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
March 1994, (Clare is 22, Henry is 30). Henry and Clare move into a new apartment, where they adjust to living together for the first time. They develop a functional routine together, but Clare feels limited artistically by the smallness of her art studio in the apartment. Clare is used to turning her ideas into large-scale sculptures, but all she can seem to create in this space are tiny, uninspired versions. On top of this, Clare feels so lonely when Henry time travels. She worries about him, especially after he comes back from a traveling episode with a bleeding head injury.
Somewhat ironically, living with Henry makes Clare feel lonelier than she felt when they were apart because it makes all the times he’s away on his time travels all the more obvious. And her worry for him grows, too, as it’s impossible for him to hide the injuries he incurs during his travels from her, like the bleeding head injury mentioned in this passage.
Themes
Henry has also been forced to adjust to living with someone for the first time. Most lessons he learns have to do with cleanliness and differing musical taste, though he also notices that Clare needs more solitary time to create art than he knew. Living among Clare’s art, however, is enchanting to Henry. He often comes home to new projects, like the time Clare hung dozens of birds in flight from the living room ceiling. When Henry finds Clare drawing a picture of a red bird surrounded by dark lines one day, he realizes she needs more space to continue her work.
Living with Clare means Henry is constantly exposed to Clare’s art, which allows him to gain better insight into who she is outside of being his partner. It also allows him to understand her inner life in a deeper and more authentic way. For instance, Henry seems to understand the red bird surrounded by dark lines that Clare has drawn reflects how stifled and trapped she feels constrained to such a tight space, and this helps him to understand that she needs more space to work.
Themes
Wednesday, April 13, 1994 (Clare is 22, Henry is 30). Henry comes home from work with a television; Clare finds this particularly strange because watching TV seems to trigger Henry’s time traveling episodes. He tells her he has a surprise for her coming on at 8:00 p.m. While they wait, Henry asks what Clare would do with a large studio, and Clare tells him she would go back to making huge sculptures. Though they have plenty of money to survive on, Clare knows that moving is impossible right now. However, that changes when the lottery numbers are read on the news and Henry produces the winning ticket, which his time traveling made possible. Clare is hesitant to use the money, but she agrees when she realizes that Henry wants to buy her a house so she can have space to make art the way she wants.
Henry’s time traveling normally creates stress and anxiety in Clare’s life, much of which is beyond Henry or Clare’s ability to control. That’s why it’s important to Henry to take control of the few situations he actually does hold sway over, such as here, where he uses foreknowledge he gains through one of his trips to the future to know the winning lottery numbers and use his winnings to buy Clare a house to make her art in. Henry’s motivation to get Clare a house specifically to aid in her artistic pursuits reinforces the important role art plays in her life and in the novel as a whole.
Themes
Wednesday, May 18, 1994 (Clare is 22, Henry is 30). Clare enjoys house hunting, but she finds Henry’s process frustrating. After looking out the back window of each house they visit, he seems to have seen enough to veto it as an option. Henry explains that he has been in the back room of their future home while time traveling, so he can tell from the view which house is correct. Clare asks to continue looking at houses on her own, and Henry agrees because they both believe it won’t change which home they end up in. Eventually, the house Clare picks proves to be the one Henry saw in the future.
Scenes like this complicate the novel’s examination of free will vs. determinism. While Henry has previously suggested that he has no control over his time travels or fate in general, he seems to be willingly using his foreknowledge of the future to influence Clare’s opinion while house hunting. Thus, how much of their future is really left to chance—and how much is the consequence of Henry’s intentional meddling?
Themes
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Saturday, July 9, 1994 (Henry is 31, Clare is 23). After a long, hot day of moving, Clare and Henry wander around their new home in the evening. They relish the feeling of the wood floors under their feet, admire the antique finishes, and test out the oven and the bathtub. Henry watches Clare move through the house and can see how happy she is. They are both overwhelmed with joy at their new home, and they make love on the dining room floor surrounded by moving boxes.
Buying a house together is a positive step in Henry and Clare’s relationship—the house is physical evidence of the life they’ve built together in the here and now, and it will remain even while Henry is away on his time-traveling trips.
Themes
Sunday, August 28, 1994 (Clare is 23, Henry is 31). Henry, Gomez, and Clare spend a summer day on the beach. They swim, play in the sand, and eat popsicles. After, they go to a bookstore. Clare looks at art books while Henry ventures to the back of the store. Gomez wanders around bored. Henry later looks over at Clare, who is focused on a book about Pompeii, and is struck by her beauty. During this reverie, he looks over and sees Gomez studying Clare intensely. He understands, suddenly, that Gomez feels the same way about Clare as he does.
Readers may have guessed at Gomez’s attraction to Clare, but the scene Henry observes here and his reaction to it all but confirms it. The story has called attention to Gomez’s feelings for Clare several times before and could be hinting that a relationship may develop between them in the future. Perhaps somewhere down the line, Clare’s love for Henry won’t be enough to make up for his absence.
Themes
Sunday, January 15, 1995 (Clare is 23, Henry is 31). Henry and Clare are in the kitchen of their new home. Henry chops vegetables for chili while Clare does the dishes. There is a beautiful sunset out the back window, and they are singing together as they work. In an instant, Henry is drawn away through time; Clare finds herself suddenly alone again. She presses Henry’s empty clothes to her body then tries to finish making dinner by herself. As she waits for Henry to return, she worries.
This scene emphasizes how little control Henry has over his condition. Things like stress and alcohol can trigger time travel, but there’s still a risk that he may time travel even in happy, carefree situations like this one. Clare and Henry can anticipate and prepare for Henry’s absences to a degree, but they can’t predict or control them entirely.
Themes
Friday, February 3, 1995 (Clare is 23, Henry is 31, and 39). Clare and Henry have Charisse and Gomez over for a game night. They play a communist-themed remake of Monopoly that Charisse and Gomez invented. Just then, an older version of Henry crashes into the room and injures himself, interrupting their game. The group argues over what to do to help him until Clare asks older Henry what happens next. He tells her he will disappear soon and only wants a drink. Then he vanishes, shattering dishes and glass as he departs. Both present Henry and Clare realize that Henry’s condition is getting worse.
Clare and Henry’s mutual love, their friends, and Henry’s attempts to curb the progression of his disease through things like self-care can only do so much to stall the progression of his condition. Ultimately, as this chaotic passage shows, his condition is beyond their ability to control.
Themes
