Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Character Analysis

Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser

Content Warning: The source material discusses sexual assault and violence against women, and it contains historically inaccurate depictions of Indigenous Americans.

The main protagonist of the Outlander novels is Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser. Claire is a doctor from the year 1968 who has traveled back in time for the second time to be with her husband, Jamie Fraser. This novel begins in 1779 and ends in 1781, but Claire met Jamie in 1743 after she accidentally traveled through time and found herself in the Scottish Highlands, where tension between the Scots and the British created a dangerous atmosphere for a woman who was suspected of being both a spy and a witch. Claire and Jamie’s relationship has gone through many ups and downs from the beginning, including estrangement, separations, loss, and violence. However, they continually find one another and continue to live a strange but adventurous life together.

In this novel, Claire begins as a contented mother and grandmother just reunited with her daughter and her family. However, as the novel progresses, the tension of war comes close to home, causing tension in Claire’s relationships and forcing her to make difficult choices. One of the relationships impacted is the one between Claire and Mrs. Elspeth Cunningham. While Elspeth is a difficult woman and not the kind Claire might find easy to befriend, they do forge a bond that comes from shared tragedy. Unfortunately, Claire’s and Elspeth’s families are on opposite sides of the political climate, and this forces a barrier between them that blocks the possibility of friendship.

Claire and Jamie’s relationship is also fractured by the war. Although Claire supports Jamie’s political views, his belief that he will die as a result of a battle in the war colors his outlook. This creates a closer, intimate relationship between the two of them but also brings up old jealousies that are difficult to deal with. Jamie’s trust in Frank Randall’s book and the information contained in it are influenced by his belief that Frank knew about him and wanted to hurt him. Claire finds herself defending Frank while attempting to ease Jamie’s jealousy of the man Claire married before Jamie and the man Jamie sent Claire back to when he believed it was the only way to save their unborn baby, Brianna.

While Claire deals with the realities of war, she also finds herself pulled back into old grief. When Jamie and Claire were first married, they were pregnant with a child they named Faith. Unfortunately, Claire gave birth to Faith prematurely and the infant died, leaving Claire with a terrible infection that nearly took her life. In this novel, she is reminded of that death both when she learns the name of the mother of the child she and Jamie took in, Fanny, is Faith and again when she delivers a baby girl who is stillborn upon birth but is revived by Claire’s touch. This is a grief that is over 30 years old but one that Claire has never had the chance to truly deal with.

Jamie Fraser

Jamie Fraser is a Scotsman born in 1721. Jamie is the romantic interest of the main character, Claire, and the male protagonist of this novel. Jamie is a man of his time, rugged and ruthless, but also well-educated and highly intelligent. Jamie is a landowner, responsible for tenants who live on his land. Jamie is also a husband, father, and grandfather, currently struggling with the relationship he has with his grown son, Willliam, because of the circumstances of the man’s birth. At the same time, Jamie is a brother and uncle, struggling to keep his family close in a time when it is not uncommon for family to go years at a time in separation.

For Jamie, the war comes very close to home, creating tension between him and his tenants in a way that surprises and hurts him. Jamie is a generous man who is always willing to help his neighbors, so it is a personal slight when they turn on him in the name of politics and attempt to arrest him as a patriot. Yet, revealing his immensely large heart, when Jamie attempts to evict the men who betrayed him and their wives come to him to ask for mercy, he grants it.

Jamie becomes obsessed with a book Brianna, his daughter, brings home from the future that is a historical account of events that have yet to happen. Jamie learns from this book, written by Frank Randall, Claire’s first husband, that he is destined to die in a battle that will take place close to his home. While Jamie uses this information to prepare for that day and to protect his family, he also casts doubt on the information through his perception of the writer. Jamie is a fiercely jealous man, and this jealousy comes out when he takes on the opinion that Frank Randall wrote the book to hurt him and cause him uncertainty. He believes it is Frank’s last attempt to come between Claire and Jamie. In the end, however, the facts Frank presents in his book prove to be accurate and perhaps even a warning.

Brianna Randall Fraser MacKenzie

Brianna Randall Fraser MacKenzie is the daughter of Claire and Jamie Fraser. Brianna was conceived just before the Jacobite uprising during Claire’s first journey into the past, but she was born in the modern world and raised by Claire’s first husband, Frank Randall. Brianna learned the identity of her biological father after Frank’s death at a time when Claire felt it was safe to investigate the fate of Jamie in the past. While this information was a shock to Brianna, it shaped her reality as she embraced her mother’s story and traveled into the past herself.

Brianna has recently returned to the past after some traumatic events in the future, determined to be with her parents despite a logical understanding of the political atmosphere she is taking her family to live in. Brianna brings with her the knowledge of the events that will take place over the next few years, as well as a book that describes some more obscure events, and faces the future with optimism despite the war waging around her. Yet, when things begin to go wrong, Brianna questions her choices and fears for the future of her family.

Brianna suffers from atrial fibrillation after going through the stones this last time, and it causes her fear that she might die and leave her children behind without a mother. At the same time, the ailment refocuses Brianna on her curiosity about her family’s ability to time travel as she has learned that others have suffered similar ailments after travel. Brianna has been researching the secret to time travel and tries to understand why her family can do it. Brianna does not come up with substantial findings in this novel, but her growing hypothesis will likely be explored in later novels.

Like her mother, Brianna has suffered from the violent and lawless atmosphere of the time but has survived it with grace and personal strength. Brianna finds a way to look at the future optimistically, perhaps clinging to the understanding that she knows how things will turn out and pushes forward without complaint. In this way, she is also very much like her mother. Brianna is a character who is strong and resilient despite having occasional doubts, and she allows love to be her primary motivator.

William Ransom, Ninth Earl of Ellesmere

William Ransom, the Ninth Earl of Ellesmere, is Jamie’s son from an affair he had when he was a groom at Helwater as part of his imprisonment for treason after the Jacobite uprising. William learned the truth about his birth and became enraged, ashamed of being the result of an affair and of not truly being the heir to his titles. It is not a sense of loyalty to the man he believed was his father, as this man died when he was young; it is based in the understanding that the truth will cause him great shame should the truth be publicly acknowledged. Although William knew Jamie before he learned he was his father and had a decent relationship with him, he looks down on Jamie because of his reputation as a traitor and for deserting his troops after the Battle of Monmouth. William battles with this issue throughout the novel, trying to figure out how he could renounce his titles to give up something he doesn’t feel he is truly entitled to without hurting anyone. William feels directionless, no longer feeling as though he can carry out the plans he had for his life because of his birth.

William is expected to fight in wars, get married, and run his property even at a young age. Despite this, William is prone to immature behavior, such as drinking heavily in public and having an affair with his cousin’s wife. At the same time, William proves to be honorable when he escorts Brianna to the American camp to draw General Pulaski and refuses to leave her side throughout the ordeal. William, like Brianna, clearly takes after his biological father despite his shame in being related to Jamie.

William is another romantic figure who is on the cusp of an intimate relationship when the novel ends. William is kind and gentle but confused. When William asked for Jamie’s help in saving Jane in a previous novel, Jamie saw it as a breakthrough in their relationship even though things went badly and William struggles with the result. William coming to Jamie again at the end of this novel to ask for help shows that William trusts Jamie to come to his aid even if he hasn’t forgiven him for being his biological father.