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
Thursday, February 10, 2005 (Clare is 33, Henry is 41). Clare makes paper in her studio while Henry is away time traveling. She is torn between being angry at him for leaving and worrying he’ll be hurt. He appears, seeming especially joyful, while Clare takes a coffee break. She guesses that he traveled to the day of her 18th birthday, and he spins her around in response. They discuss the months of sadness Clare experienced after that day, knowing it would be two years until she met Henry. She tells him that moving to Chicago and starting school helped immensely.
Clare’s conflicted emotions at Henry’s absence suggest the toll his worsening condition has taken on her. As Henry’s absences grow longer and more frequent, a mixture of anger and worry replace the longing and sadness that Clare used to feel in his absence.
Themes
Henry asks Clare if she dated much during that time, and she admits that she tried but found it pointless. Rumors spread, as they did in high school, that she was a lesbian. Internally, Clare is troubled by something she hasn’t told Henry and hasn’t planned to: she once had sex with Gomez while she was in college. Henry asks Clare why her expression is so thoughtful, and she wonders aloud if he ever feels that their best moments are behind them. Henry doesn’t think so, but he agrees that he thinks they need to be more mindful about enjoying the “here and now.”
This passage underscores the degree to which being with Henry has placed limitations on Clare’s life and sense of personal freedom. Notably, her knowledge that she would one day marry Henry made it difficult for her to be present in the years leading up to their first meeting in real time—she was constantly distracted by her longing for the future. Though she was free to date other people, her foreknowledge of her eventual marriage to Henry warped her perspective on casual dating, causing her to see it as pointless. The revelation that Clare once sex with Gomez in college explains the odd tension that has lingered between her, Gomez, and Henry.
Themes
Henry explains that he’s always paying close attention when he’s traveling through time, and he feels that he should try to do the same in the present as well. Though the present has been filled with an equal amount of beauty and challenge, Henry says, it is the time he wants to be living—in “reality.” Clare is overwhelmed with guilt about her secret as Henry talks. When he finishes, she tells him the truth. Despite Clare’s worry about Henry’s reaction, he is mostly amused by the news. Clare tells him that her experience with Gomez only made her more thankful for Henry. Clare is relieved. When she and Henry have sex, she feels confident everything will be okay.
When Henry implicitly links the present with “reality,” he underscores one of the novel’s most important ideas: the importance of being in the moment. It’s impossible to change the past or to know everything about the future, and so focusing one’s attention on the past or the future is pointless. It is a more meaningful and worthwhile use of one’s time to put one’s focus where—or rather when—it counts: the present. When Henry laughs off Clare’s admission about Gomez, it reinforces Henry’s confidence in Clare and in their mutual love for each other. Despite his absences, their love is stronger than the fleeting night of physical intimacy Clare once shared with Gomez.
Themes
Saturday, April 14, 1990 (Clare is 18) (6:43 a.m.). In a flashback to college, Clare wakes up in Gomez’s bed. She is immediately anxious about how both Henry and Charisse will react when they find out. She goes to the bathroom, and when she returns, Gomez is awake. He asks her what’s wrong, and she says she feels guilty for doing this to Charisse. He tells her that in her sleep, she kept referring to someone named Henry. Clare tells Gomez that Henry is her lover who has been gone but will return the following fall. She shows him Henry’s photo, and Gomez recognizes him as someone he’s heard unflattering things about. Gomez tries to confess his feelings for Clare, but she cuts him off and leaves.
Clare is consumed with feelings for Henry, even in his absence, and even though they won’t meet in each other’s presence for over a year. Gomez’s remark about hearing unflattering things about Henry likely refers to Henry’s tumultuous relationship with Ingrid—earlier in the book, it was revealed that Henry treated Ingrid poorly to the point that she took her own life.
Themes
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Friday, April 27, 1990 (Henry is 26). Henry is at a concert with Ingrid. The two dance all night, sweating through their clothes. Afterward, Henry waits outside while Ingrid uses the bathroom. A blond man he doesn’t recognize calls his name and approaches him; he tells Henry that Clare says “hi.” Henry doesn’t know who the man is talking about. Ingrid returns. As Henry walks away from the man, he gets the sense that something from his future has just cropped up in the present. He and Ingrid leave the venue in search of ice cream.
It's not clear who the blond man who says hello to Henry is. So often, it’s Henry who possesses knowledge of the future which Clare lacks, but in this situation, it seems that the reverse is true. Once more, Henry’s condition distracts him from living in the moment. This scene builds tension, leaving readers to speculate the significance of this man and how he knows Clare.
Themes
Friday, February 18, 2005 (Henry is 41, Clare is 33). Henry and Charisse are attending an opera together because neither Clare nor Gomez enjoy Wagner. When Henry picks Charisse up, Gomez teases him not to stay out too late. Henry and Charisse enjoy the opera from his and Clare’s private box. Charisse asks Henry if they can get coffee afterward. At the café, Charisse tells Henry that she and Gomez don’t go out much unless it’s in service of his political campaign as alderman. Henry is shocked to hear Gomez is running for office. Charisse responds that she doesn’t have the kind of patience that Gomez does; Henry tells her he doesn’t think of Gomez as patient.
The action returns to the novel’s present. Charisse’s remark about her and Gomez never going out anymore hints at tension or unhappiness in their relationship. Though Charisse and Gomez don’t have to deal with absence in quite as extreme and fantastical a way as Clare and Henry, Gomez’s involvement in politics apparently pull him away from his family quite often. And, like Clare and Henry, being apart seems to have strained Gomez and Charisse’s marriage.
Themes
Charisse says Clare is a prime example of Gomez’s patience. Henry asks what she means, though part of him already knows; Charisse responds that Gomez is in love with Clare. She tells Henry that she believes Gomez is just waiting around hoping he can step in if something happens to Henry. Charisse begs Henry to tell her what will happen in the future. Henry refuses to give her any real answers, though he reassures her that she will be okay.
Henry seems to choose not to disclose details to Charisse out of consideration for her feelings. Though he flounders on his beliefs about free will, he does all he can to make ethical choices about informing other characters about facts about the future.
Themes
Sunday, June 12, 2005 (Clare is 34, Henry is 41). Clare comes into the kitchen to find Henry looking out the back window. He points to where Alba is playing with an older girl who looks about seven years old. Clare is confused; Henry explains that the older girl is Alba traveling back in time. The girls notice Henry and Clare watching them. Older Alba yells to Henry as runs inside to hug him. She cries as he holds her. Henry watches Clare’s face and realizes that she understands why older Alba is overcome with emotion. Still, Henry whispers to her not to tell Clare about what happens to him. The family goes out for ice cream. When the girls get tired, they head home. Older Alba disappears during the drive.
Older Alba’s face is overcome with loving emotion because she hasn’t seen Henry since he died. Clare immediately makes this connection—or at least senses that something tragic happens to her family in the future. This scene builds tension, leaving readers to anticipate the confrontation that will almost certainly take place between Clare and Henry now that Clare realizes that Henry is keeping important details about their future from her.
Themes
Later. Back at home, Clare confronts Henry. She asks him if he plans to tell her what happens to him. He says no, then he attempts to distract her with kisses. Clare argues that she’ll only assume it’s horrible if he doesn’t share. Suddenly, she is struck with a memory of waking as a girl to someone calling her name and finding Philip and Mark standing with Henry in the Meadow. Henry asks her what she’s thinking about, and she says that she believes the thing he’s refusing to talk about will happen there in 1984. He asks her to tell him everything. She recounts that when she went to the spot in the grass later that day, it was covered in blood. Both Clare and Henry are afraid.
Suddenly, Philip and Mark’s (Clare’s father and brother) alarmed looks upon meeting Henry at Christmas so many years ago start to make more sense. It seems that something bad happened between them and Henry in the Meadow in 1984—something involving lots of blood, and possibly resulting in Henry’s death. Tension builds as readers are left to wonder what happened, and Clare and Henry’s helplessness grows as they are forced to accept that something tragic is fated to befall their family in the future—and they have no way to prevent it from happening.
Themes
