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{{main|Outlander Television Series}}
 
{{main|Outlander Television Series}}
 
Irish actress [[Caitriona Balfe]] portrays Claire Randall in the STARZ [[Outlander (TV series)|Outlander television series]].
 
Irish actress [[Caitriona Balfe]] portrays Claire Randall in the STARZ [[Outlander (TV series)|Outlander television series]].
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==References==
 
==References==

Revision as of 20:07, 28 September 2014

Template:Infobox character

One dictum I had learned on the battlefields of France in a far distant war: You cannot save the world, but you might save the man in front of you, if you work fast enough.
— Claire, Dragonfly in Amber


Claire Beauchamp Fraser is a nurse, later a doctor, and a time-traveller who lives both in the 20th century (where she was married to Frank Randall) and the 18th century (where she is married to Jamie Fraser). Claire, the primary first-person narrator of the Outlander universe, is compassionate but medically ruthless, with a quick tongue that tends to get her into trouble. Her favorite exclamation is "Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ!", said over fifty times in the novels. As of the latest novel in the series, Claire is in 1779, a six-times grandmother and published physician.

Personal History

Claire Beauchamp was born to Henry Beauchamp and Julia Moriston on 20 October 1918. Her parents died in a car accident when she was only five, and Claire was adopted by her uncle, Quentin Lambert Beauchamp, an archaeologist and historian whose work took him all over the globe. He attempted to enroll her at an English boarding school, but she stubbornly refused to attend.

"Faced with the necessity of prying my chubby fingers off the car's door handle and dragging me by the
heels up the steps of the school, Uncle Lamb, who hated personal conflict of any kind, had sighed in
exasperation, then finally shrugged and tossed his better judgment out the window along with my newly purchased round straw boater.
" - Claire, Outlander (Chapter One)

Claire consequently spent her childhood traveling the world with her uncle while he worked, becoming accustomed to fairly primitive conditions. She later claims that her first kiss was at the age of eight, in Egypt with the dragoman's nine-year-old son.

Claire's Marriage to Frank

Claire met Frank Randall, a historian, when he came to consult her uncle about his work. They were soon married, and spent a brief two-day honeymoon in the Scottish Highlands, followed by only a few months together before the outbreak of World War II. Claire and Frank were separated for most of the war. Frank trained as an officer in MI-6, and Claire as a nurse. Both served their country in their respective roles for the duration of the war. Once the war was over, Claire and Frank, reunited, decided to go on a second honeymoon in Scotland to reestablish their marriage in 1946. They stayed at Mrs. Baird's bed-and-breakfast in Inverness, a city in the Scottish Highlands situated near an ancient stone circle called Craigh na Dun.

Events of the Novels

Warning: The information in the following tabs reveals major plot points in the Outlander novels. Proceed at your own risk.


Personality

Physical Appearance

Claire's defining physical features include her extremely curly hair and golden-colored eyes. She often remarks to herself (and other characters observe it of her as well) that her hair, when unfettered by pins or ribbons, is wildly large and curly, and frequently breaks free of its bonds when she is agitated or engaged in physical activity. At the beginning of the series, she observes that her hair is light brown, though later in life it takes on lighter streaks of gold and silver.

Her eyes are variously described as amber, golden, golden-brown, the color of well-aged sherry or whisky, and compared to those of a hawk or leopard. Claire's Uncle Lamb had told her that her mother's eyes had been the same color. She has a naturally pale complexion, often described as so white as to be translucent, though her skin tans to a soft light brown after long periods of time spent outdoors. She is of an average modern height at five feet, six inches, though she is taller than most women (and not a few men) of the 18th century.

Relationships

Name

  • Claire is the French form of Clara, which itself is the Feminine form of the Late Latin name Clarus which meant "clear, bright, famous".[1][2]
  • Beauchamp (English (or Norman origin) and French) is a habitational name from any of several places in France, for example in Manche and Somme, that are named with Old French beu, bel ‘fair’, ‘lovely’ + champ(s) ‘field’, ‘plain’. In English the surname is generally pronounced "Beecham".[3]

Trivia

  • Jamie has two main endearments by which he addresses Claire:
    • Sassenach, which is a Gaelic term used to refer to English people, or outsiders. It is often used as a derogatory term, but Jamie calls Claire affectionately by it.
    • Mo nighean donn, which means "my brown-haired lass" in the Gaelic.
  • In Outlander and Dragonfly in Amber, Jamie calls Claire mo duinne, however this is not quite the right Gaelic translation for "my brown-haired lass". When Diana Gabaldon wrote and published the first two novels in the early 1990s, she had very limited access to Gaelic language resources, but by the time she was writing Voyager, a native speaker had helpfully corrected her usage, and mo nighean donn should be considered the correct form of the endearment for the entire series.

TV Series

Irish actress Caitriona Balfe portrays Claire Randall in the STARZ Outlander television series.

Gallery

References

  1. Claire name meaning -- BehindtheName.com
  2. Clara name meaning -- BehindtheName.com
  3. Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press, via Ancestry.com