The Great Dune Trilogy: Analysis of Major Characters

Author: Frank Herbert

First published: 1979 (as The Great Dune Trilogy); Dune (1965; serial form, Analog, 1963–1965), Dune Messiah (1969), Children of Dune (1976), God Emperor of Dune

Genre: Novels

Locale: Primarily the planet Arrakis

Plot: Science fiction

Time: Future

Paul Atreides, later known as Paul Maud'Dib and Usul, the focus of the first two of the three novels and a significant character in all three. He is the son of Duke Leto of Caladan. As a child, he moves with his family to the planet Arrakis, or Dune, where his father has been sent by the emperor to manage a company that mines “spice” from the vast deserts. Paul is trained in the mind-body disciplines of the Bene Gesserit cult. When Duke Leto is killed, Paul and his mother escape to the deserts and are taken in by the elusive Fremen. He thrives and is able to lead them in the defeat and death of the Harkonnens, thus neutralizing the emperor.

Lady Jessica, Paul's mother and concubine of his father, who, for political reasons, never married. She is a Bene Gesserit “witch” but has defied the sisterhood by giving birth to Paul, a son, rather than daughters. She often defies orders and displays decisive strength and intelligence. She becomes a Reverend Mother for the Fremen on Dune by drinking a concentrated spice formula that intensifies her prescience. Soon afterward, she gives birth to a daughter, Alia. She remains with Paul in the seitch until he disappears at the end of the second book.

Thufir Hawat, who has special training and skills in detecting false statements made by others. He is an adviser to Duke Leto. Under the control of the Harkonnen enemies who hold over him the fate of his wife, he colludes with them in Leto's defeat.

Gurney Halleck, one of the two masters at arms to Duke Leto. He is a swordsman and fighter whose loyalty to Leto and Paul is unquestioned. He becomes a smuggler on Arrakis when the Atreides house falls, then rejoins Paul and Jessica when he finds them several years after Leto's death.

Duncan Idaho, the other master at arms. He is secretly in love with Lady Jessica. He is killed saving Jessica and Paul.

Chani, the daughter of the emperor's ecologist on Arrakis, Liet-Kynes. She was reared as a Fremen woman and becomes a concubine to Paul; she bears him a son who is killed in the first book. She is an accomplished fighter.

Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, the stereotypical force of evil, with a grossly huge body maintained by excessive eating, held up by “suspensors” that offset its mass. His hate and his greed for power are primary, and the Atreides are their central object. After regaining power, he puts his cruel son Rabban in a leadership position on Arrakis. He is subject to many assassination attempts, by his own as well as by other's supporters, and is finally killed by Paul on Arrakis.

Feyd Ruatha, the Baron's official heir, although only a nephew. He is almost seventeen years old when the novel opens. He is related to Paul through Paul's mother and has been trained in many skills that parallel Paul's, but as a perverted double. He has killed one hundred slave gladiators by his seventeenth birthday, plots against his uncle as well as his uncle's enemies, and seeks power at any cost.

Princess Irulan, the daughter of Emperor Shaddam IV. She is married to Paul as a method for her father to save face after Paul's armies defeat his. She is never his bedmate and becomes a historical chronicler and bitter enemy of Paul and his wife.

Alia, Paul's sister, born with adult awareness and some Bene Gesserit skill because Jessica was pregnant with her when she first consumed the spice drink. Alia is considered an abomination by her Fremen friends as well as by the Bene Gesserit.

Paul Atreides, who consolidates his intergalactic rule and negotiates the several futures his spice-prescience has given him. He has become the focus of a cult, and a movement created in his name intends to bring thousands of worlds under one rule. He loses his eyesight, his throne, and his beloved Chani, then retreats into the desert, leaving the people without a ruler.

Chani, a fierce companion for Paul who counsels him until she dies in childbirth as this novel ends. The children are twins, born somewhat prematurely. Princess Irulan had administered antifertility drugs that accelerated their birth and made them self-aware, like Alia was, in the womb.

Alia, now a young woman to whom Paul looks for counsel and support. She acts as a leader for his religious cult, with a temple built in her honor. She reacts to the ghola Duncan with lust that threatens her religious fervor. Paul leaves her at the head of his religious cult.

Scytale, a Tleilaxu Face Dancer who is employed by the guild of intergalactic navigators, who depend on Dune spice for their craft, and the Bene Gesserit, represented by Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, to overthrow and perhaps kill Paul/Maud'Dib. As a face dancer, he changes his physical appearance to that of a young Fremen woman and joins Paul's court at the same time as the ghola of Duncan.

Duncan Idaho, who returns to Paul's service as a ghola, a creature of reanimated flesh created by the Tleilaxu. He has become adept in the philosophy of Zensunni and is programmed to kill Lady Jessica and Paul. He is a gift to Paul from the guild of steersmen. He has no memories of his past but gradually develops them. He becomes Jessica's protector and then husband to her daughter, Alia.

Edric, a guild steersman, an intimate part of the plot to overthrow Paul's control of the empire and halt the spread of his religion. His human shape has been altered by the spice and the work of a steersman. He swims inside a tank filled with orange gas when he is not in his spaceship.

Princess Irulan, who is still Paul's wife in name and is part of the plot against him. She feeds a drug to Chani to prevent a pregnancy. Her function at court, under Paul's orders, is to record official proceedings, an employment she finds demeaning but that turns her into a historian of his rule.

Alia, whose knowledge of her past lives finally overwhelms her. She has grown into a powerful woman on Arrakis, with a cult of her own. As the wife of Duncan Idaho, she is regent for her twin niece and nephew. She is controlled internally by her ancestor, Baron Harkonnen, whose genetic memories are stored inside her. She, Princess Irulan, and various retainers plot to destroy Jessica and control the twins. She becomes insane early in the book.

Leto II, who was born and was named by Paul at the end of Dune Messiah. He is a now nine-year-old child. He and his twin sister possessed adult awareness at birth. Both children avoid the spice in fear that they will become possessed like Alia, but it becomes part of Leto II's training in the desert. When the twins separate to avoid the plot against their lives, Leto II is taken by Gurney Halleck to his seitch, where he is forced into a spice trance. He escapes to travel alone to the legendary pirate seitch and learns the secrets of Arrakis. He becomes a composite being, with endless life, by encasing himself in sandtrout and helping the traditional Fremen, with his great strength and speed, to halt efforts to transform Arrakis' desert.

Ghanima, the twin sister of Leto II, an accomplished fighter and strategist who is often underestimated because of her age. The young twins manage to elude the plot to have them eaten by tigers. Alia sees her as a pawn, planning to marry her to Farad'n and keep control of them both.

The Preacher, a blind mystic who appears early in the novel in the streets of the Arrakis capital. In his public preaching, he attacks the Maud'Dib cult and the practices of Alia's regency for the twins. With his young guide, a son of Namri the Fremen, he travels around Arrakis, even meeting Leto II in the desert. Their meeting confirms the suspicion held by many, Alia and Duncan included, that he is actually Paul.

Duncan Idaho, Alia's husband, who tries to be loyal to her out of a complex love for the woman and for her mother. When Leto II makes it clear that Alia is possessed by one of her past lives, that of Baron Harkonnen, Duncan abandons her. When ordered to provide a plausible plot against Jessica, he takes her to Salus Secundus to become both a prisoner and a teacher for Farad'n, the possible next emperor. He then bows out of the conflict.

Farad'n, the son of Wencias and the dead emperor Saladam IV's nephew. His mother, in grooming him to take back the throne, has instilled in him some of his family's monstrous qualities. He is part of the plot to kill the twins but has some spark of humanity left when Jessica arrives to teach him. He never realizes his aim to become emperor or to marry Ghanima: He will be the royal consort and father of the royal children, but never a husband.

Lady Jessica, who returns from her seclusion on Caladan supposedly to see her grandchildren, Leto II and Ghanima. She quickly discerns Alia's condition and is ready for the kidnapping plot against her. Her talents are central as she weans Farad'n from the plots of his power-hungry mother and trains him in Bene Gesserit mind control to be a worthy mate to Ghanima.

Stilgar, who has risen from simple seitch chief to counselor in Paul's court, then fallen back to aging seitch chief. He remains faithful in his Fremen fashion to the Atreides family, fostering the twins in seitch Tabor. His loyalty extends only as far as he judges it will profit his beloved Fremen culture.

Gurney Halleck, who arranges for the education of Leto II into the Fremen desert pirate culture and his training as a claimant to the throne left by his father.

Princess Irulan, who has stayed on in the capital and become a sort of adviser to Alia. She later goes with Leto II into exile and proves more loyal to Paul's memory.