Frank Herbert’s intentional design of the “Dune” universe around its characters made his story conjure emotions of dread and painted a clear picture of a future riddled with politics and religious mind control.
Paul Atreides
Role: Paul Atreides is the main character in “Dune.”
Key Info: Paul is Leto, the Duke of the House Atreides’s son. He is skinny, as his rib cages are visible. He has an oval face, strong bones, and green eyes. His hair is black and worn in tousled curls.
Background: The Emperor orders House Atreides to govern the desert planet Arrakis but conspires with Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and sends troops to raid the planet’s capital, Arrakeen; this leads to Leto’s death and the destruction of House Atreides.
Personality: Paul is a quiet, disciplined, and intense young boy. He is also brilliant due to his mentat training. His character follows the basic storyline of a heroic personality who has a tragic beginning but acquires superhuman powers and defeats his enemies.
Development: Paul was to be a girl by Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam’s order. She told Jessica, a votary of the Bene Gesserit, to conceive a daughter that would bear the Kwisatz Haderach, a powerful clairvoyant being. However, Jessica followed her heart and gave birth to Paul, who eventually rose to the pinnacle of the universe.
Significance: Paul faces and defeats the hardships he meets on his journey to the throne. First, he proved his manhood to the Fremen and took the name Usal Paul Muad’Dib. Then, he drank the Water of Life, which put him into a coma for weeks. Eventually, he survived and returned with telepathy powers.
Analysis: Paul’s meteoric rise to power was only possible because of his zeal to bring radical change. His thirst for vengeance and glory fueled his resolve and gave him the strength to conquer his enemies.
Baron Vladimir Harkonnen
Role: Vladimir Harkonnen is the Baron of the House of Harkonnen.
Key Info: He is the ruler of the great house Harkonnen, which formerly controlled Melange production on Arrakis.
Background: After withdrawing from the planet, Baron Vladimir conspires with the Emperor to destroy the House of Atreides.
Personality: Vladimir is a greedy glutton who weighs about 250 kilograms. His size is so great that he has to move using an anti-gravity belt.
Development: Baron Vladimir and the Emperor’s troops attack Arrakeen. With Yueh’s help, they destroy House Atreides and kill Leto.
Significance: Believing Paul and Jessica are dead, Vladimir takes control of Arrakis, putting his nephew, Feyd-Rautha, in charge. However, Paul gains telepathy powers, and the Fremen begin destroying Melange miners.
Analysis: With the drop in spice production, the Emperor sends spies doubting Vladimir’s loyalty. On reaching Arrakis, the Emperor seizes a Fremen outpost, capturing Alia, Paul’s sister. However, Paul leads an attack on Arrakeen, and Alia poisons Baron Vladimir, killing him. Before dying, she tells him of their blood relationship.
Chani
Role: Chani is a Fremen woman from the Sietch Tabr community.
Key Info: After getting absolved into the community, Paul falls in love with Chani, and she bears him a son, who they name Leto II.
Background: However, after the Emperor’s troops seize a Fremen’s outpost, Leto II gets killed. Chani later becomes Paul’s concubine after he marries Princess Irulan for the sake of becoming Emperor.
Personality: Chani is a beautiful and strong-willed woman. She is a religious skeptic but is fiercely loyal to whoever she loves. She is skinny and has an elfin face, red hair, and big eyes that are completely blue.
Development: Paul reassures his love to Chani, with Jessica telling her that Paul’s heart is with her.
Significance: Chani’s love and loyalty to Paul was one of the key factors that gave him legitimacy among the Fremen.
Analysis: Chani’s love and loyalty to Paul knew no bounds. She was willing to do anything, including becoming a concubine to see him sit on the throne.
Leto Atreides
Role: Leto is Paul’s father.
Key Info: He is the Duke of the House Atreides, ruler of Caladan, a water planet.
Background: Leto moves to Arrakis on the Emperor’s orders to govern the planet’s spice production.
Personality: Leto is a strict and just man. He treats his subjects well and cares for his soldiers, unlike other great houses of the Imperium. He has sharp facial features, olive skin, and grey eyes.
Development: Fearing a conspiracy by his enemies to overthrow him, Leto decides to work with the Fremen, the native inhabitants of the Arrakis, to try and fight any insurrection that may occur. However, in a twist of events, Yueh betrays Leto by poisoning him.
Significance: Leto eventually dies after a failed attempt to kill the Baron of Harkonnen by using the fake tooth Yueh put in his mouth.
Analysis: Though Leto was a just and kind-hearted man, he suffered a fate most good men meet in a world of evil. His house fell, and he died because of others’ greed.
Lady Jessica
Role: Lady Jessica is Paul’s mother and Leto’s concubine.
Key Info: She has an oval face with bronze-colored hair. Her features are from Frank Herbert’s wife, Beverly Herbert.
Background: Being an acolyte of the Bene Gesserit, the Reverend Mother tasks Jessica with conceiving a daughter to meet the order’s goal of creating the Kwisatz Haderach. However, she goes against the Reverend Mother’s directive and births a boy out of love for Leto.
Personality: Jessica is a woman with an intense resolution. She commands everyone’s attention and is a beauty to behold.
Development: After the fall of House Atreides, Jessica, and Paul flee into the desert, where she later finds out her father is Baron Harkonnen.
Significance: She and Paul enter the Fremen community, Sietch Tabr, and Jessica drinks the water of life, making herself a Reverend Mother and granting her unborn baby, Alia, powers.
Analysis: Jessica is a strong mother who trains her son, Paul, to become a great leader. She cared deeply for him and loved her family fervently. Her dedication to Leto made her disobey the orders of the Bene Gesserit. However, her actions would lead to unfavorable future consequences.
Alia Atreides
Role: Alia Atreides is the daughter of Duke Leto and Lady Jessica, Paul’s sister.
Key Info: Alia was born after her mother took the Water of Life; this exposed her to an ailment, The Abomination.
Background: After the fall of House Atreides at the hands of the Emperor and Baron Harkonnen, Jessica, and Paul fled into the desert, where they became members of the Sietch Tabr. Jessica, unknowingly pregnant with Alia, took the water of life, granting herself powers and, in the process, gave Alia those same powers.
Personality: Alia is a feisty girl who acts way older than she is. Her stubbornness also made her brave.
Development: She kills Baron Harkonnen by poisoning him. Before he dies, Alia tells Baron Harkonnen about her blood ties with him.
Significance: Upon killing Baron Vladimir, Alia earned a new name among the Fremen, St. Alia of the Knife.
Analysis: Alia is a complex character who became a primary actor in Frank Herbert’s second novel “Dune Messiah.” Her rise to power had tragedies and an ailment without a cure.
Wellington Yueh
Role: Yueh is a Suk doctor who served as Leto’s physician.
Key Info: Yueh causes the fall of the House of Atreides after conspiring with the Baron of Harkonnen to deliver Leto into his hands.
Background: He did it because Piter De Vries promised to free his loved one.
Personality: Yueh has black hair, a squarish blockhead, purple lips, a narrow chin, and a mustache.
Development: Yueh betrays Leto because his wife, Wanna, was held prisoner by Baron Harkonnen, who promised to set her free if he handed Leto to him.
Significance: Though Yueh delivered Leto to the Baron, he tried to make things right by allowing Jessica and Paul to escape. Piter de Vries, Baron Harkonnen’s mentat, kills him.
Analysis: Yueh’s betrayal and the destruction of House Atreides were the ingredients that turned Paul into the incredible fighter he was. Without Yueh’s actions, Paul might have likely died, and the story of “Dune” would have ceased to exist.
Feyd-Rautha
Role: Feyd-Rautha is Baron Vladimir’s nephew.
Key Info: He takes control of Arrakeen for his uncle, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen.
Background: After the fall of House Atreides, Baron Vladimir favors Feyd over his older brother and gives him the title “Na-Baron,” making him the heir to the House of Harkonnen.
Personality: Feyd is an evil-looking young boy with a thirst for domination. He has sullen eyes, a round face, heavy shoulders, and a muscular build.
Development: After Paul starts destroying Melange machines, their production drastically reduces. Vladimir orders Feyd to be more brutal so he can quell the rebellion. However, that fails.
Significance: Feyd gets killed by Paul after he challenges him to fight in the act of kanly.
Analysis: Feyd-Rautha was an evil young man whose passion for control led to him becoming a strong leader. If everything went according to Bene Gesserit’s plan, he was supposed to marry a female version of Paul Atreides, who would have birthed the Kwisatz Haderach.
Shaddam Corrino IV
Role: Shaddam Corrino IV is the 81st Padishah Emperor of the known universe.
Key Info: Shaddam lost the throne to Paul Atreides after he threatened to destroy Melange production.
Background: Feeling threatened by his adoptive cousin, Leto, Shaddam conspired with Baron Harkonnen, who used Yueh to kill Leto and destroy the House of Atreides.
Personality: He is a slim man with an elegant persona, red hair, a thin face, and cold eyes. Shaddam was the last Emperor of the Padishah Empire.
Development: Due to his actions, Paul and his mother escape into the desert, where Paul gains superhuman powers and leads a resistance against the Padishah empire.
Significance: Paul dethrones Shaddam, forcing him to give his first daughter, Princess Irulan, as a wife, sealing Paul’s place as Emperor.
Analysis: Shaddam was a man who let his fear of losing control destroy his rule. If he had not done anything to House Atreides, he most likely would never have lost the throne. However, his paranoia led to Paul’s quest for revenge.
Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam
Role: Reverend Mother Gaius is the leader of the Bene Gesserit.
Key Info: She controls a pseudo-religious group of women working in the shadows to control the flow of power through selective breeding with noble houses.
Background: Reverend Mother Gaius orders Jessica to bring Paul to her on suspicion that he could be the Kwisatz Haderach.
Personality: The Reverend Mother is a strict woman. She has matted hair, silvery metallic teeth, a long nose, and a bulky figure.
Development: Upon delivering Paul, she subjects him to the Gom Jabbar, a tool that brings untold pain to whoever puts their hands in it.
Significance: Upon passing the test, the Reverend Mother’s suspicion of Paul being the Kwisatz Haderach increases.
Analysis: If everything had gone according to the Reverend Mother’s plans, the Bene Gesserit would have become the mightiest organization in the known universe. However, Jessica spoiled her plans, and Paul was born.
Duncan Idaho
Role: Duncan Idaho was House Atreides’ swordmaster.
Key Info: Duncan was a Ginaz Swordmaster and one of Leto’s trusted right-hand men.
Background: He was a fiercely loyal soldier who fell during Sardaukar’s invasion of Arrakeen.
Personality: Duncan is a lady’s man. He has dark skin and thick black hair. He was also a loyal soldier who defended Paul and Jessica to the death.
Development: During the invasion of Arrakis by the Harkonnen and Sardaukar, Duncan fought and took down 19 soldiers before a blow to his head ended him.
Significance: Though he appeared in “Dune” briefly, Duncan became one of the most crucial characters in the entire series.
Analysis: Duncan’s fierce loyalty to House Atreides and humanity is what made him become one of the most crucial characters of the “Dune” series. He was the only character featured in all six of Herbert’s novels.
Gurney Halleck
Role: Gurney Halleck was House Atreides’ warmaster.
Key Info: Gurney served Leto and was fiercely loyal. After Arrakeen’s invasion, he survived among the Fremen and learned to ride sandworms.
Background: Gurney was an avid lover of music. He played the baliset while being a formidable fighter.
Personality: He is an ugly lump of a man. However, he was a purist at heart who loved religion and was always known to be stating verses from the Orange Catholic Bible. Gurney could beat anyone in a duel, and even the Fremen marveled at his adaptability.
Development: After House Atreides’ destruction, Gurney escaped into the desert. He joined a band of smugglers and later met Paul, who he supported against the Emperor.
Significance: Gurney was a crucial character in Paul’s life. He trained him in combat and later influenced his son’s decisions.
Analysis: As a mighty warrior, Gurney had no match on the battlefield. His adaptability was incredible as he learned the ways of the desert in just two years.
Other characters in “Dune’s” story include Thufir Hawat, Piter de Vries, Glossu Rabban, Princess Irulan, Count Fenring, Margot Fenring, Stilgar, Liet-Kynes, the Shadeout Mapes, Jamis, Harah, Reverend Mother Ramallo, Esmar Tuek, and Staban Tuek.
