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, September 5, 1993 (Clare is 22, Henry is 30). Clare finds Henry looking through a physician’s desk reference, in which he is looking for something he might be able to take to avoid time traveling during his and Clare’s wedding ceremony. They discuss eloping, but Clare argues that their wedding is a key opportunity for Clare’s father to show off. The drugs Henry is considering are anti-psychotics that will block dopamine receptors in his brain. Clare is horrified by the potential side effects of these medicines. Henry asks Clare if she ever has doubts about their relationship. Clare assures him that while she worries about him, she has no second thoughts about them getting married.
Clare continues to prioritize Henry over her desire for stability and predictability in her own life. Henry’s time traveling could seriously disrupt the wedding, but Clare much prefers this risk to the possible side effects Henry might experience from taking medication to try to suppress his time traveling. In this way, her love for Henry directly opposes her responsibility to love and take care of herself.
Themes
Monday, September 6, 1993 (Henry is 30). Henry waits in a rundown neighborhood for his friend Ben to come home. He runs into Gomez, who is there as a lawyer helping a client. Ben arrives soon after, and Henry says goodbye to Gomez. He and Ben go inside; he waits while Ben makes coffee. Henry studies his friend, whose AIDS diagnosis leaves him wondering constantly if he will be okay. Ben assures Henry his medication and lifestyle having been helping him tremendously. Henry tells him he’s getting married. Ben asks if Clare knows about his condition, and Henry responds that she does.
Henry’s concern for Ben mirrors Clare’s concern for Henry. Implicitly comparing Henry’s time-traveling condition to a physical disease like AIDS creates sympathy for Henry and makes Clare’s unceasing willingness to endure the stress and unpredictability his condition brings to their life together more understandable.
Themes
Henry produces a handwritten composition for a drug called risperidone. He explains that it won’t be invented for another five years, but he thinks it will help keep time traveling episodes at bay. Ben is hesitant about the side effects too, but he eventually agrees to synthesize it. Henry invites him to the wedding. In the meantime, Ben offers Henry another morphine-based endorphin stabilizing drug, which he takes immediately. Henry leaves Ben’s house and finds Gomez waiting for him outside. Gomez offers him a ride home. Noticing that Henry is high, Gomez takes him to Clare and Charisse’s apartment so he can be supervised.
Henry’s determination to ensure that he does not time travel on his and Clare’s wedding day underscores his love for Clare, and he may even consider it an act of pragmatic self-love to self-manage his condition in this way. On the other hand, it does seem that he’s merely substituting one source of stress (time traveling) with another (debilitating drug use, even if it’s for medical purposes). And Henry’s drug use, much like his time traveling, makes it harder for him to exist in the moment and have meaningful experiences with his friends.
Themes
While Henry sleeps in Clare’s bedroom, Clare sits in the kitchen with Gomez. She thanks him for helping Henry, and Gomez responds that he would do anything for her. Gomez asks her why Henry has gone to Ben, who he has heard primarily likes to help cancer and AIDS patients. Clare explains they are searching for something that will help Henry during the wedding. Gomez demands to know why Clare is marrying Henry in the first place. Clare doesn’t answer because Henry calls out for her from the bedroom. She goes to him, and they lie in bed together. Henry tells her that the drug Ben gave him is too debilitating for him to use during the ceremony. Clare is worried, but he reassures her that they know he lives to be at least 43 based on future versions of him who have visited them.
Needing to tend to Henry literally prevents Clare from answering Gomez’s question. Symbolically, though, this shows how Clare’s need to constantly monitor Henry’s condition prevents her from considering whether she’s truly happy in her relationship, even if her love for him is genuine and unwavering. Henry’s sad admission that the medicine Ben gave him is too debilitating for him to use during the wedding ceremony underscores the novel’s insistence on the importance of living in the moment. Even if the medication prevents Henry from time traveling, it prohibits him from fully experiencing his wedding, which is framed as just as bad.
Themes
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Monday, September 27, 1993 (Clare is 22, Henry is 30). Clare arrives at Henry’s apartment in preparation for their visit to the opera that evening. She finds him on the floor having an adverse reaction to the risperidone pill that he requested Ben synthesize for him. Clare calls both Ben and 911. At the hospital, Ben arrives and apologizes profusely to Clare. She tells him Henry will be okay, and that she doesn’t blame him. Clare then makes Ben promise not to give Henry anymore drugs. He agrees.
Henry’s negative reaction to the risperidone is the last straw for Clare. Given the choice, Clare would rather enjoy scattered and unpredictable time with Henry during which he’s fully present than have Henry with her all the time—but only semi-conscious and clearly suffering from the side effects of his drug use.
Themes
