Outlander Book Club: Book 1, Chapter 25 breakdown

Any foreshadowing within the Outlander chapter?

Many chapters tend to have some foreshadowing. I’m not sure that there is a lot of foreshadowing within this chapter. Most of it is in the moment, focusing on things that we think we know but are corrected on the facts. It’s a chance to get to know Geillis more than anything else, finding out many of her secrets.

It’s only at the end of the witch trials that Claire learns that Geillis is a time traveler, too. She also knows that Geillis was born sometime after 1920 because that’s when the public inoculation became common. Although there is a sense that we’ll get to know Geillis again.

Jamie says that Geillis will be executed for witchcraft but after the child is born. This offers a bit of foreshadowing that the child could come up later. After all, the child is Dougal’s as well as Geillis’s. I also get a sense that Geillis won’t necessarily be executed if Dougal does love the woman. He’s certainly been manipulated so far and he may think it’s due to love.

Geillis does have a great speech to the people when she’s admitting to witchcraft. She draws them in and makes them believe everything she’s saying. I get a sense of foreshadowing of Geillis in her own time, rallying for an independent Scotland.

Then the very end has some foreshadowing. At the stones, as Claire is considering going back to her own time, she tells Jamie not to go to France and not to be a part of the Jacobite rising. She wants him to head to America or Italy or Spain if he needs to go anywhere.

It’s a reminder that the Jacobite rebellion is going to happen. There’s no stopping that or the outcome. It gives us that sense that even when we see Claire and Jamie try to stop things during Dragonfly in Amber, it’s just not going to be a success. And Jamie will be smack bang in the middle of it all.