Politics and Religion in the Herbert’s Dune Novels Essay -- Dune

Politics and Religion in the Herbert’s Dune Novels There are a variety of political and religious concepts throughout the Dune novels that varies so much through the novels which makes it a complex and cogitative science fiction series. The Dune novels are popular with many fans and partly this is due because of its political and religious structures. This essay will be focussing primarily on the first four Dune novels written by Frank Herbert. In the first novel, the Qizarate is composed of missionaries and is a religious body that carries Muad'dib's religion across the universe (Herbert Dune Messiah 8). Muad'dib is a character in three of the Dune novels and originally was named Paul Atreides who was heir to the Atreides throne of power. After living on a planet called Arrakis also known as Dune, the Fremen renamed him Muad'dib after they accepted him into their society. The Fremen are native people that had lived on Arrakis for a long time but were never political or religious leaders of the planet as they were mostly detached from off world influence. The Qizarate maintains control of the planets it occupies with Muad'dib's religion. The population of the universe see Muad'dib as their god whether they like it or not and they can not deny his power religiously. Korba, the person in charge of the Qizarate in Dune Messiah, works with Muad'dib about Muad'dib's religion and is a panegyrist who delivers eulogies and pr aise for his god (Herbert Dune Messiah 8, 57). Korba seems to be fanatically involved with this religion. Korba goes far enough to attempt to create a martyr of Muad'dib, all for the sake of his religion (Herbert Dune Messiah 9). The Bene Gesserit wanted to control the religion of the univers... ...l structure struggles with internal and external forces. The Dune series is popular because it requires the reader to think, and there is more to that than just a story. Works Cited Herbert, Frank. Children of Dune. New York : Ace Books, 1987. Herbert, Frank. Dune Messiah. New York : Berkley, 1969. Herbert, Frank. God Emperor of Dune. New York : Putnam, 1981. McLean, Susan. "A Question of Balance: Death and Immortality in Frank Herbert's Dune Series". Death and the Serpent: Immortality in Science Fiction and Fantasy. (1985): 145-152. O'Reilly, Timothy. Frank Herbert. Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., Inc. 1981. Palumbo, Donald. "The monomyth as fractal pattern in Frank Herbert's Dune novels". Science Fiction Studies 25.3 (Nov. 1998): 433-58. Touponce, William F. Frank Herbert. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1988.