The Time Traveler’s Wife

by

Audrey Niffenegger

Lucille Abshire Character Analysis

Lucille is Clare’s mother. She comes from a wealthy family and lives in the house she grew up in with her husband Philip and their children. She is an avid gardener and poet. Like her husband, she’s preoccupied with reputation, and she often lashes out when she feels her children threaten the family’s social status. Clare’s fraught relationship with her mother deeply shapes her character development. Lucille is often critical of Clare’s appearance and weight. Despite the self-doubt this engenders in Clare, she remains close to her mother. When Clare was young, she witnessed Lucille attempt suicide. After that incident, Clare spends much of her life looking out for her mother. Lucille ultimately dies from cancer. Clare struggles to cope with her grief, but she finds resolution when she goes through Lucille’s things and discovers a loving poem that Lucille wrote about her.

Lucille Abshire Quotes in The Time Traveler’s Wife

The The Time Traveler’s Wife quotes below are all either spoken by Lucille Abshire or refer to Lucille Abshire. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Here and Now Theme Icon
).
Chapter 14 Quotes

The dreams merge, now. In one part of this dream I was swimming in the ocean, I was a mermaid. […] Swimming was life flying, all the fish were birds...There was a boat on the surface of the ocean, and we all swan up to see the boat. It was just a little sailboat, and my mother was on it, all by herself. I swam up to her and she was surprised to see me there, she said Why Clare, I thought you were getting married today, and I suddenly realized, the way you do in dreams, that I couldn’t get married to Henry if I was a mermaid, and I started to cry […].

Related Characters: Clare Abshire (speaker), Henry DeTamble, Lucille Abshire
Related Symbols: Wings, Water
Page Number: 260
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20 Quotes

As I sit beside Clare and read the poem I forgive Lucille, a little, for her colossal selfishness and her monstrous dying, and I look up at Clare. “It’s beautiful,” I say, and she nods, satisfied, for a moment, that her mother really did love her. I think about my mother singing lieder after lunch on a summer afternoon […] I never questioned her love. Lucille was changeable as wind. The poem Clare holds is evidence, immutable, undeniable, a snapshot of emotion.

Related Characters: Henry DeTamble (speaker), Clare Abshire, Annette Lyn Robinson, Lucille Abshire
Page Number: 337
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 26 Quotes

I walk down the long hall, glancing in the bedrooms, and come to my room, in which a small wooden cradle sits alone. There is no sound. I am afraid to look into the cradle. In Mama’s room white sheets are spread over the floor. At my feet is a tiny drop of blood, which touches the tip of a sheet and spreads as I watch until the entire floor is covered in blood.

Related Characters: Clare Abshire (speaker), Lucille Abshire
Related Symbols: Red and White
Page Number: 369
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 29 Quotes

The sunlight covers Alba now. She stirs, brings her small hand over her eyes, and sighs. I write her name, and my name, and the date at the bottom of the paper.

The drawing is finished. It will serve as a record—I loved you, I made you, and I made this for you—long after I am gone, and Henry is gone, and even Alba is gone. It will say, we made you, and you are here and now.

Related Characters: Clare Abshire (speaker), Henry DeTamble, Alba DeTamble, Lucille Abshire
Page Number: 403
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 30 Quotes

This is a secret: sometimes I am glad when Henry is gone. Sometimes I enjoy being alone. Sometimes I walk through the house late at night and I shiver with the pleasure of not talking, not touching, just walking, or sitting, or taking a bath. […] Sometimes I go for long walks with Alba and I don’t leave a note saying where I am. […] Sometimes I get a babysitter and I go to the movies or I ride my bicycle after dark along the bike path by Montrose beach with no lights; it’s like flying.

Related Characters: Clare Abshire (speaker), Henry DeTamble, Alba DeTamble, Lucille Abshire
Related Symbols: Wings
Page Number: 404
Explanation and Analysis:
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Lucille Abshire Quotes in The Time Traveler’s Wife

The The Time Traveler’s Wife quotes below are all either spoken by Lucille Abshire or refer to Lucille Abshire. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Here and Now Theme Icon
).
Chapter 14 Quotes

The dreams merge, now. In one part of this dream I was swimming in the ocean, I was a mermaid. […] Swimming was life flying, all the fish were birds...There was a boat on the surface of the ocean, and we all swan up to see the boat. It was just a little sailboat, and my mother was on it, all by herself. I swam up to her and she was surprised to see me there, she said Why Clare, I thought you were getting married today, and I suddenly realized, the way you do in dreams, that I couldn’t get married to Henry if I was a mermaid, and I started to cry […].

Related Characters: Clare Abshire (speaker), Henry DeTamble, Lucille Abshire
Related Symbols: Wings, Water
Page Number: 260
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20 Quotes

As I sit beside Clare and read the poem I forgive Lucille, a little, for her colossal selfishness and her monstrous dying, and I look up at Clare. “It’s beautiful,” I say, and she nods, satisfied, for a moment, that her mother really did love her. I think about my mother singing lieder after lunch on a summer afternoon […] I never questioned her love. Lucille was changeable as wind. The poem Clare holds is evidence, immutable, undeniable, a snapshot of emotion.

Related Characters: Henry DeTamble (speaker), Clare Abshire, Annette Lyn Robinson, Lucille Abshire
Page Number: 337
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 26 Quotes

I walk down the long hall, glancing in the bedrooms, and come to my room, in which a small wooden cradle sits alone. There is no sound. I am afraid to look into the cradle. In Mama’s room white sheets are spread over the floor. At my feet is a tiny drop of blood, which touches the tip of a sheet and spreads as I watch until the entire floor is covered in blood.

Related Characters: Clare Abshire (speaker), Lucille Abshire
Related Symbols: Red and White
Page Number: 369
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 29 Quotes

The sunlight covers Alba now. She stirs, brings her small hand over her eyes, and sighs. I write her name, and my name, and the date at the bottom of the paper.

The drawing is finished. It will serve as a record—I loved you, I made you, and I made this for you—long after I am gone, and Henry is gone, and even Alba is gone. It will say, we made you, and you are here and now.

Related Characters: Clare Abshire (speaker), Henry DeTamble, Alba DeTamble, Lucille Abshire
Page Number: 403
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 30 Quotes

This is a secret: sometimes I am glad when Henry is gone. Sometimes I enjoy being alone. Sometimes I walk through the house late at night and I shiver with the pleasure of not talking, not touching, just walking, or sitting, or taking a bath. […] Sometimes I go for long walks with Alba and I don’t leave a note saying where I am. […] Sometimes I get a babysitter and I go to the movies or I ride my bicycle after dark along the bike path by Montrose beach with no lights; it’s like flying.

Related Characters: Clare Abshire (speaker), Henry DeTamble, Alba DeTamble, Lucille Abshire
Related Symbols: Wings
Page Number: 404
Explanation and Analysis: