Thus spoke St. Alia-of-the-Knife

Thus spoke St. Alia-of-the-Knife: “The Reverend Mother
must combine the seductive wiles of a courtesan with the
untouchable majesty of a virgin goddess, holding these
attributes in tension so long as the powers of her youth
endure. For when youth and beauty have gone, she will
find that the place-between, once occupied by tension, h
as become a wellspring of cunning and resourcefulness.”

—- FROM “MUAD’DIB, FAMILY COMMENTARIES”
BY THE PRINCESS IRULAN


In this epigraph from the Princess Irulan, a character from the end of the book is introduced. As we have discussed previously, Frank Herbert was definitely not afraid to spoil points of plot in the pursuit of the goal of teaching the reader. Who Alia is, and why she will attain sainthood status via her actions with a knife, will be revealed much later in Dune.

Irulan and Alia’s association is one of the main story points of the sequels to Dune, “Dune Messiah,” and “Children of Dune.”

It is also ironic that although Alia has been quoted about the loss of youth and beauty, when she does not experience this to a great degree, succumbing to an early death as the victim of inner demons. Moreover, Alia is not proven to be a very cunning or resourceful character. She is overwhelmed with the weight of ancestral memories, including the Baron Harkonnen due to her exposure to the water of life spice agony while still in the womb of her mother, the lady Jessica. She sinks into the Abomination the Bene Gesserit fear.


Other Reverend Mothers in the series do exhibit the characteristics outlined by Alia throughout the series however. Alia's own mother employs these techniques while a captive on Salusa Secundus. Perhaps the most cunning and resourceful Reverend mother proves to be Darwi Odrade in the last two books of the series.

In the chapter of this epigraph, the Reverend Mother is Gaius Helen Mohiam, Proctor Superior of the Bene Gesserit school on Wallach IX, truth sayer to the Emperor, and former teacher to the lady Jessica. Mohiam admonishes Jessica for bearing a son instead of a daughter, but again in contrast to the epigraph, she displays an overall sense of compassion in the chapter, behind the veil of a senior sister in the Bene Jesserit order.

The guiding purpose of the Bene Jesserit is to control the breeding of the Great Houses of the Landsraad to eventually create the Kwisatz Haderach. The initial plan was for the daughter of Jessica and Duke Leto to pair with Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, but Jessica has gone against the blueprint.

Mohiam exhibits care for her former charge and evidently sees the potential in young Paul Atreides to actually be the Bene Gesserit totality —- the Kwisatz Haderach.

She tells Paul, “Young man, as a Proctor of the Bene Jesserit, I seek the Kwisatz Haderach., the male who truly can become one of us. Your mother sees this possibility in you, but she sees with the eyes of a mother. Possibility I see, too, but no more....You’ve depths in you, I’ll grant you that.”

She instructs Jessica to accelerate her training of Paul in the Bene Jesserit ways, especially his need to learn the Voice. “I’d have done the same in your shoes, and the devil take the Rules.” Coming from the head of the order this is a strong hint that Paul has proven himself to be the prophesied messiah, as are the tears she sheds when Mohiam departs.


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