Malva’s Mother and Her Sister-in-Law Part 2

Edgar’s wife is one of the characters that I wanted to know more about in A Breath of Snow and Ashes. Based on Tom Christie’s account, the person guilty of murdering his brother is Mona, Malva’s mother. In book 6, Malva mentions to Claire that her mother used to have vitriol (sulphur). In book 7, Claire remembers that Mona poisoned Edgar, Tom’s brother. It is possible that Mona used a form of sulphur as a poison.

In a former post, I introduced the possibility of Mona being innocent. First, it is not an easy task to determine the manner of death of a person in a time when modern forensic analysis was not a standard practice. In fact, it was not possible to determine whether somebody had a natural death or died of poisoning. If vitriol was employed, there should have been some evidence of burning in the body. However, this information is not provided in the books. Furthermore, there is no obvious reason for Mona to kill Edgar (unless she was crazy or he decided to go back to his wife). In fact, Edgar’s wife, Darla, could have been motivated to kill her husband out of jealousy and revenge. Allan relates to Claire some details about his aunt (A Breath of Snow and Ashes, ch. 122):

  • Malva and Allan lived with her for six years.
  • Darla, as expected, was not happy living with them.
  • She barely fed them.

After Christie’s confession to Governor Martin, Claire and Jamie speculate about the possible murderer of Malva.

“The man who fathered her child – if that wasn’t Ian, and I hope it wasn’t – or someone who wanted her and killed her from jealousy when he found she was pregnant – “

“Or someone already wed. Or a woman, Sassenach.”

That stopped me cold. “A woman?”

“She took love,” he repeated, and shook his head. “What makes ye think it was only the young men she took it from?

I closed my eyes, envisioning the possibilities. If she had had affair  with a married man – . . . Or a scorned wife . . . (A Breath of Snow and Ashes, ch. 98)

First, this passage foreshadows Allan killing Malva for loving Claire. I take this as a confirmation that Malva did love Claire (I will deal with this idea in my next post). Furthermore, this passage can be used to interpret the relationship between Malva’s mother and Edgar’s wife. Darla was a scorned wife who probably killed her husband from jealousy.

If Darla is the actual killer, there would be a sort of parallel between her and Laoghaire. Of course, parallels do not have to be a perfect match. First, Laoghaire sets up Claire to be arrested with Geillis for witchcraft. If it was not for Jamie, Claire would have died. The reader is not aware about how much involvement Darla had in having Mona accused and eventually found guilty. However, based on some of her comments to Malva while witnessing Mona’s execution, it seems that she was highly involved. Allan relates to Claire:

. . . They held her wee head and made her watch, and Auntie Darla saying in her ear that this was what happened to witches, and pinching her legs ’til she shrieked. . . (A Breath of Snow and Ashes, ch. 122)

This passage confirms the fact that Malva became a victim of abuse the day her mother died. It also has a resemblance to Laoghaire’s comments about Claire when she is confronting Brianna in Drums of Autumn (ch. 34):

“She is a witch’s child,” she said. “And ye know it, all of you!” She glanced around the room, challenging each uncomfortable face. “They should have burned her mother in Cranesmuir, save for the lovespell she’d put on Jamie Fraser. Aye, I say be wary of what ye’ve brought into your house!”

In the minds of an eighteenth century individual, Malva carries the stigma of being the child of a witch and murderess. At the same time, the blame of a man falling in love with a “witch” is placed on the woman. In my last Outlander post related to this topic, I mentioned how Tom Christie does not blame his brother for having an affair with Mona. Similarly, Darla probably thought that Mona put a spell on her husband.

Finally, being a scorned wife, Laoghaire shot Jamie to the point that Claire had to administer an antibiotic in order to save him. Therefore, the possibility of Darla killing Edgar cannot be disregarded.

My next post will be about the relationship between Malva and Allan. It will be published in two weeks from now for sure.

Works cited

Gabaldon, Diana. A Breath of Snow and Ashes. 2005. New York: Bantam Dell. 2006. Print.

– – – . Drums of Autumn. 1997. New York: Dell Publishing. 2002. Print.

 

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