Outlander

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1991

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-5

Part 2, Chapters 6-10

Part 3, Chapters 11-23

Part 4, Chapters 24-25

Part 5, Chapters 26-33

Part 6, Chapter 34

Part 7, Chapters 35-41

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Part 4, Chapters 24-25Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 24 Summary: “By the Pricking of My Thumb”

Geillis finds Claire in her physician’s office and asks if Claire would like to go on an expedition to the nearby foothills with her. Claire agrees. Claire tells Geillis about finding the dried plants in her bed, which symbolize an ill-wish. Geillis says she can help Claire find out who sent her the ill-wish. While in the foothills, Claire finds a crying baby, who is clearly ill. Geillis instructs Claire to leave the baby there because the baby is a changeling. Claire starts to go back for the baby. Geillis grows impatient and calls Claire a “pig-headed English ass,” accusing her of putting both of their lives in danger (697). As Claire tries to find the baby, she runs into Jamie, who has come to meet her because night is falling. He too insists that the baby is dead and tells Claire that the changeling folklore is an excuse for grieving parents to mourn their sick child. “[M]aybe it will ease them a bit,” Jamie says of the parents, “to believe that it is the changeling who died, and think of their own child healthy and well, living forever with the fairies” (700). Claire notices the castle lanterns blazing in the distance and Jamie’s fancy dress. Jamie informs her that the duke has arrived. Upon meeting the duke, Claire finds that she enjoys his keen sense of humor.

Claire accepts Geillis’s offer to help Claire find out who sent Claire the ill-wish. At Claire’s house, Claire finds a book of magic and Geillis casually admits to practicing magic. Geillis asks Claire to sit quietly and breathe. Geillis mutters in a language Claire cannot understand. Claire finds she cannot move, and it slowly dawns on her that Geillis is hypnotizing her. Geillis asks her who she is and who sent her here. Claire replies that her name is Claire and that she cannot tell Geillis who sent her or why she came because no one would believe her. Geillis’s efforts are interrupted by Geillis’s husband Arthur’s calls to Geillis through the door. He abruptly enters the room in a perturbed manner and sees Geillis in a state of undress. He leaves the room staggering slightly, pushing past Claire as if he does not see her. At a banquet at Castle Leoch later that evening, Colum presents Claire with the MacKenzie badge for her hard work as the community healer. Geillis’s husband Arthur suddenly falls ill and dies.

In bed, Jamie asks Claire to stay away from Geillis as she is suspected to be a witch. Claire recalls the trance that Geillis put her in and does not have much desire to visit Geillis. Claire puts her mouth to Jamie’s nipples and the two begin to have sex. Claire gasps and Jamie slackens his hold on her, saying that he did not mean to hurt her, he just wanted to penetrate her in order to leave her with the feeling of him being deep inside of her.

Moping about the castle in the wake of Jamie’s departure, Claire bumps into Laoghaire, who tells her that Geillis is unwell and has asked Claire to attend to her. Claire arrives at Geillis’s house, but Geillis is puzzled by her presence. Geillis denies having summoned her. The pair’s conversation is cut short by a strange rumbling sound that only seems to be getting closer.

Chapter 25 Summary: “Thou Shalt Not Suffer a Witch to Live”

While imprisoned under accusation of witchcraft, Geillis tells Claire that it was Laoghaire who sent the ill-wish to Claire. Geillis admits to having an affair with Dougal and carrying his child and to poisoning her late husband Arthur. Claire gleans that Arthur did not know Geillis was pregnant until he saw her belly as she undressed before the banquet. Claire asks why Geillis committed these acts and Geillis replies that she did it for Scotland because she is a patriot, implying that she too is a Jacobite. This explains why she made an alliance with a powerful man like Dougal. Geillis asks Claire if she loves Jamie, and Claire replies that she does.

Geillis and Claire are held in a thieves’ hole. The first day of their trial takes place in the square. Two people testify against Claire—Peter, who saw her witness the monster at the Loch; and Father Bain, who resents Claire for being an Englishwoman and refuses her treatment even though he clearly suffers from blood poisoning. Peter is taken to the pillory because he is assumed to be drunk. During the testimony, Ned Gowan interrupts to offer his legal services to Claire. Claire asks him if Colum sent him, and Ned replies that he had not.

After a sleepless night, Claire and Geillis are marched to the square to be judged for witchcraft in front of an angry mob. Claire is instructed to strip, but she refuses. Someone hits her in the stomach and exposes her bare breasts. Jamie interrupts the proceedings and demands that Claire be cut free of the ropes that constrict her. When the judges protest, Jamie replies that he had made an oath to protect Claire under God and questions whether the judges feel they have more authority than God. In a grand performance of witchcraft, Geillis faces the crowd, admits to being a witch, killing her husband, and manipulating Claire. Claire realizes that Geillis plays the part of an evil witch in order to save Claire’s life. Claire notices the smallpox vaccination scar on Geillis’s arm, indicating that Geillis too is from the future. Jamie flings Claire over his saddle like a sack of flour and rides off with her

Claire asks Jamie why he had come back to Castle Leoch. Jamie tells Claire that he had instructed Alec from the stables to watch Claire while Jamie was gone. When the villagers took Claire for the witch trials, Alec had ridden all night to inform Jamie.

Jamie asks her if she is a witch. Claire tells Jamie the truth about her past. She tells him she is 28 years old. Jamie realizes that when he had rescued Claire from Fort William she had been trying to get back to Craigh na Dun and to Frank. Jamie confirms that he believes Claire. He then jokes that it would have been easier if Claire’s secret was that she was a witch. Jamie makes love to Claire tenderly.

Jamie leads Claire to Craigh na Dun so she may time travel home. Claire puts her hands on the rocks and feels its surge of energy. Jamie does the same, but nothing happens. With pain in his eyes, Jamie says it is time for Claire to return home. Though Claire loves Jamie, she cannot bring herself to tell him so. Instead, Claire gives him a warning. Claire shouts to Jamie to stay out of the Jacobite uprising. She informs him that all the Highlander clans that follow the uprising will be wiped. Claire implores Jamie to stay safe by seeking refuge in France, North America, Spain, or Italy. Jamie agrees and tells her to travel safely before leaving himself.

Claire sits in front of the stone without moving for most of the afternoon. She contemplates her duty to Frank as well as the convenience and security of modern life. However, she finds herself taking steps further and further away from the rocks until she is down the hill.

Claire returns to the cottage to find Jamie asleep. She watches him for a second before laying down next to him. When he awakens, Jamie kisses Claire so thoroughly that she can hardly breathe. When he asks her why she returned, she replies, “I had to” (789). However, her joy is mixed with her grief over losing Frank, and Claire sobs in Jamie’s arms. Jamie reveals to Claire that it took all his strength not to beg her to stay in 1743 with him. Jamie announces to Claire that the two of them will go back to his home, Lallybroch.

Part 4, Chapters 24-25 Analysis

Part IV highlights the importance of local lore, presenting them as a social contract in addition to a belief system. Though Jamie does not believe in the prospect of a changeling child, he sees the folklore as a way for the Scottish locals to cope with the trials and traumas of life, such as losing a child. This section also reveals the extent of Laoghaire’s jealousy, as she uses magic to wish ill will on Claire and lies to Claire in order to involve her in the witch trials. This section shows two extremes of paganism and folklore: on the one hand folklore is used as a coping mechanism, and on the other it is a force to be feared and controlled by legal means, such as the witch trial.

Geillis’s allegiance to the Jacobite uprising points to the motif of national pride. Geillis is willing to risk her own life to advance Scottish political interests. Later, Claire finds out the full extent of Geillis’s commitment to Scotland when she realizes that Geillis, like her, had travelled back in time (In Geillis’s case, from 1967) to be involved in this key point of Scottish history.

The connection between Jamie and Claire’s emotional and sexual intimacy takes another level when Claire makes the decision to stay permanently with Jamie and abandon her 20th-century marriage to Frank.