after the Harkonnens poison him and withhold the antidote at intervals. Throughout his tenure, Thufir uses his cunning to undermine the Harkonnens at every opportunity, even coming close to bringing the house down by deepening a rift between the Baron and Feyd-Rautha. Nevertheless, Thufir is so ashamed by having worked for the Harkonnens even in a nominal sense that he commits suicide shortly after Paul’s restoration of House Atreides.

Duncan Idaho is a swordmaster who, along with Thufir Hawat and Gurney Halleck, is responsible for training young Paul. He is described as very handsome with dark curly hair. In advance of Leto’s arrival on Arrakis, Duncan goes undercover and infiltrates a group of Fremen led by Stilgar. His reports of the Fremen people’s strength and character give Leto an early indication of their potential as a fighting force against Atreides enemies.

Duncan gives his life to protect Paul and Jessica, taking on over 20 Sardaukar at once to give the pair time to escape.

Gurney Halleck is House Atreides’ warmaster and the third of Paul’s tutors. Merciless in battle yet noble in spirit, Gurney is said to be “an ugly lump of a man.” After surviving the Harkonnen attack on Arrakis, Gurney joins a group of spice smugglers.

Two years later, Gurney—now an influential leader in the world of spice smuggling—is ensnared by a Fremen trap. Just as the Fremen are about to kill Gurney, Paul recognizes him and spares his life. Although Gurney is initially suspicious of Paul’s adoption of Fremen culture, he eventually rejoins the young leader, serving him with as much loyalty as he had under Duke Leto.