← All themes
Midwinter · Theme
The Futility of War
How Midwinter develops The Futility of War.
The Jacobite rising is portrayed as a doomed venture, with the army melting away, betrayal from within, and the final retreat underscoring the tragic waste of lives and hopes.
Where it surfaces
- XIII: Journeyman John
Alastair, a soldier who has faced death often, now faces a gruesome end not in battle but at the hands of a madman, underscoring the senselessness of violence.
- In Which Three Gentlemen Confess Their Nakedness
Alastair envisions his clan reduced to famished vagrants and the Cause doomed to defeat, highlighting the senselessness of the conflict.