Love, Theoretically

In this set of chapters, Elsie begins to act more like herself rather than the numerous other Elsies she pretends to be for others. She starts to let herself want things, such as the job George offers her, yet is still insecure about herself and her self-worth. Though she knows George is offering her a dream job, it is nevertheless a job that goes against Laurendeau’s plan for Elsie, and she still feels she requires his permission to accept it. Her hesitance to accept the position based on Laurendeau’s disapproval again highlights The Personal Impacts of People-Pleasing as well as The Unnecessary Politicization of Academia, as Elsie jeopardizes her future in fear of losing her mentor, a well-known physicist in the field. In the previous chapters, she started to question whether Laurendeau really knew what was best for her, yet when it comes to more critical matters, such as her career path, Elsie still attributes any success she has had to her mentor rather than recognizing the hard work she has put in to get to where she is and the fact that all the other physicists around her are highly impressed with her. One of the biggest changes Elsie undergoes in this section of the novel is when she begins to want Jack to see her fully. Jack makes her promise that she will be herself when they are together, and though he actively keeps her people-pleasing in check, Elsie finds it easier to be herself around him regardless. She shows him things about herself that she hides even from Cece, such as how her insulin pod works and that she is obsessed with the Twilight movies. Their relationship reaches a new level of intimacy once they have sex after weeks of waiting, particularly as Elsie questions her sexuality through the entirety of the novel, as her previous experiences have not included this level of intimacy.

Though Elsie has met Jack’s family before the novel begins and is familiar with the Smiths through Greg, the idea of found family comes to the forefront in this section of the novel. Elsie and Jack have complicated relationships with their respective families. Elsie pretends to be the perfect child her parents wanted because she feels she must repay them for supporting her with her diabetes, yet she does not receive emotional support from them at all. This is made especially clear in Chapter 19 when Elsie’s mother hangs up on a phone call with her once Elsie tries to set boundaries. Jack’s relationship with his family, as revealed by Millicent in the previous chapters, is even more fraught, as he grew up with the lie that Caroline was his real mother. Not only does this make Jack especially sensitive to the dishonesty of others, but he also isolates himself from most of his family aside from Greg and Millicent. Instead, Elsie learns in Chapter 17 that Jack’s friends are whom he considers to be family to him, with people like Adam, Olive, and Sunny giving him the love that Caroline and his father do not. Elsie is also far more at ease and acts much more like herself around Jack’s friends than she does at the Smith family gatherings she attends with Greg, and she is especially comfortable at the dinner with Jack and Greg in Chapter 20. Overall, a found family is becoming just as important to Elsie as it is to Jack throughout this section of the novel.

Though the focus of Love, Theoretically is the romance between Elsie and Jack, relationships, sex, and sexuality are emphasized in this section of the novel. It is a common trope of contemporary romance novels that sex is used to highlight and heighten the connection between two characters, as occurs between Elsie and Jack in Chapters 19, 21, and 22. Throughout the novel, it is implied that Elsie identifies as part of the asexual/aromantic spectrum and that she is still determining exactly how she feels about her sexuality. The trust and intimacy between Elsie and Jack and her attraction to him are especially significant, even more so given what Elsie learns about Jack’s lack of connection with previous sexual partners. Not only is the intensifying relationship between Jack and Elsie representative of their bond within the context of the genre, but it also shows how much Elsie has come to trust Jack and how unique their connection is.