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
Wednesday, March 8, 1995 (Henry is 31). Henry’s coworker at the library, Matt, wanders the stacks looking for Henry so they can present a scheduled lecture together. Henry has just returned from time traveling and tries to dress quickly before Matt finds him. When Matt locates him, he asks Henry if he’s been streaking nude around the library again. Not knowing what else to say, Henry responds “maybe.” Together, they head to the library’s reading room to give their presentation. After, they go to lunch. Matt tells Henry the only reason he hasn’t been fired yet is because he’s so good at his job.
Henry’s condition is beyond his ability to control, but he must exert control over his life in the small ways he can. Over time, he’s developed new strategies to explain away the more bizarre side effects of his condition to others, playing them off as personality quirks. But as Mark hints at here, Henry’s damage control can only do so much to influence other people’s opinions of him. And given that Henry’s condition appears to be getting worse, it seems inevitable that he won’t be able to cover for the side effects of his condition forever.
Themes
Tuesday, April 11, 1995 (Henry is 31). Henry describes the one location in the Newberry Library he is afraid of. In the center of the industrial east stairwell is a structure call the Cage. The interior of the stairwell, basement to roof, is enclosed with grating and has no entrance or exit; Henry knows if he gets caught in the Cage, he will have no way out. Henry refuses to use the east stairs out of fear he’ll be stuck there if he time travels near it.
This scene offers one possibility of a way that Henry’s worsening condition may lead to irreversibly negative consequences for him—he could potentially put himself in great physical (and even life-threatening) danger if he time travels to the Cage and nobody discovers him in time. It's increasingly clear that he’s dealing with powerful forces that are beyond his ability to control.
Themes
Friday, June 9, 1995 (Henry is 31). Henry arrives in the men’s bathroom after being gone for several days. Roberto, Henry’s boss, enters the bathroom and sees Henry’s bare feet through the bottom of the bathroom stall. He has Matt bring Henry his clothes, which they found abandoned days ago. After dressing, Roberto asks Henry to come to his office. There, he asks Henry if his constant disappearing and nudity is related to a sexual kink. Henry explains it’s a condition more like epilepsy, but he doesn’t give Roberto the specifics. Roberto asks Henry to promise he will stop, but Henry tells him truthfully that he can’t control it. Roberto considers firing Henry, but he drops the issue instead. When Henry returns to his desk, Matt asks where he went. Henry tells him the truth, though Matt thinks he’s joking.
Though Roberto doesn’t fire Henry, their meeting indicates that Henry’s worsening conditioning is creating problems for him that are increasingly difficult for him to explain his way out of. Not only is it becoming harder to make up excuses for the odd side effects his time traveling causes, but even when he tries to tell the truth about it, as he does with Matt, nobody believes him.
Themes
Sunday, December 17, 1995 (Clare is 24, Henry is 8). Clare goes to Kimy’s apartment to visit. While she is there, a young boy (eight-year-old Henry) appears under Kimy’s kitchen table. Kimy directs Henry to spare clothing in the next room then explains to Clare that Henry used to time travel to her as a boy much more often; now he is usually a man when he drops in. Clare asks if Kimy misses seeing him, and she responds that it’s like having a “ghost” visit when Henry comes to her from the past. Kimy asks Clare when she and Henry will have a baby. Clare isn’t sure they can, but when she returns home, she asks Henry if they can start trying.
Henry’s mother died when he was six, so it makes sense that his young self would time travel to Kimy, who acts as a mother figure to him. Kimy’s question about Clare and Henry having a baby raises a new issue the couple may have to contend with: whether to have a baby given the possibility that it could inherit Henry’s condition. Earlier, Clare expressed enthusiasm at this prospect, thinking it would be exciting to have a time-traveling child. Her suggestion to Henry that they begin trying to conceive shows that that enthusiasm hasn’t wavered. Perhaps Clare’s love for a child would grow in its absence just as her love for Henry grows when he is away.
Themes
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Monday, March 11, 1996 (Henry is 32). Henry goes to the office of Dr. Kendrick, a geneticist. When Dr. Kendrick meets with Henry, he isn’t sure what Henry wants from him. Henry responds that he has a problem with daesin, a German word that translates to “being.” Henry explains that he has a genetic condition that will later be called “Chrono-Impairment.” Dr. Kendrick struggles to believe Henry. Henry asks Dr. Kendrick if his wife is pregnant, and he responds that his and his wife’s daughter is due next month. Henry tells him that he will actually have a son on April 6. He hands Dr. Kendrick an envelope and tells him to wait to open it until their child arrives, then he leaves. Inside, the document recounts the day and time of their son’s birth, his full name, and his diagnosis: Downs syndrome.
This passage doesn’t make it totally clear why Henry is seeing a geneticist, but it could relate to Clare’s idea that the couple starts trying for a baby—perhaps Henry is searching for some way to minimize the chance that his and Clare’s potential child will have his disease, wanting to exert whatever control they have over their future child’s health. Given the unbelievable nature of his Henry’s condition, he must resort of flashy shows of his foreknowledge of the future to convince skeptics like Dr. Kendrick that he is telling the truth. Henry rarely interferes with the natural progression of fate, but here he does so, seemingly using information about Dr. Kendrick’s future son that a future version of Henry has given him, to convince Dr. Kendrick that he is telling the truth about his so-called “Chrono-Impairment.”
Themes
Saturday, April 6, 1996, 5:32 a.m. (Henry is 32, Clare is 24). Clare and Henry sleep restlessly all night waiting for the phone to ring. When it does, they both wake suddenly. On the other line, Henry thinks he can hear Dr. Kendrick crying. He asks Henry how he knew the truth about his son, Colin. Henry’s only response is an apology. Neither of them speaks for a long time. Before hanging up the phone, Dr. Kendrick tells Henry to come to his office the next day so they can talk.
Henry can gain knowledge about the future from future versions of himself. And while perhaps he can’t alter things that are fated to happen down the line, he does have the power to choose whether or not he withholds potentially hurtful foreknowledge from others. When he apologizes to Dr. Kendrick, he’s apologizing for telling him information about his son’s disease that was outside of anyone’s power to control.
Themes
Sunday, April 7. 1996 (Henry is 32, and 8, Clare is 24). Clare and Henry arrive at Dr. Kendrick’s building the next day. Clare drops Henry off, leaving to run an errand while he meets with the doctor. When Henry goes into Dr. Kendrick’s office, he can tell that the doctor hasn’t slept. He is chain smoking. He asks Henry again how he knew about his Colin, and Henry explains that he saw his birth certificate in 1999. Dr. Kendrick insists he's lying, but he also can’t think of another explanation.
Dr. Kendrick’s disheveled appearance seems to be less about his son’s diagnosis and more about his struggle to accept that Henry may be telling the truth about his time traveling. But even as the doctor struggles to accept Henry’s explanation, he does seem to be coming around to the idea of helping him. Henry, in time traveling to procure this foreknowledge about Colin’s diagnosis and thereby convince Dr. Kendrick to help him, does what he must for his and Clare’s benefit. This could be seen as a form of self-love.
Themes
Eventually, Dr. Kendrick asks Henry more about his condition. When Henry finishes talking, Dr. Kendrick asks Henry what he wants him to do. Henry tells him that he needs his help figuring out the cause and treating it before his travels kill him. Kendrick tells him there is nothing he can do, so Henry leaves. Henry exits the building and walks toward the car where Clare is waiting. Before he reaches her, he is pulled away through time. He reappears in his childhood bedroom, where he discusses the visit to Dr. Kendrick’s office with his eight-year-old self.
Once more, the story is somewhat hazy on the limitations of Henry’s time traveling, in particular regarding his ability to change his fate. Presumably, Henry’s death is already destined to happen however and whenever it happens, and so his attempt to travel to the future to gain the attention and help of Dr. Kendrick in an effort to change his destiny would be in vain.
Themes
Meanwhile, Clare is sitting in the car in the present. After Henry vanishes, she runs to the sidewalk to gather his clothing and sees a man watching her from a window. She goes back to the car. A few minutes pass, and the man from the window—Dr. Kendrick—appears at the car door. Clare lets him in and introduces herself. Despite his earlier talk with Henry, Dr. Kendrick remains shocked by Henry’s disappearing act. Clare tries to comfort him about Colin’s diagnosis, telling him that Henry has told her that Colin will be a sweet, creative boy. She also tells him that Henry told her he and his wife will soon have a daughter named Nadia.
Clare passes along to Dr. Kendrick details Henry has told her about Colin’s future to comfort him, perhaps to make up for the discomfort that Henry’s foreknowledge about Colin’s diagnosis caused him. The detail of Colin growing up to be a creative child reinforces the importance of art and creativity.
Themes
Clare apologizes for Dr. Kendrick and Henry’s talk not going well. She explains that she guessed as much, since stress often causes Henry to time travel. Henry suddenly reappears in the road, nearly getting hit by a car. Kendrick asks Henry where he went, and Henry tells him about his visit with his eight-year-old self. Though Kendrick still finds it difficult to believe, Henry has piqued his interest. Clare tells him they want to have a baby, but they need his help since Henry’s condition is genetic. Kendrick considers this but says nothing. When Clare and Henry arrive home, they receive another call from Kendrick. He agrees to try to help.
Henry seems to visit his eight-year-old self rather often. Given that his mother died only years before (Henry was six at the time of the accident), it's plausible that he subconsciously makes these visits in order to comfort and support his younger self through his painful grieving process. Meanwhile, Clare’s admission that she and Henry want Dr. Kendrick’s help because they are trying to conceive suggests that her perspective on having a child with Henry’s condition has shifted over the years.
Themes
Friday, April 12, 1996 (Henry is 32). Henry meets with Dr. Kendrick again, this time giving him a thorough account of his experience time traveling. Kendrick asks about Henry’s sleep schedule, the typical times he vanishes, and whether or not he gets headaches. He theorizes based on Henry’s responses that his condition has something to do with the genes governing circadian rhythms. They decide to start by having Henry’s DNA sequenced. Henry leaves the office feeling both hopeful and anxious to discover what is causing his travels.
Now that Henry has Dr. Kendrick to help him get to the bottom of what’s causing his time-traveling condition, it’s possible he may find a path forward that allows him to enjoy more time with Clare in the here and now. Of course, given that older versions of Henry exist, readers can infer that whatever solution Dr. Kendrick comes up with (if he comes up with a solution at all) isn’t completely effective.
Themes
