Dune Whats In The Box & How It Really Works

Dune: What’s In The Box & How It Really Works

One of Dune’s most powerful scenes sees Paul Atreides submit to a pain test featuring a box and a Gom Jabbar, but how does the pain test work?

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Dune Whats In The Box & How It Really Works

Warning! SPOILERS for Dune

One of the most fascinating scenes in Dune saw Paul Atreides effectively tortured when the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother asked him to place his hand inside a box she claimed was filled only with pain. 2021 is an exciting year for lovers of science-fiction and fantasy, with film and TV adaptations of some of the most famous novels – launching live-action franchises that had previously been considered impossible to produce. Amazon is making Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time a reality, Apple TV+ has wowed viewers with Isaac Asimov’s Foundation, and Frank Herbert’s Dune is standing proud on the big screen.

All of these franchises are notable for the complex depths of their world-building. In the case of Dune, one of the most fascinating aspects is the ancient order known as the Bene Gesserit, whose sisters have been granted remarkable powers after exposure to a substance called the Water of Life. Paul Atreides, the hero of Dune, is the son of a Bene Gesserit who is fated to become a prophesied Messiah figure. One scene in Dune sees the Reverend Mother visit House Atreides in order to test Paul. She places a poisonous needle to Paul’s neck – called the Gom Jabbar – and tells him to place his hand inside a box she claims is filled only with pain. Paul must endure this pain in order to prove himself to the Reverend Mother, or he’ll die from the Gom Jabbar.

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The Reverend Mother is not lying when she claims the box is empty. It serves as a sort of focusing lens for the Reverend Mother’s own power, and she telepathically generates feelings of intense pain in order to test Paul’s ability to control his reflexive desire to recoil from such pain. In the book, the scene is told from Paul’s own perspective, meaning readers get to experience it along with him. Paul Atreides’ pain test begins like a pinprick, then builds up to the point where he feels as though his entire hand is being burned away as though by acid. “He first felt a sense of cold as the blackness closed around his hand, then slick metal against his fingers and a prickling as though his hand were asleep… The tingling became an itch… The itch became the faintest burning… It mounted slowly, heat upon heat upon heat… The burning! He thought he could feel skin curling back on that agonized hand, the flesh crisping and dropping away until only charred bones remained.”

The purpose of the test is to evaluate the strength of Paul Atreides’ will. The Reverend Mother is holding a Gom Jabbar to his neck, and if he flinches she will stab him with it, killing him instantly. Every instinct in Paul’s body wants to recoil from the ever-increasing pain, but he can only endure it, waiting until it has come to an end. In the book, it is Paul who recites a Bene Gesserit mantra in order to retain his self-control. The Dune movie switches things round, with Paul’s mother, Lady Jessica, saying the words instead:

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“I must not fear.

Fear is the mind-killer.

Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

I will face my fear.

I will permit it to pass over me and through me.

And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.

Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

Paul is only allowed to remove his hand when the test is complete, when the Reverend Mother’s energy is exhausted, and the pain in the box is gone at last. In the book, the Reverend Mother is impressed, and she tells him he has held out longer than anyone else who has undertaken this test. It’s a remarkable feat, serving to underline just how unusual Paul Atreides really is, and to hint that he really may be the Messiah figure Dune’s characters are awaiting.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/dune-movie-box-contents-pain-paul-test-gom-jabbar/

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