Highlights
- Jessica defied the Bene Gesserit by having a son with Duke Leto Atreides, despite being ordered to have a daughter. She trained her son, Paul, in the Bene Gesserit Way, which involves keen observation skills.
- The Reverend Mother administers the Gom Jabbar Test of Humanity to Paul to determine if he is human. Paul withstands the intense pain, proving his ability to override his animal instincts.
- The Bene Gesserit operate a selective breeding program to produce the Kwisatz Haderach, a superbeing with the ability to unlock genetic memory and foresee the future. Jessica's decision to have a son instead of a daughter challenges the control of the Bene Gesserit hierarchy.
Dune introduces Jessica as a sister of the highly trained, and incredibly powerful, secretive all-female order of spies, scientists, nuns, and theologians known as the Bene Gesserit, also known as the Sisterhood. She is the official concubine of Duke Leto Atreides I and the mother of the ducal heir, Paul Atreides. Jessica has trained her son in the Bene Gesserit Way, which is described in Frank Herbert's Dune as Paul being trained in "the minutiae of observation." This explains how Paul studies the smallest clues and tiniest details in people and the surroundings that others might miss.
Towards the beginning of Herbert's Dune, the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam arrives at Castle Caladan to administer the painful Bene Gesserit human test on the fifteen-year-old Paul. As she awaits the mother-son duo, she ruminates in Jessica's morning room:
Damn that Jessica! If only she'd borne us a girl as she was ordered to do!
Once Jessica's teacher at the Bene Gesserit school, the Reverend Mother now holds the powerful position of the Emperor's Truthsayer. She is still furious at Jessica for defying the instructions of the Bene Gesserit by choosing to have a son with Duke Leto Atreides I, and she berates her for bearing a boy.
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The Gom Jabbar Test Of Humanity And Its Implications
The Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam is at Castle Caladan for reasons of obligation, or as Dune puts it:
"...a mission that required personal attention from a Bene Gesserit-with-the-Sight."
Paul is quick to observe his mother's polite behavior and reverence for the "old woman." He observes that his mother looks at this woman in awe, and Lady Jessica of the Bene Gesserit does as she is instructed by the Reverend Mother: she leaves and closes the door behind them. Interestingly, the Reverend Mother harshly dismisses Lady Jessica before administering the Gom Jabbar Test of Humanity to Paul, and berates her even after her son withstands the burning and the tremendous pain it causes. This very specific, and extremely painful, Gom Jabbar Test of Humanity is administered to Paul to determine if he is human, claiming:
"A human can override any nerve in the body."
The Gom Jabbar Test of Humanity test demonstrates that Paul is able to override his animal impulses. Furthermore, withstanding this physical pain in the test sets up his character. The Reverend Mother herself admits that no woman-child ever withstood the intense degree of physical pain as Paul did, and momentarily concedes to herself the possibility of him being the Kwisatz Haderach:
Could he be the one? Could he truly be the one?
However, the Reverend Mother anchors herself in reality by reminding herself, "Hope clouds observation."
The Bene Gesserit Breeding Program
Once Jessica is called in, the Reverend Mother mentions that after the Great Revolt, also known as the Butlerian Jihad (crusade against computers, thinking machines, and conscious robots), schools were started to train human talents. The Bene Gesserit is one of the two surviving ancient schools, and the Spacing Guild (which has the monopoly on space travel) is the other. The Bene Gesserit quietly controls politics in the world of Dune. They test for humans because such continuity cannot be achieved without sifting human stock from animal stock for breeding purposes.
Simply put, the Order operates a selective breeding scheme to produce a superbeing called the Kwisatz Haderach. This male Bene Gesserit, as Reverend Mother puts in Dune :
"...will look where we cannot - into both feminine and masculine pasts."
In other words, he would be capable of unlocking the genetic memory of his male as well as female ancestry, and the ability to see far into the future. Paul's mother, Lady Jessica, part of this breeding program, is placed at House Atreides. The Order intends for her to give birth to only Atreides daughters. An Atreides daughter would be married into the rival House, with a Harkonnen heir, and bring about the Kwisatz Haderach. The Bene Gesserit intended to have control over this superbeing and therefore, control over the entire universe.
An Atreides daughter could've been wed to a Harkonnen heir and sealed the breach.
But Jessica willed herself to have a son because put first the Duke's desire to have a son, much to the chagrin of the higher-ups in the Bene Gesserit hierarchy. She also sensed the possibility that she could produce the Kwisatz Haderach. It is pertinent to mention that the Bene Gesserit have control over their fertility, and most importantly, are able to choose the gender of their children, among other things. While Paul proves himself to be Kwisatz Haderach; by subverting the Bene Gesserit, Lady Jessica demonstrates that female autonomy in Dune is far more complex than it appears on the surface.