Outlander

The motif of domination and submission is present across several character arcs. Randall’s penchant for cruelty becomes one of his defining features in the novel. When Claire is interrogated by Randall, and threatened with rape, she finds that Randall can only be aroused by the possibility of harming her. In Chapter 13, Dougal confirms Randall’s love of domination when he describes Randall’s torture of Jamie as a cat playing with a “wee mousie,” foreshadowing the pleasure that Randall takes in inflicting pain and forcing his victims to submit to him (351). The theme takes on a more sinister turn when Randall enacts domination and submission during his sexual torture of Jamie, an incident that leaves Jamie severely wounded, physically and psychologically, and suicidal.

Domination and submission become integral to Claire and Jamie’s sex life. After beating Claire for putting the MacKenzie clansman in danger, Jamie admits, “…you don’t know just how much I enjoyed it. You were so…God, you looked lovely. I was so angry, and you fought me so fierce. I hated to hurt you, but I wanted to do it at the same time” (585). Later, during sex, Jamie tells Claire that she is his whether she wills it or not and informs her that he will sexually use her hard. “I want to own you, body and soul,” he tells her, pressing her down when she struggles, and he hammers inside of her with a “solid, inexorable pounding” (613). Though at first Claire begs him to stop because he is hurting her, Claire finds that her hips “traitorously” rise to meet his, indicating that Claire enjoys submitting to Jamie (614).

Claire’s medical skills, which she acquired as a nurse during World War II, serve as the source of her confidence and a path to building community in 1743. Claire is spared from death when she proves her competence in nursing Jamie in front of the MacKenzie clansman who kidnap her. Claire and Jamie initially bond on Claire’s ability to successfully put Jamie’s arm back into its socket. Her assessment of his health and medical progress then becomes the pretense for their conversations at the stables, where the pair develop a friendship. Later, her position as a physician at Castle Leoch allows her to build trust with the other residents there, even gaining the approval of wary Castle Leoch laird Colum. Claire gains Colum’s trust when she provides him with medical advice for his painful disease, Toulouse-Lautrec Syndrome, which causes his legs to painfully bow. Finally, it is Claire’s care that mends Jamie’s mangled hand and lifts him out of his depression so that the couple may start a new life in Rome.

Claire’s medical skills represent her ability to maintain agency in an environment that objectifies her as a woman and sees her as mere property. It is the skill through which she is able to prove her worth and to make important connections with the people around her. Her usefulness, especially in such a violent an unpredictable time and place, also allows her to feel fulfilled and always on the edge of adventure, a feeling that she found lacking in her new domestic life as Frank’s wife in 1945.

The motif of sexual violence is first introduced in Outlander when Claire first jumps back in time to 1743 and is accosted by Captain Jonathan Randall. From that point on, sexual violence becomes a menacing force that lurks around every corner. At the Gathering celebrations, Mrs. Fitz ushers away the women for fear the men will get too rowdy and attempt to sexually harass them. As Claire seeks safety on the way to her own room, she narrowly avoids attack by a group of lustful MacKenzie clansman before Dougal interrupts them. However, Dougal uses his position as Claire’s rescuer to give her a strong, unwanted kiss before sending her on her way before she pays, as he puts it, a “greater price” for his heroism (274). Jamie’s awareness of the prevalence of sexual violence becomes another way in which he and Claire bond when he insists on sleeping in front of Claire’s door to protect her from the unwanted sexual advances of drunk English soldiers.