Voyager

“So far as the Scottish Highlands go, most of the history is oral, up to the mid-nineteenth century or so. That means there wasn’t a great distinction made between stories about real people, stories of historical figures, and the stories about mythical things like water horses and ghosts and the doings of the Auld Folk. Scholars who wrote the stories down often didn’t know for sure which they were dealing with, either—sometimes it was a combination of fact and myth, and sometimes you could tell that it was a real historical occurrence being described.”

Roger tells this to Claire and Brianna when they are looking for sources that show how Jamie survived after Culloden. This illustrates the complications of history and how it can often be a messy thing to interpret. This idea comes up several times throughout the novel such as when they discover the story of Dunbonnet or when Claire and Joe help an anthropologist determine what happened to the skeleton found in a cave. This tension between myth and memory mirrors the broader discussion of how personal and historical pasts shape identity.

“‘Are some people destined for a great fate, or to do great things? Or is it only that they’re born somehow with that great passion—and if they find themselves in the right circumstances, then things happen? It’s the sort of thing you wonder, studying history…but there’s no way of telling, really. All we know is what they accomplished. But Claire—’ His eyes held a definite note of warning, as he tapped the cover of his book. ‘They paid for it,’ he said.”

Frank told this to Claire when she was considering quitting her job to stay at home with Brianna. The way Frank discusses Claire’s passion for medicine makes it seem like she is destined for it, regardless of her choice in the matter. However, Frank’s note that people who follow their destiny can pay greatly for it puts Claire’s choices surrounding Bree into a broader perspective that she must consider again when she chooses to return to the past. The quote reflects Claire’s inner debate about whether her responsibilities to Brianna, her career, and herself can coexist or whether something must be left behind to be true to her calling, highlight the theme of Reconciling Past and Present Selves.

“‘I think perhaps the greatest burden lies in caring for those we cannot help.’ ‘Not in having no one for whom to care?’ Fraser paused before answering; he might have been weighing the position of the pieces on the table. ‘That is emptiness,’ he said at last, softly. ‘But no great burden.’”

This exchange between Jamie and John shows the similarities between the two men. Both lost the most important people to them on the day of the Battle of Culloden, but both have taken their losses differently. This exchange raises the question of whether or not it is worth loving someone when one knows they can lose them, a question that reverberates throughout the Outlander series.

“‘Would you go down there, Roger?’ she asked softly. ‘Jump overboard, dive in, go on down through that dark until your lungs were bursting, not knowing whether there are things with teeth and great heavy bodies waiting? […] But that’s not all the question,’ she continued, still staring into the blank, mysterious water. ‘Would you go, if Brianna were down there?’ […] ‘Yes. I think I would.’”

Claire asks this of Roger when they are sailing on Loch Ness. This quote relates to the theme of Making Sacrifices for Love as it shows that both Roger and Claire are willing to put their life on the line to save someone they care deeply about. This quote also parallels Claire’s fear about stepping into puddles that she addressed in the prologue but also mirrors her uncertainty of returning to the past. The imagery of deep water and blind faith parallels Claire’s time travel, reinforcing the novel’s motif of travel that requires emotional surrender.

“I didn’t know quite what I had been expecting. A reprise of the pounding fury that had accompanied our final parting? I had remembered that so often, lived it over in memory, helpless to change the outcome. The half-rough, timeless hours of mutual possession in the darkness of our marriage bed? I had longed for that, wakened often sweating and trembling from the memory of it. But we were strangers now, barely touching, each seeking the way toward joining, slowly, tentatively, seeking and giving unspoken permission with our silent lips. My eyes were closed, and I knew without looking that Jamie’s were, as well. We were, quite simply, afraid to look at each other.”

Claire thinks this shortly after she reunites with Jamie. This quote shows just how much has changed between the two in the 20 years since they last saw one another. It relates to the theme of Reconciling Past and Present Selves as Claire and Jamie see that they need to reacquaint themselves with one another due to the changes in their relationship. This moment redefines intimacy as something rebuilt through vulnerability. It also demonstrates that the passion Jamie and Claire feel for each other is not automatically sexual; it requires reawakening after their time apart.

“It was in fact raining quite hard; sheets of water fell from the arch overhead and gurgled down the gutters, cleansing the streets of sewage and rubbish. I took a deep breath of the damp, clean air, feeling exhilarated by the wildness of the evening and the closeness of Jamie, tall and powerful by my side. I had found him. I had found him, and whatever unknowns life now held, they didn’t seem to matter. I felt reckless and indestructible.”

This quote illustrates Claire’s primary feelings about returning to Jamie. Though she has several questions about his past and where their relationship is going, her feelings here show that she is mainly happy to face the unknown with Jamie. Emotions like this, rather than her fears about change, show exactly why Claire took the risk of going through the standing stones again.

“‘Did ye come to be my wife again? Or only to bring me word of my daughter?’ As though he sensed that his nearness unnerved me, he turned away suddenly, moving toward the window, where the shutters creaked in the wind. ‘You are the mother of my child—for that alone, I owe ye my soul—for the knowledge that my life hasna been in vain—that my child is safe.’ He turned again to face me, blue eyes intent. ‘But it has been a time, Sassenach, since you and I were one. You’ll have had your life—then—and I have had mine here. You’ll know nothing of what I’ve done, or been. Did ye come now because ye wanted to—or because ye felt ye must?’”

Jamie asks this of Claire when she returns, showing his insecurities about her presence. The last time he saw Claire, she was faced with a decision between what she wanted to do and what she felt she must do, and she chose the latter. As such, Jamie can’t be sure of Claire’s reasons for returning to him, especially after she waited 20 years to do so, showing his own fears about how she has changed.

“‘I have burned for you for twenty years, Sassenach, […] But I’m no the man ye knew, twenty years past, am I?’ He turned away, with a gesture of frustration. ‘We know each other now less than we did when we wed.’”

This quote from Jamie continues to show how much he and Claire have changed over 20 years, as well as underscoring the fear that surrounds being perceived by each other as different and somehow unlovable because of the passage of time. By recalling their arranged marriage after only a short time of knowing each other, Jamie reveals his insecurities about how Claire has changed over time and whether she still wants to be with him. Jamie’s language of the distance of time underscores the novel’s discussion of rediscovery of altered selves.

“He had been fixed in my memory for so long, glowing but static, like an insect frozen in amber. And then had come Roger’s brief historical sightings, like peeks through a keyhole; separate pictures like punctuations, alterations; adjustments of memory, each showing the dragonfly’s wings raised or lowered at a different angle, like the single frames of a motion picture. Now time had begun to run again for us, and the dragonfly was in flight before me, flickering from place to place, so I saw little more yet than the glitter of its wings.”

In this quote, Claire describes her feelings of getting to know Jamie again. The complicated nature of their time difference and her belief that Jamie died at Culloden make Claire less able to see how Jamie’s life has been dynamic and changed like her own. This also returns to the motif of the “insect frozen in amber” from the second novel, Dragonfly in Amber, recalling how their relationship was in the past. The dragonfly image also recalls the fragility and fluidity of memory, suggesting that time cannot hold love still. Her realization that Jamie is not the man frozen in memory but someone still evolving emphasizes how memory can both preserve and distort love, highlighting The Presence of the Past.

“‘I have wondered,’ he said, so low I could scarcely hear him. ‘Wondered often, if I could call that edge to my service, and sheathe it safe again. For I have seen a great many men grow hard in that calling, and their steel decay to dull iron. And I have wondered often, was I master in my soul, or did I become the slave of my own blade? I have thought again and again,’ he went on, looking down at our linked hands…‘that I had drawn my blade too often, and spent so long in the service of strife that I wasna fit any longer for human intercourse.’”

Jamie describes his feelings about his role as a warrior leading up to Culloden. He fears that he got too used to the idea of killing, being in battle, and doing whatever he needed to survive. Thinking of other people in this military way makes him afraid that he can no longer treat people in his life the way they deserve to be treated. Jamie’s fear that violence has hollowed him out reflects his internal struggle to reclaim tenderness in a postwar world.

“We were doing our level best to kill each other, fueled by the rage of years apart—mine for his sending me away, his for my going, mine for Laoghaire, his for Frank.”

This quote describes the moments after Claire finds out that Jamie married Laoghaire. Though most of their feelings regarding the ways one another changed have thus far in the novel been fearful and insecure, this shows the anger that was lurking beneath those feelings all along. More than just angry with each other, Claire and Jamie are angry with the situation they were put in and all the things they needed to do to survive since Culloden.

“Constraint and judgment had been a great deal of my life. I had learned at some pains the art of healing; to give and to care, but always stopping short of that danger point where too much was given to make me effective. I had learned detachment and disengagement, to my cost. With Frank, too, I had learned the balancing act of civility; kindness and respect that did not pass those unseen boundaries into passion. And Brianna? Love for a child cannot be free; from the first signs of movement in the womb, a devotion springs up as powerful as it is mindless, irresistible as the process of birth itself. But powerful as it is, it is a love always of control; one is in charge, the protector, the watcher, the guardian—there is great passion in it, to be sure, but never abandon. Always, always, I had had to balance compassion with wisdom, love with judgment, humanity with ruthlessness. Only with Jamie had I given everything I had, risked it all. I had thrown away caution and judgment and wisdom, along with the comforts and constraints of a hard-won career. I had brought him nothing but myself, been nothing but myself with him, given him soul as well as body, let him see me naked, trusted him to see me whole and cherish my frailties—because he once had.”

In this excerpt, Claire describes the ways she has dealt with passion and love in her life, particularly over the last two decades. This shows just how much of herself she gave to Jamie and how much she trusted him, along with why she felt she could trust him when she returned to the past. This quote comes shortly after Claire discovers Jamie married another woman, highlighting why she feels so betrayed by this act. This quote also shows how Claire’s identity—caregiver, mother, wife—has always required restraint, making her love for Jamie feel like radical surrender.

“Yes, he’d lied to me. Hadn’t trusted me to recognize his responsibilities, to stand by him—or to leave him—as his circumstances demanded. He’d been afraid. So had I; afraid that he wouldn’t choose me, confronted with the struggle between a twenty-year-old love and a present-day family. So I’d run away.”

Claire begins to realize why she feels conflicted over Jamie’s second marriage. In comparing her own life and choices to Jamie’s, she understands why he would marry Laoghaire but still doesn’t comprehend why he would lie about it. Unable to face what Jamie might say, she runs away from him. Claire’s self-awareness here illustrates a key moment of emotional growth: understanding fear as a mirror between lovers.

“‘I was Uncle to Jenny’s children, and Brother to her and Ian. “Milord” to Fergus, and “Sir” to my tenants. “Mac Dubh” to the men of Ardsmuir and “MacKenzie” to the other servants at Helwater. “Malcolm the printer,” then, and “Jamie Roy” at the docks.’ The hand stroked my hair, slowly, with a whispering sound like the wind outside. ‘But here,’ he said, so softly I could barely hear him, ‘here in the dark, with you…I have no name.’”

Jamie tells this to Claire as they are reconciling about his marriage to Laoghaire. This shows how Jamie has had to live for others over the years and has had many roles to fill. This also relates to the symbol of names that runs throughout the novel, and how different names can have different meanings or represent different parts of oneself.

“‘Is it wrong for me to have ye?’ he whispered. His face was bone-white, his eyes no more than dark pits in the dim light. ‘I keep thinking—is it my fault? Have I sinned so greatly, wanting you so much, needing ye more than life itself?’ ‘Do you?’ I took his face between my hands, feeling the wide bones cold under my palms. ‘And if you do—how can that be wrong? I’m your wife.’ In spite of everything, the simple word ‘wife’ made my heart lighten.”

Jamie tells this to Claire when he is worrying about using the treasure money for his own purposes rather than for helping others as he has done before. Not only does this show Jamie’s uncertainty about the treasure, but also how he feels about moving forward with his relationship with Claire. For most of his life, especially over the last 20 years, Jamie has put others’ wants and needs before his own, so he doesn’t know how to feel about putting himself first. Jamie’s guilt over desire highlights how emotional need can feel like selfishness to someone accustomed to self-denial.

“There are things ye maybe canna tell me, he had said. I willna ask ye, or force ye. But when ye do tell me something, let it be the truth. There is nothing between us now but respect, and respect has room for secrets, I think—but not for lies.”

Claire remembers these words that Jamie told her when they were first married. By thinking about this, Claire reminds herself that it is not so bad that there are things she doesn’t know about Jamie. With all of the things that have changed in their relationship, it is significant that Claire goes back to the beginning to remind herself what is at the core of their marriage.

“All the names I’ve called you through the years—my chick, my pumpkin, precious dove, darling, sweetheart, dinky, smudge…I know why the Jews and Muslims have nine hundred names for God; one small word is not enough for love.”

Claire writes this in a final letter she leaves for Brianna before she returns to the past. This quote again shows the significance of names as a symbol in the novel, particularly as a representation of love and affection.

“So she had done it. One fifteen-year-old girl, with nothing but stubbornness as a weapon. ‘I want him,’ she had said. And kept saying it, through her mother’s objections and Jamie’s arguments, through Fergus’s scruples and her own fears, through three thousand miles of homesickness, hardship, ocean storm, and shipwreck.”

Claire thinks this about Marsali when she is firm on her stance about being with Fergus. Though Claire seems amazed at Marsali’s tenacity, it mirrors her own in her fight to get back to Jamie. This highlights the strength and impact of love that is illustrated throughout the novel.

“I knew from experience that waiting while men fought was one of the most difficult things in life to do, but in this case, there wasn’t any sensible alternative.”

Claire thinks this while she and Marsali hide from a pirate attack on board the Artemis. This thought illustrates Claire’s past experiences not only with the Jacobite uprising but also in World War II, while highlighting how her role as a woman was diminished. Shortly after this quote, Claire comes out of hiding and kills one of the pirates.

“‘There was a small part of my mind that asked why I should be killin’ them,’ he said reflectively. ‘For surely I knew that we were lost; there was no gain to it. But there is a lust to killing—you’ll know that?’ His fingers tightened on mine, questioning, and I squeezed back in affirmation. ‘I couldna stop—or I would not.’ His voice was quiet, without bitterness or recrimination. ‘It’s a verra old feeling, I think; the wish to take an enemy with ye to the grave. I could feel it there, a hot red thing in my chest and belly, and…I gave myself to it,’ he ended simply.”

This quote from Jamie comes as he reflects on his experiences at Culloden and the blind rage he felt after losing so many of his loved ones. Jamie describes killing every English soldier in his path until he had made it past their line and had to turn around to kill more. The visceral feelings he notes here also reflect the way he felt about losing Claire moments before.

“Too many folk have died, Sassenach, because they knew me—or suffered for the knowing. I would give my own body to save ye a moment’s pain—and yet I could wish to close my hand just now, that I might hear ye cry out and know for sure that I havena killed you, too.”

Jamie tells this to Claire when they discuss the nature of pain and how it is harder to cause pain to loved ones rather than oneself. Here again Jamie worries about the pain he has caused in the past and feels somewhat unworthy of Claire’s love, a feeling he deals with throughout the novel after Claire’s return. This quote reinforces Jamie’s core fear that love always costs others more than it costs him.

“John Grey’s revelations had relieved me of most of my fears and doubts—and yet there remained the fact that Jamie had not told me about his son. Of course he had reasons—and good ones—for his secrecy, but did he not think he could trust me to keep his secret? It occurred to me suddenly that perhaps he had kept quiet because of the boy’s mother. Perhaps he had loved her, in spite of John’s impressions. She was dead; could it matter if he had? The answer was that it did. I had thought Jamie dead for twenty years, and it had made no difference at all in what I felt for him. What if he had loved this young English girl in such a way? I swallowed a small lump in my throat, trying to find the courage to ask him.”

Claire thinks this after she learns about Jamie’s son and his relationship with Geneva. This gets to the heart of her insecurities about the changes Jamie has gone through in the last 20 years. Though Claire can deal with Jamie changing in any other way, she could not cope if she realized his love for her had changed. Claire’s reflection ties directly into her deepest insecurity that Jamie’s heart may have moved on, even if hers never did.

“‘Geneva—Willie’s mother—she wanted my body,’ he said softly, watching the gecko’s pulsing sides. ‘Laoghaire needed my name, and the work of my hands to keep her and her bairns.’ He turned his head then, dark blue eyes fixed on mine. ‘John—well.’ He lifted his shoulders and let them drop. ‘I couldna give him what he wanted—and he is friend enough not to ask it. But how shall I tell ye all these things,’ he said, the line of his mouth twisting. ‘And then say to you—it is only you I have ever loved? How should you believe me?’ The question hung in the air between us, shimmering like the reflection from the water below. ‘If you say it,’ I said, ‘I’ll believe you.’”

This exchange between Jamie and Claire shows how they finally reconcile with the changes they have gone through over the past 20 years. By putting their love and trust in one another first, Claire is able to believe Jamie when he says he hasn’t loved anyone but her. This also shows the various types of love and relationships that are covered throughout the novel and how much they differ from one another.