Piter de Vries - Character

Character

In the service of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, De Vries is a Mentat — a human specially trained to perform mental functions rivaling computers (which are forbidden universe-wide). De Vries has been "twisted" — made into an amoral sadist by his Tleilaxu creators. This makes him an ideal candidate to be the Baron's Mentat.

De Vries' loyalty to his master is unusual in that he continues to serve the Baron with great enthusiasm even though his Mentat abilities and great intelligence confirm his suspicions that his master plans to eventually kill him. As he says in Dune:

But you see, Baron, I know as a Mentat when you will send the executioner. You will hold back just so long as I am useful. To move sooner would be wasteful and I'm yet of much use.

Read more about this topic:  Piter De Vries

Famous quotes containing the word character:

    When trying a case [the famous judge] L. Cassius never failed to inquire “Who gained by it?” Man’s character is such that no one undertakes crimes without hope of gain.
    Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)

    I prize the purity of his character as highly as I do that of hers. As a moral being, whatever it is morally wrong for her to do, it is morally wrong for him to do. The fallacious doctrine of male and female virtues has well nigh ruined all that is morally great and lovely in his character: he has been quite as deep a sufferer by it as woman, though mostly in different respects and by other processes.
    Angelina Grimké (1805–1879)

    It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again.
    William James (1842–1910)