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
Monday, December 18, 2006/Sunday, January 2, 1994 (Henry is 43). Henry wakes up experiencing the symptoms of opiate withdrawal from his medication. Before he can take another dose, a time-traveling episode pulls him away. The next thing he knows, he’s in a dark room. Henry recognizes the smell of Ingrid’s perfume. She is arriving home from a night out with Celia, whom she abruptly asks to leave when she finds Henry on her floor. Henry conjures the Ingrid from his memory: cool, unhappy, removed. The version of Ingrid before him has been ravaged by sadness and exhaustion.
Henry is doubly not in the moment: the symptoms of opiate withdrawal render him physically impaired, and then the stress of this brings on a time-traveling episode that literally drags him away from the present. That he travels to Ingrid’s home suggests his impending death: he has wronged Ingrid, and now some force propels him toward her to perhaps atone for his earlier misdeeds.
Themes
Ingrid tells Henry he looks unwell; he tells her she is right and reveals his amputated feet. He sees in her reaction a common pain they share, though for differing reasons. She fetches a container of pills from the other room and provides Henry with pain medication. He tells her he’s come from the year 2006. Henry’s mood drops even further when Ingrid tells him it's the day after New Year’s in 1994—the day she dies by suicide.
Recognizing that he and Ingrid share a common pain grounds Henry in this moment in time, even if it’s for a tragic reason. Henry knows that Ingrid dies by suicide the day after New Year’s in 1994, but Ingrid does not. Once more, the novel gestures toward its theory of the existence of free will, suggesting that Henry’s foreknowledge of Ingrid’s suicide gives him little power to stop it.
Themes
Henry asks Ingrid to be kind to herself. In response, she demands to know why he was so cruel to her when they dated. Henry tells her that he never tried to be and still cares for her. She wonders why he never visited her in the hospital after her other attempts, and Henry explains that her family and doctor told him not to. Ingrid is also mad that Celia was invited to his wedding when she was not, but Henry reminds her that Clare made that decision, not him.
Once more, the novel seems to be gesturing toward Henry’s imminent death—here, the story puts him in a position to make amends with a person he has wronged before he (and Ingrid too, for that matter) runs out of time to do so. With his time on earth running out, Henry must put himself in this moment with Ingrid and try to atone for the cruelty with which he treated her.
Themes
Ingrid lights a cigarette. She asks Henry what happened to him, and he tells her about the frostbite that destroyed his feet. She also wants to know if he is still married or has had children, so Henry tells her about Clare and Alba. Ingrid asks Henry if she has kids in the future; he tells her no. She asks more questions about the future, guessing at varying sad states she might end up in. He doesn’t respond, and she wonders aloud if she is dead. Ingrid tells Henry that the idea inspires her. She produces a gun from a nearby drawer. Ingrid threatens to shoot Henry, but she decides to shoot herself instead.
Unlike in Clare’s case, Henry’s frequent and unpredictable absences haven’t helped Ingrid’s heart grow stronger—she has struggled in his absence. And prior to meeting Clare and improving himself through his own efforts, Henry wasn’t the mature and accountable person Ingrid needed in her life to help her cope with her struggles. All this culminates in her suicide, which Henry is present in the moment to witness.
Themes
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Monday, December 18, 2006 (Clare is 35, Henry is 43). Clare wakes up in the middle of the night to find the bed empty. She hears a cry and goes to Alba’s room, thinking she’s had a bad dream. When Clare finds Alba solidly asleep, she continues down the hall to the living room. She finds Henry distraught over Ingrid’s suicide. They discuss the events of his visit to the past until Alba wakes up when she smells coffee. Clare explains that it is still nighttime and leads her back to bed. When she returns, Henry admits to Clare that he’s been preparing for the eventuality of his death; he tells her that she will be able to find his will, letters to loved ones, and important documents in his desk. Clare asks if he will die soon, and Henry nods.
Being present for Ingrid’s suicide seems to have made Henry recognize the inevitability of his impending death more clearly than he has ever before. Though he’s admitted to Clare that he knows he will die, he has been scant with the details. Now, in addressing logistical matters of his will, letters to give to loved ones, and other official or important documents, he shows that he is done ignoring the inevitability of his death and is choosing to be practical about things instead. Whereas before he seemed to think it best to spare Clare the pain of thinking about his impending death, now he seems to acknowledge that it’s best for them both to accept his death while they are both around in the here and now to process the impending tragedy together.
Themes
