Told by a narrator named Mrs. Bethune Baliol, Elspat MacTavish is the widow of Hamish MacTavish, also known as MacTavish Mhor, an outlaw and Highland marauder who is killed by soldiers. Scott based the title of his story, and its content, on a traditional Scottish song entitled "The Highland Widow's Lament."
Elspat's Character and Son
Elspat is left to her own resources to raise her son, Hamish Bean, and she ekes out an existence by relying on the memory of her slain husband. In fact, she dreams that Hamish will grow up to take after his father and is disappointed and enraged when Hamish joins a government regiment headed to America.
Whereas Elspat is bound to memories of her husband and country's past glory, her son is more realistic and knows that Scotland's old glory cannot be reclaimed. Thus, he joins the British Army in hopes of providing for his mother and securing their future.
Elspat's Desperation and Fatal Mistake
In desperation, Elspat drugs her son while he is home on furlough so that he is prevented from returning to his regiment in time and is considered a deserter. Hamish is resigned to his fate and awaits his punishment, but at his mother’s prodding, shoots and kills a soldier.
After Hamish is taken prisoner and executed, Elspat is consumed with grief and remorse and disappears into the wilderness at the end of this tragic story. Although Elspat clearly regrets her actions and mourns her son's death, Seamus Cooney points out that "she comes to no recognition or realization; she learns nothing from her ordeal, but merely suffers." That is clearly the main tragedy of the story: Change is inevitable, and despite their best efforts and dreams, people who cannot accommodate changes will lose everything.
Elspat's Vision of the Highlands
Many critics have noted that while Hamish is able to accept the social and political changes of Highland life after Culloden, Elspat is resistant to change and remains firmly entrenched in an idealized vision of the Highlands.
The idea of divided loyalties is also a powerful theme, and Scott appears to imply that romanticizing the past and maintaining a blind loyalty to archaic conventions can lead only to tragedy.
References:
Cooney, Seamus. "Scott and Progress: The Tragedy of 'The Highland Widow'." Studies in Short Fiction. 11.1 (Winter 1974): 11-16. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Anna J. Sheets. Vol. 32. Detroit: Gale Group, 1999. 11-16. Literature Resource Center. Gale. UNIV OF FLORIDA. 1 May 2009 <http://go.galegroup.com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/ps/start.do?p=LitRC&u=gain40375>.
Scott, Sir Walter. The Highland Widow, The Betrothed, and Other Tales. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1907.
Sara Dustin - Sara Dustin is a Ph.D. student and university instructor. As an undergraduate, she double majored in English and history at Presbyterian ...
