Spoiler-Alert!
This article contains mild spoilers about the first season of Outlander, in particular the episode “The Watch” (S01E13).
We hear, read and tell countless stories in our lives. Our imagination seems immeasurable. And yet we find ourselves returning to some themes again and again, even though one might think we have no need to repeat ourselves. One of these themes, however, that somehow seems to hold a very special place in our hearts, is love. Of course. What else has such power? Love seems to find a way into almost all our stories – in one way or another. As if we could not (or would not) escape it.
So love is omnipresent, in all genres and media. One of the more successful contemporary love stories is Outlander. Diana Gabaldon embedded a love story in time travel fantasy, but the surreal and irrational – at least in terms of the fantasy theme – quickly takes a back seat to the main motif: the unexpected love between Jamie Fraser, a wanted Highlander, and Claire Randall, a nurse who falls through time into the 18th century and Jamie’s arms after the end of World War II.
So the main purpose of the time travel is to bring the two together, and it actually works extremely well. When Claire’s questionable explanations about her sudden appearance in Scotland put her in danger, the only way to save her happens to be to marry Jamie. And so a tender friendship grows into true love over the course of the first season. After Claire realises this, however, she has to open up to Jamie that she doesn’t think she can have children. She almost breaks down from her sadness, as she cannot fulfil Jamie’s wish to raise his own children someday. But Jamie unhesitatingly puts Claire above his idealistic notions, as the thought that she might die giving birth to their children together, for instance – and this was not uncommon at the time – is unbearable to him. His answer is one of my favourite quotes:
“I can bear pain myself but I couldna bear yours. That would take more strength than I have.”
Jamie to Claire in “The Watch” (S01E13)
Here at the latest it becomes clear that the love between Jamie and Claire is a selfless one. The well-being of the other person is always put before their own well-being. Both have to prove this time and again. But that is also what makes the story such a touching and heartbreaking one – it is an unconditional love.
This love is not just ἔρως (érōs), it is ἀγάπη (agápē). The ἀγάπη goes far beyond what we experience in everyday life. It is the love that constitutes the relationship between God and humankind and the model by which we are to orient ourselves in our togetherness, the completely altruistic love of our neighbour (Christian charity). Most of the time, however, this is rather an unattainable ideal to which we aspire. When do we have the courage to sacrifice everything for someone without expecting the least for ourselves?
Perhaps a ἀγάπη born out of an imperfect and therefore purely human love (like Jamie and Claire’s) is the path that leads to salvation for us. Whether love is born of a φιλία (philía), στοργή (storgḗ) or the ἔρως is probably less important than the fact that we must learn to love. What the ἀγάπη demands of us we can only grasp when we, of our own accord, place another life above our own. When we have experienced our own love story in some form. When we would do anything so that another person does not have to feel pain. We can only understand love once we have felt it – the idea is a little like Thomas Nagel’s philosophical idea that we wouldn’t know what it is like to be a bat simply because we are not bats. In the same way, we don’t know what ἀγάπη is until we feel it.
It is in this way that we first come to understand the Christian message. Once we have found this love, the God-human relationship, which is itself based on love, also becomes comprehensible to us. Jesus Christ also chose his own pain over that of all other people. He was and is the ἀγάπη itself. And if we also find this ἀγάπη in ourselves, creation also makes sense, for the ἀγάπη becomes the fulcrum of the image of God. We can never come closer to God than when we love selflessly.
Therefore, love stories are not simply love stories. They are an anthropological constant that tries to teach us something about life. Love permeates our world and our stories and makes us feel. For it is only when we feel that we begin to understand. So it’s no wonder Outlander has become so well known. Jamie and Claire’s love comes very close to heaven on earth, but it is not the only one that is able to touch us in this way. The good and meaningful stories are out there, we just have to find them first.