At a time when arranged marriages were the norm and women were treated like property, Jamie Fraser stands out as an exemplary husband.
The Spanish poet Pablo Neruda wrote that he knew no other way to love “except in a way that there is no I am or you are” and so to be so close to his partner that “your eyes close with my dreams.” Outlander immortalizes what Neruda outlined in his seventeenth sonnet with one man.
With smoldering good looks and a sexy accent, Jamie Fraser (Sam Hueghan) was certainly going to be a hit among female fans. But beyond the handsome packaging, Jamie has become TV’s ultimate wife guy, utterly devoted to his time-traveling wife, Claire (Caitriona Balfe). Due to their commitment to each other and their steamy chemistry, Claire and Jamie have become serious couple goals — and Jamie in particular is setting a high standard for fictional husbands.
Jamie Has Given Claire the Protection of His Body Time and Again
Jamie is always helping Claire out of jams, even when it is against his better judgment, and these moments have spanned over the entirety of Outlander’s six-going-on-seven seasons to date. There was the time when Jamie saved his new wife from a witch trial, or when he jumped into the ocean to save her from drowning. In the Season 1 episode titled “The Reckoning,” he even took some friends to rescue her when she was captured by Black Jack Randall (Tobias Menzies) and the Redcoats, in spite of having ordered her to “stay put.” The episode is still the cause of some controversy given the following punishment scene — but ultimately, Jamie realizes that he cannot treat Claire the way other husbands might treat their wives despite what is traditional for the time period. He was already in love with her, but then he becomes hopelessly so, ready and willing to devote himself completely to his new bride. She makes him want to be a better man.
Besides, you can always count on Jamie to sacrifice himself for his wife, even taking on her punishment in one of the show’s earliest and darkest episodes. As Outlander’s first significant villain, Black Jack Randall is insistent on punishing the Frasers. He really wants Jamie, but he is, at least on paper, willing to settle for Claire. However, Jamie offers up himself in order to steer Black Jack away from Claire in order to spare his wife from terrible torture.
In one of the series’ most heartbreaking moments early on, Jamie proves that he is also willing to make a personal sacrifice by sending Claire back through the standing stones at Craigh na Dun when he learns she is pregnant. While the Frasers were living in France in Season 2, Claire delivered a stillborn baby after witnessing Jamie’s arrest for dueling with Black Jack. He blamed himself for his daughter Faith’s death and for Claire’s agony that resulted. Therefore, when he has the chance, he sends Claire away so that it doesn’t happen again. With a battle brewing, he does not feel as though he can protect her — and what’s more, neither he nor Claire knows what his fate will be in the Battle of Culloden. In a scene that promises no dry eyes among viewers, he returns her to the standing stones so that she can travel back to her present time when their baby can grow up safely.
Jamie Treats Claire as a True Equal
No matter how outlandish Claire’s claims seem to an 18th-century ear, Jamie always believes her. She’s not a witch, she’s a doctor. She is from the future. Scotland’s fate after Culloden will never be the same again. He never once questions any of the information she divulges to him about her knowledge of historical events, even going so far as to ask for her advice on how to make circumstances better. They try to stop wars or alter the past to stop events from occurring. It doesn’t work, but Jamie still believes her. He asks her about battlefield strategy, farming practices, and the occasional story about how life differs in the 20th century. He fangirls over Claire’s medical skills and brags about her preternatural knowledge. He even builds her a surgery in their home on Fraser’s Ridge. Even though he is positioned as the head of the family, he knows that Claire is the heart, and treats her as such.
Even after some twenty years of absence, when Jamie and Claire reunite, it is as if they had never been apart. The passion between them is just as hot as ever, and a little obstacle such as another woman wouldn’t stand in their way. He considers Claire his one true wife and will always make room for her. He even leaves his second wife, Laoghaire (Nell Hudson), and step-children (except Marsali (Lauren Lyle)) upon Claire’s return. Legally, it makes little sense, but who cares? He could never be married to anyone else except the love of his life.
Jamie Goes to Great Lengths to Defend Claire
When the couple takes their vows that as husband and wife back in Season 1, they become one, and Jamie interprets that literally. What happens to Claire happens to Jamie, and while Claire is much more forgiving, Jamie often spares no mercy towards those who have personally wronged her. It could be argued that even today, most decent men would fight for their wives’ defense. Fair enough. But Jamie goes a step beyond and kills for Claire, even when it isn’t necessary or completely in defense of her physically. (Although he definitely gets bonus points for killing his own uncle in her defense.) He defends her in this way because no one will tarnish her honor as long as he is around.
In one heartwrenching instance in the show’s fifth season, Claire is captured, and her captors are not humane. They brutalize her for hours because she has been distributing pamphlets expressing bold sensibilities about family planning. Jamie, Roger (Richard Rankin), Ian (John Bell), Fergus (César Domboy), and the other men from Fraser’s Ridge eventually catch up to Claire and her kidnappers, and they rescue her. There is bloodshed in her defense, but not enough for Jamie to feel as though Claire’s honor was defended. She is offered a knife in order to fell her captors herself but refuses. Jamie wants her to have her power back, but can’t — so instead, he will avenge her, despite the fact that she is clinging to the Hippocratic oath at a time like this.
Technically, Jamie and Claire’s marriage is an arranged one rather than a love match, after Dougal (Graham McTavish) and other members of Clan McKenzie determine that they can help protect Claire from the English while advancing their own cause to fund the Jacobite rebellion. Yet, Jamie wants to be married to Claire, in spite of the orchestrated circumstances around their marriage in the first place. He is very gentle and patient with her after some initial hiccups and missteps, and, as a result, she very quickly falls in love with him. He strives to keep her happy and genuinely cares for her. At a time when arranged marriages were the norm and women were treated like property, Jamie Fraser stands out as an exemplary husband to his wife, and their love story has inspired many fans worldwide.
