In a setting which promoted the sacrifice of personality to the political structure and the sacrifice ot family loyalty to power, she developed an admiration for and a faith in normal humanity and Ihe old-fashioned virtues of love and devotion. Irulan's writings include very little about Anuril and it is clear that her non-relationship with her own mother did nothing to counterbalance the attitudes toward motherhood to which she was exposed Motherhood was not a virtue espoused by either the royal houses or the Bene Gesserit, since in either case it was merely a biological role made to serve other, larger purposes than love for and nurturing of a child. Her father, therefore, was the dominant figure in her life. She wrote much about the significance of fatherhood and clearly regarded her father (whose favorite child she was) as a source of instructive wisdom as well as affection. The degradation of the mother role, a strong devotion to a male figure, the ability to find satisfaction in her writing, her training in royal command-all these laid the basis for Irulan's acceptance-with only small spurts of rebellion-of the position of virgin wife to Paul. In her position as Paul's virgin queen, she stood for the moral law of the community, a law which upheld order and status and continuity. But her passivity in the acceptance of her role indicates, also, a ATREIDES CORRINO, IRULAN 104 ATREfDES CORRINO IRULAN towered sexual threshold, confirmed by her decision to remain single after the death of Paul Further, these qualities explain her lat er assumption of the role of protectress of Paul s children Surrounded by a prescience she did not share-that found in Alia, Leto, and Ghanima-her major role naturally became that of supporting, rather than leading, actress But since those 'children," Leto and Ghanima, were never really children, that time Irulan devoted to their rearing marked a quiescent period for her Standing beside Chani, and later beside Alia in the royal court, she contributed wherever and whenev er she could to the royal judgments and directions for the good of House Atreides Blonde, tall, and beautiful, she commanded by her appearance a certain awe from strangers, an awe which she, remote, refused to concede, she knew too well her role as royal pawn Without seeking power for herself, she could gain little respect from others, but all the while she was carefully observing and analyzing As Leto II assumed command of the Bene Gtssent breeding program and the powers of the Bene Gessetit declined accordingly, they lost their reasons for secrecy, and a new age, of sorts, dawned in the empire-an age which historians centuries later called the Age of Enlightenment Irulan was a motivating force for this age, for she began think