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
Saturday, July 12, 2008 (Clare is 37). Alba has been with Charisse and the other kids skating all day, so Clare goes to Gomez and Charisse’s to retrieve her. When she arrives, Gomez tells her they haven’t come home yet. He pours her a cup of coffee and asks how she is doing. She gives him a vague answer while considering internally all the time she has been spending trying to survive. Gomez asks her if she’s been dating, and Clare responds that the thought hasn’t even crossed her mind.
At this point, Henry has been dead for over a year. Clare still seems to be struggling and unable to process her grief over Henry’s death. The fact that she hasn’t even thought about dating shows that she is continuing to wait for Henry in his absence, as she has done ever since she was a young girl.
Themes
Gomez tells Clare that she should consider inviting someone new into her life so she can move on. He leans in and licks her ear in an attempt to tempt her. Clare asks him to leave her alone, but Gomez ignores her. As his touches escalate to kissing and then sex, Clare begins to imagine it is Henry and not Gomez she is with. When she accidentally says Henry’s name aloud, Gomez releases her. Just then, they hear a car door. Gomez and Clare quickly get dressed before Charisse and the children come inside.
Gomez initially seems well intentioned in his suggestion that Clare try to find love with a new person, but when his words escalate to physical touch (which borders on assault, given Clare’s explicit plea for him to stop), it’s clear he is acting out of selfishness. Clare copes with this unwanted sexual encounter by disassociating, imagining in the moment that she is with Henry rather than Gomez.
Themes
Saturday, July 26, 2008 (Clare is 37). Clare and Charisse take Alba out to a 1960s-themed diner as a reward for the kids being patient at an art show. As they eat fries and drink milkshakes, Alba asks Clare when Henry will come home. Clare responds that Henry will visit her at the end of August. The exchange shocks Charisse, and she wonders aloud if Alba realizes that Henry is really dead. Clare assures her that Alba loves seeing Henry and knows it’s a past version of him. When Charisse asks what Henry’s death is doing to Clare, Clare responds that she never gets to see Henry. Though she attempts to say this nonchalantly, in truth a part of Clare is angry that Henry comes to visit Alba and not her.
Perhaps it is out of love and compassion that Henry does not time travel to see Clare. Seeing past versions of him would give Clare the illusion of a future with him, which is no longer possible after his death. Clare could continue to wait for Henry, as she has done her entire life, living in a false memory of the past rather than trying to live meaningfully in the present.
Themes
Saturday, September 3, 1990 (Henry is 27). Henry and Ingrid have been out drinking and are now too drunk to locate Ingrid’s car. Ingrid is livid and walks ahead of Henry. She stops when she notices a girl who she saw earlier that night. They stop to make sure she is alright, and the girl assures them she is fine. She tells them she is just waiting for her dad. As she walks past them, she tells Henry that he can find the car parked across the street. She kisses him on the cheek and leaves.
Presumably, the girl that Ingrid and Henry encounter is Alba, though this past version of Henry wouldn’t yet know that he has a daughter. Alba’s ability to time travel seems to help her process her grief, allowing her to build more memories with her father even if she knows he won’t be able to make new ones with him in the future, after he has died. As fellow time travelers, Alba and Henry can share a “here and now” that transcends time and space. This is perhaps why it’s healthy and productive for Alba to visit her father in other times but unhealthy for Henry to visit Clare after his death.
Themes
Get the entire The Time Traveler’s Wife LitChart as a printable PDF.
Sunday, July 29, 1979 (Henry is 42). Both Henry and Alba have time traveled to the past. They spent the whole day together at the beach. Now they sit and watch the sun set together. Alba asks Henry to tell her a story about Clare as a little girl. Henry describes the first day that Clare found him in the Meadow. As he talks, Alba interjects the parts she remembers. Later, she asks Henry why he visits only her and not Clare in the future. He explains that unlike Alba, he has never been able to control where he goes. He assures her that he’d be with Clare if he could.
Perhaps Henry cannot travel to see Clare because, on some subconscious level, he knows that doing so would only harm Clare in the long run. Clare has spent her entire life waiting around for Henry, and perhaps now it’s time for her to start living life on her own terms, even as she continues to feel deep love for him in his absence.
Themes
