Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Time Traveler’s Wife, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Here and Now
Love and Absence
Free Will vs. Determinism
Language and Art
Self-Love
Summary
Analysis
Sunday, May 24, 1992 (Clare is 21, Henry is 28). It is Clare’s 21st birthday. She bathes and gets ready while Henry makes dinner. As she brushes her hair, Clare considers how much easier it would be to cut it; she refrains from doing so because Henry loves it so much. She walks to the kitchen in her robe. Henry tries to initiate sex, but Clare tells him she wants to eat instead. As they sit down to dinner, she asks if other people have sex as often as they do. Henry agrees that they are probably intimate more often than others, and Clare admits that sometimes it’s too much for her. Henry apologizes for not realizing this.
This passage highlights how much Clare is willing to compromise out of love for Henry. Though the inconvenience of having long hair is a minor inconvenience in the long run, it’s a part of a long list of inconveniences that Clare puts up with in order to be with Henry—and it’s not exactly clear what compromises Henry is making in return. For instance, he hasn’t curbed his sexual appetite to better match Clare’s.
Themes
Clare notes that sexual intimacy is a new aspect of their relationship from her perspective, as future Henry always doggedly dodged her advances when she was a teenager. Now present-day Henry wants to have sex all the time. Henry is glad to hear his future self was able to exercise this kind of restraint. He explains that part of why he wants to have sex with Clare so often now is because their physical and emotional connection seems to bind him to her so much that it keeps him from time traveling as often. He proposes, and Clare accepts.
Henry and Clare’s ongoing struggles to have a healthy and mutually satisfying sex life is further evidence of how Henry’s condition is an obstacle to their happiness in the present. In the past, future-Henry couldn’t morally meet Clare’s desire for sexual intimacy. And now, present-Henry struggles to tone down his sex drive to meet the needs of present-Clare.
Themes
Sunday, May 31, 1992 (Clare is 21, Henry is 28). After becoming engaged, Henry takes Clare to meet Richard and Kimy. Kimy greets Clare warmly and exclaims at her beauty. Meeting Richard is more fraught. Though he is abrupt, it is clear when he declines a beer with dinner that he is trying to improve. At dinner, Kimy and Richard toast to Clare and Henry’s happiness. Clare talks about her latest paper sculpture of a crow, a subject which Kimy declares a bad omen. Clare responds that she finds them beautiful. Over dinner, Clare asks Richard to tell her about his late wife, Annette. Richard talks about how Annette brought out the emotions of others, as a person and as a singer; he admits he hasn’t felt much since she died. Clare notices the sadness in Henry’s face.
Richard’s opting not to have a beer suggests that he is trying not to drink, or at least to drink less, and this in turn shows that he’s trying to be more in the present since his revelatory conversation with Henry. It also shows that, like Henry, he is making an effort to take care of himself and make healthier choices. Richard’s willingness to talk about Annette, though it causes him pain, is further evidence of his determination to improve his life in the present. Though he has avoided feeling anything for years, now he confronts his emotions, even the difficult ones.
Themes
Clare tells Richard he was lucky to have Annette, and he asks her if she believes it’s better to have no joy or to experience bliss and have it taken from you. Clare is adamant that even short-lived happiness is better than nothing; Richard approves of her response. He then talks at length about why Henry will do nothing but disappoint Clare. He asks her why she would deign to marry such an erratic, selfish person. Clare responds that they have great sex, which makes everyone laugh. Her humor erases the tension in the room. After they leave, Henry assures Clare that his father and Kimy loved her. They go to a nearby park to swing. As they do, Clare feels like everything “here and now” is perfect.
Clare’s meditations on love, loss, and longing show that she, like Richard, is learning to live in the here and now, even if doing so causes her pain. When she posits that experiencing—and then losing—bliss is preferable to never experiencing bliss at all, she’s implicitly drawing from her own experience missing Henry when he’s time traveling to empathize with and comfort Richard as he grieves Annette. Despite the pain that continues to plague characters as they mourn their personal losses, Clare’s observation about everything in the “here and now” being perfect reaffirms the importance of owning and feeling the pain of loss.
Themes
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Wednesday, June 10, 1992 (Clare is 21). Clare attempts to work on a school paper at a diner while she worries about Henry, who disappeared days ago. Just then, Ingrid’s friend Celia sees her in the window and decides to join her. Celia tells Clare she heard about her engagement to Henry; she tells her that she thinks she’s “brave or crazy” for agreeing to be with him. Celia reiterates that she can’t believe Clare would marry Henry, so Clare invites her to attend the wedding to see for herself. Celia realizes that she’s late to meet Ingrid and invites Clare to join them. Clare is hesitant, so Celia steals her schoolbooks, forcing her to follow.
This passage demonstrates how being in a relationship with a time traveler like Henry distracts Clare from her life in the present—in this case, her longing for him distracts her from her studies. Meanwhile, Celia’s assertion that Clare is either “brave or crazy” for committing to a future with Henry underscores how fraught the relationship appears to outsiders. This raises the question of the degree to which Clare’s love for and devotion to Henry blinds her to the potentially unhealthy aspects of being with him.
Themes
When Clare and Celia arrive together at the bar nearby, Ingrid is far less eager to include Clare. Celia tries to convince Ingrid to indulge her idea. Ingrid fixates on Clare instead, asking her if she has come to rub her relationship with Henry in her face. Clare begins to leave, but Ingrid notices her engagement ring and is overwhelmed with anger—though Celia had heard about the proposal, Ingrid didn’t know. Ingrid leaves, and Celia apologizes to Clare for engineering this run-in. Clare watches Celia sitting alone at the bar before she leaves Clare, too.
Celia’s motives for engineering this meeting between Clare and Ingrid are unclear. Perhaps she thought that facing the reality of Clare’s current engagement to Henry might help Ingrid to stop living in the past and pining over the future she and Henry might have had together.
Themes
