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Voyager by Diana Gabaldon

Chapter 12 - Sacrifice

As usual please discuss all books up to and including Voyager only. For discussions including other books in the series, please post in the Spoiler thread. True?

Summary

Routine inspection of the prisoner’s cell one cold and rainy day unearthed a strip of green check tartan by one of the Corporals. Possession of any such contraband was in direct contravention of the Diskilting Act and carried a sentence if found guilty, of sixty lashes. Not able to keep his expressions neutral it was very easy for anyone to realize that young Angus MacKenzie was the guilty owner. Thus he was confronted by Major Grey. Jamie however, came forward and claimed the strip as his.

Totally blindsided by Jamie’s claim which John knew to be a lie he was left with no choice but to order Jamie to be whipped.

As difficult as it was for John to oversee the carrying out of the lashing, he stood along with all the prisoners and guards in the courtyard while Jamie’s hands were tied to the post and had his back stripped bare. The memory of it made John pull out a drawer of his desk and was neatly sick all over a stack of requisitions.

The shaking that was deep in his bones would not stop. He cried out in pain as the hands that gripped him shifted him onto his side and covered him with a blanket. There was an English surgeon speaking to him, asking questions. He heard himself reply. The sound of another voice roused him slowly from what was a dream. He could recognize the voices of his fellow prison mates all around him as he was being tended to. He drifted in and out of sleep remembering the ordeal he had just endured. Awakened once more to take a drink of whiskey Jamie realized that the men were beating young Angus MacKenzie. Still dizzy and weary Jamie tried to intervene but was held back by Morrison. There was nothing he could do about it. It was the way things were, necessary justice being meted out.

As he lay shivering he pondered on the roles of the men he shared the cell with, wondering whence the gifts that shaped a man’s nature came. From God? He thought of Claire’s gift and what had sent her to him. She knew what to do. She knew her role in his and well as her own life. Jamie accepted that he was born to lead, bent and shaped to fit just such a destiny and yet what of men who knew not what their roles were? Men such as John Grey and Charles Stuart? Mmmmmm….

During these musings young Angus came over to say he was sorry for what had happened. Jamie reassured him that he was all right and told him to get some rest. Sleep was coming on him again and with it, relief, of many things, of the weight of responsibility, of the necessity for decision. Temptation, the burden of anger had lifted from him and hopefully for good. He was grateful, almost, he thought to John Grey for giving him back his destiny.

Please share your varying thoughts on this chapter.

I wonder at the huge burden Jamie must have carried, bound as he was to be a leader of men.....Lallybroch, Fergus, Culloden. How very fitting the heading of this chapter. Time and time again he sacrificed himself to see others free.

What else have you learned about Jamie from this chapter.? About Major Grey? Life at Ardsmuir?

for your insights.

Just finished the chapter (after reading the bonus material in the 20th anniversary edition of Outlander).

I had forgotten the chapter title as I read until I read it here on the thread. And, yes, once again, Jamie sacrificed himself to experience punishment and pain to save another. Someone less able to withstand the pain than he was. I suppose Jamie also forced John to sacrifice him (Jamie) to maintain order and discipline in the prison. I think it was a genuine sacrifice for John who knew full well that Jamie was innocent of the charge and was clearly not happy having to order the flogging.

I thought it was interesting that Jamie was thinking of people's gifts/talents and, in particular, was thinking that Claire was fortunate to know her own gift and her own purpose. That was very reminiscent of Frank earlier talking to Claire about medical school.

I've been contemplating how John Grey had given him back his destiny. I understand how this event dissipated his anger. Was the possibility of temptation that no longer existed about Jamie potentially being tempted to have a sexual relationship with John for whatever benefits that could gain for him and his men? I can't imagine that he was seriously tempted, but that was all I could figure out. So, was his returned destiny something about hating the English, not having a friendship of any sort with an English officer and, I suppose, avoiding homosexual activity? I'm kind of confused. Because, even during his period of weekly suppers with John Grey, he was acting in the role of leader of the prisoners and leadership is his gift and what he recognized as his destiny. So, I don't see how that was ever quite taken away or given back. I'd be very interested in everyone else's interpretations because I feel like I'm missing something and maybe something that should be obvious. Maybe it's just getting late and I can't think clearly enough. . .

Great summary and discussion, Surah!
I had forgotten that Maj. Grey made sure to see that Jamie had a surgeon come check him after the flogging-I wonder if all prisoners under his command had the same treatment, after a flogging or other physical punishment? It certainly seems that John Grey has given Jamie's destiny back to him, and agree that his motives are kind of confusing - so far he has only made close note of Jamie's appearance and seems somewhat relieved (?) that Claire is no longer in the picture. I'll have to back and re-read for more details, now it has me wondering...

At first it seemed that Grey was only trying to make sure that Jamie, a prisoner by circumstances of war, could still fulfill his duties as a "chief" to the men of Ardsmuir, and without him things would be more difficult. It also seemed that he wanted Jamie to maintain his dignity, after he turned himself in even though he could have kept running, after his earlier escape. hmmmm...

I thought the surgeon was only in Jamie's dream/memory from Fort William and that Morrison (the prisoner who acted as the medical person for all the other prisoners) was the only one treating Jamie at Ardsmuir. I wouldn't have been surprised if John Grey had provided a surgeon if he had one, but that wasn't what I thought happened in this chapter.

This chapter has always troubled me, and maybe this is only my own take on the scene, but it comes on the heel of LJ making a not-so-subtle play for Jamie and Jamie pulling back. It feels to me like Jamie feels that he gets special treatment, etc., from LJ not because of his leadership of the men, but realizes it is because of his lust for Jamie's body. I get the feeling that Jamie loathes the body that creates this lust from his English captors and takes ownership of the tartan flag, knowing the punishment, as a way of lashing at his own body for creating this lust. To me, it is as if he is getting in John's face and reminding him of what their real relationship is and it is not of friends or potential lovers.

I don't know if any of this makes sense but I've always felt that Jamie just wanted to punish his body in this scene rather than taking the high road for one of his men.

That's a really interesting take on this, Pauline and one I hadn't thought of. I can see your point. I'm not quite sure I think that's Jamie's style in the sense that I don't know that he'd punish his body for something that wasn't its fault, as it were (it's not like he tried to make himself attractive to John or anyone else). And, I think he did choose to take the punishment to save a young man who was much less prepared to handle it than he was. But, I can see how the punishment did put him and John very deliberately back into their roles as prisoner and prison commander (rather than friends or whatever they were becoming). Hmmm. Something to think more about. . .

Yes Pauline, this was my very first take on what happened. In a twisted way Jamie knew he could hurt John - knowing he had to order the flogging and watch while his body was being flayed - the same body John so wanted and would not have.

I also thought that Morrison was the only medical help available at Ardsmuir. I interpreted the surgeon as being in Jamie's dream about a previous flogging at Fort William.

In Outlander, we questioned Jamie's purity of purpose (yes, double meaning intended) in taking the punishment for Laoghaire. There can be no question here that Jamie took the punishment for a foolish action by a young prisoner. Jamie's burden as a leader continues. But, I think that this burden gives him a purpose to live. His action also earns interest by LJ into the nature of this man. He understands for himself that Jamie is that natural leader of the prisoners, as identified by Quarry. Notice that Jamie could have angrily rejected Angus's efforts to apologize. But, that is not Jamie. rather he consoles young Angus.

ABL - I agree with your point how interesting that Jamie does come to the same conclusion about a purpose for people's roles in life as Frank does.

It's too bad that we don't get John's POV. He knows it wasn't Jamie's Tartan, and he is attracted to him on several levels. Did he go back to his room and get soused? Was he angry at Jamie for forcing his hand? Was he ashamed of having to mete out these punishments?

We do get to see John's reaction afterward, which I thought pretty clearly showed how upset he was at having to punish Jamie for something he knew was not Jamie's crime. He eventually vomited into his drawer which seems like a pretty extreme reaction and clear indication of how terrible he felt about the whole situation. But, he didn't see that he had any choice in his role as governor of the prison.

I did see Jamie's actions as having a twofold purpose: 1) In his natural role as leader, he wanted to protect someone weaker than himself. He knew that he could bear the physical punishment, as awful as it might be. 2) I agree that an equally strong motivation for Jamie would have been to reassert his distance from Lord John, force John back into the prison commander role in respect to Jamie, and ensure that there could be no remnant of affection between them.

I was puzzled by this passage:

"He felt relieved at once of many things. Of the weight of immediate responsibility, of the necessity for decision. Temptation was gone, along with the possibility of it."

I wonder if he was actually tempted to enter into a relationship of sorts with Lord John. In the earlier chapter, Jamie had compared his return to the cell after his evenings with LJ to returning to his cave after his monthly visits to Lallybroch. Perhaps it would have been tempting for Jamie to hold onto that place of refuge and companionship, even at a price. As strong as his initial reaction was to LJ's advances, Jamie would also be able to distinguish LJ's interest, which was honorable if not normally what Jamie would want, from the treatment to which he'd been subjected by BJR. By choosing to take the punishment for Angus and forcing LJ to treat him once more as nothing but a prisoner, Jamie is carefully shutting the door on the possibility of choosing comfort over doing what he would have felt to be right -- staying true to his role as the leader of men and symbol of resistance.

My interpretation of the passage was similar to yours, Lisa. That there was the temptation -- regardless of how slight or how intense -- to avail himself of the succor of physical release. Jamie saw other men do so at Ardsmuir and didn't judge them. He recognized for himself, as their leader, however, the implications, and knew his honor would never allow such conduct.

Very insightful comments! I agree with whatever wrote.

One final thing on motive: Perhaps another reason is that Jamie felt that he had to earn back the other prisoners' respect. He had been receiving special privileges from LJ and he had escaped from the prison leaving them to their fates. While the other prisoners might have understood why he escaped (if he had explained it to them which is doubtful), they might have also felt betrayed by someone they looked up to for leadership & protection abandoning them. Stepping up like this was Jamie's way of saying, "I'm back and I'm prepared to do whatever is necessary to be your leader."