Outlander
First, a confession. I haven’t read the books. This post is based on the TV series of the same name.
What I have found really great about the series is the way the main characters are portrayed. In particular, the way Claire Fraser is developed. Here is a powerful female character who is neither superwoman nor a more placid victim. She has agency. But she is very believable given she is well-rounded and has both strengths and weaknesses. I wonder how much Diane Gabaldon, who wrote the books, has contributed to this; I suspect her heroine is as multi-faceted and complex as her screen representation shows. A strong woman but very much a woman and this makes her very compelling.
In the first episode, we see her in her ‘normal’ world, if such is true; with a short but characteristic moment where she is working as a nurse at the end of WWII where she both succeeds but equally fails with the wounded soldier she is treating. As such, we already have a good idea of who she is. Then the on-screen development of her normal but strained relationship with her husband who—due to their separate war experiences—have become strangers. Here we see her desires and physicality. Of course, this becomes important later on. But it does show a woman who knows what she wants and without being too manipulating goes about getting it.
The scene at the standing stones is interesting for the interplay Claire has with her husband Frank. Interestingly, I didn’t get any sense she had reservations about him, apart from his time spent digging up his ancestors. We are also treated to a moment in her normal world that is both indicative of her willingness to be different and as a piece of foreshadowing of what is to come when she is transported back into the past when, at the castle, she initiates sex in the dungeon room. Hence, we know even before her ordeals are about to start she’s not a passive vessel but an individual who seeks to plow her own furrow.
Her weaknesses are revealed in plot moving ways, for instance, when she is inebriated by Colum MacKenzie to find out if she is an English spy. I could go on to illustrate more of her character revelations but I think you get the idea here. She is COMPLEX and far from a victim or puppet, which is wonderful to see. Equally, she isn’t a superhero individual able to overcome incredible odds and achieve success. She is an intelligent, thinking person, with a warm heart and good intentions. If the latter don’t always work out for the best, it isn’t because she is weak or incapable, it’s because she’s facing great challenges and threats. Given her situation, we can only admire and love her for the way she copes with the impossible whilst admitting her mistakes and misjudgements. But we forgive her those, of course.
So bravo Diane, you have created a wonderful heroine, an engaging and likeable main character who is as real as possible in how she reacts and behaves in the deadly situation she’s found herself in whilst all the time retaining her humanity and kindness. We should all write characters like that—not a clone, of course—who are real and rounded with complex motives and inconsistent actions and even doubts.
Well done.