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
Friday, September 23, 1977 (Henry is 36, Clare is 6). Henry waits in the Meadow for Clare. Because the box where she usually leaves clothing and food is empty, he suspects that this will be their first meeting, or else Clare hasn’t been born yet, which was the case during a previous visit. Clare arrives in her school uniform, lays out a towel and supplies, and begins drawing. Henry guesses she is around six. He hesitates, naked in the tall grass, but Clare hears him moving. She assumes it’s her older brother, Mark, playing a joke and throws her shoe at him. The shoe hits Henry and splits open his lip. Once Clare calms down, Henry explains he’s a time traveling friend from the future. She begrudgingly gives Henry her beach towel to cover up.
This passage is significant because it describes Clare’s first encounter with Henry. Her youth is apparent as she colors and in the way that she lashes out at Henry thinking he’s Mark. The contrast between Henry meeting Clare as a fully grown man and her introduction to him as a very young child is deeply significant. Because he enters her life as she is still developing, his presence will come to define who she is in many ways, including her personality, occupation, the city she lives in, and the struggles she faces.
Themes
Henry tries to convince Clare of his identity and ability to time travel by reciting details about her life and family, but she’s skeptical. He tells her she will believe him when he disappears in front of her. In the meantime, they discuss Santa’s use of time travel to deliver presents, the Pope’s claims that animals have no souls, and Clare’s practice of penmanship. He writes the date of his next visit on a piece of paper for her, asking her not to tell anyone and to bring him some clothes later that day. They shake hands before he disappears.
Both Clare’s precociousness and impressionability are showcased in her initial encounter with Henry. While she may still have faith in many age-appropriate beliefs such as the existence of Santa, it is clear that she thinks deeply about the world, even at a young age. Her skepticism about Henry gives way, however, and she indulges his strange presence; it does not take long for Henry to ingratiate himself to Clare because of her impressionability.
Themes
Wednesday, February 9, 2000 (Clare is 28, Henry is 36). Clare wakes around six a.m. when Henry is transported back into bed, landing on top of her. She sees his mouth is bleeding, and he tells her that she threw a shoe at his face. Not remembering this, Clare insists she would never do such a thing; Henry assures her she did. He explains they just met for the first time, joking that she exclaimed that she was going to marry him one day as soon as she saw him and then slung a shoe at him.
Henry’s temperament with child Clare in the past and adult Clare in the future differ greatly. The gentleness and patience he exhibited in the Meadow with six-year-old Clare give way to flirtation, self-deprecation, and humor with 28-year-old Clare. The night Henry (he was 24 at the time) taught his younger self about time traveling at the museum, he struggled shift out of his youthful self-absorption and into a parental role. Now, at 36, the ease with which Henry adjusts his behavior toward Clare at different ages shows that Henry has matured.
Themes
Thursday, September 29, 1977 (Clare is 6, Henry is 35).Clare sees on her father Philip’s calendar that it’s the day the strange man she met in the Meadow is returning. Clare asks Etta and Nell for her father’s old clothing to bring the man, but she gets distracted by the school day. Back at home in the afternoon, she remembers her task. Clare’s mother gives her permission to take what she wants from the donation bags, and Clare finds a pair of pants, a sweater, a button-down shirt, and a tie printed with fish. She is distracted again by an altercation with Mark. Clare goes upstairs to watch TV and soothe herself after fighting with her brother. After the family eats dinner, she remembers to go out to the Meadow. The man isn’t there, but she hears him arrive as she starts to head back toward the house.
Again, the way Clare behaves in this scene shows exactly how young she is. She struggles to remember what she is supposed to do and to stay on task, getting wrapped up in a squabble with her brother. Despite this and her minor remaining skepticism, Clare still goes to meet Henry with provisions. Her innocence and her youthful willingness to entertain the fantastical draws her back to Henry in the meadow. In this way, her age is not a limitation but an asset in building a friendship with the stranger in her backyard.
Themes
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Henry arrives in the Meadow, hurting himself on the rock as he lands. Nothing is there except the bag of clothing Clare left for him. He calls for her but gets no response. He assesses the clothing, pleased, and thanks her aloud. She appears then but looks afraid. Henry tries to determine where he is in time, which confuses Clare—she expects him to know the date since he wrote it for her last time he was there. He explains his experience of time to her like a tape recorder; sometimes things get rewound and fast forwarded imprecisely, and he gets lost. Clare remains confused but asks if he’ll be sleeping over at her house.
Though she is intrigued enough to visit Henry again, Clare’s caution upon seeing him is appropriate—he is still a stranger, and one with peculiar claims, at that. Clare’s inherent curiosity and bravery ultimately outweigh her hesitation. This scene also provides added functional context for Henry’s time-traveling condition and how he experiences these disruptions in chronological time.
Themes
Henry tells her that he can’t meet her family until 1991, reminding Clare that he must be kept a secret until then. Clare wonders why Henry talks to her about time traveling, and he tells her that she is special and “good at keeping secrets.” She admits she told her friend Ruth about their first meeting, but she didn’t believe her. Henry agrees that very few people believe him; Clare assures him that she believes him now. She has to go in for bed, so she asks him if he will come back. Henry tells her October 16 and asks her to bring her diary and a pen then. She agrees and leaves, telling him goodbye in perfectly accented French.
Aside from Henry’s assertion that he and Clare are friends in the future during their first encounter, this claim about his visit to her home decades in the future is the most information he has provided her yet. It seems that Henry intentionally holds back as much as he can about the specifics of their future relationship, both because of their age difference and because of Clare’s extreme innocence. He wants her to trust him, but he doesn’t want to share anything that will hurt her or shift the natural course of history.
Themes
