Love, Theoretically

Dr. Jonathan Smith-Turner is the head of the Physics Institute at MIT and an infamous experimental physicist who is known for publishing an article that questioned the validity of theoretical physics as a discipline. He is also the protective older brother of Greg Smith, one of Elsie’s clients through Faux, and is the reason Elsie thinks her chance at the MIT position is jeopardized. Though he is known for his article and gained success and notoriety through it, Jack rarely speaks about it, turning the conversation around whenever anyone brings it up and staying silent on his opinion of theorists. However, Jack did not write the article to slander theorists but rather to avenge one—his mother, Grethe Turner—for her unwarranted dismissal from academia by Laurendeau. As a teenager fueled by revenge, he thought disgracing Laurendeau would make him feel better, but as it did not, he ignored the article and the effects it had on the physics community. Jack is also motivated by jealousy early in the novel as well as protectiveness over his brother, which is why he treats Elsie in a way that makes her think he hates her, while he actually feels quite the opposite.

Though he is her love interest, Jack is also a foil to Elsie. For most of Love, Theoretically, Jack appears to be an open book, whereas Elsie conceals her true self and only cares about the feelings of others. When she visits his home, Elsie describes Jack’s condo as “90 percent windows,” (169) symbolic of the open and direct personality Jack conveys to the world. His experience with his family and his early belief that his stepmother was his birth mother led Jack to detest all forms of lying and dishonesty, which is why he is so affronted by Elsie’s personality switching and the things he believes she is concealing from Greg. Despite his hatred of lies, Jack also conceals his feelings about Elsie, Laurendeau, his article, and theoretical physicists at different times throughout the novel, emphasizing the ways in which he, like Elsie, can make complex mistakes, but is also growing as a character.

Dr. Georgina Sepulveda is a renowned experimental physicist who is also being considered for the tenure-track position at MIT. However, unlike Elsie, the physics department knows that the position was essentially created for George, and she will be the one who gets it. Whereas Elsie is insecure about her qualifications and capacities, George is confident and knows exactly what she wants. She and Jack have been friends since graduate school and frequently collaborate on projects together, making Elsie wrongfully assume for a moment that George only got the job because she was sleeping with Jack. Despite the misunderstanding at first, George and Elsie become fast friends, and George invites Elsie out to lunch and to a party. Like Jack, George is also open and honest, not afraid to tell strangers about her excitement over her new job. George is also not afraid to apologize for her actions, as she does when she meets Elsie again for the first time after learning that they were competitors.

George’s most significant characteristic is how she supports other women like Elsie in the difficult cultural terrain of academia. Even after she finds out they were competitors for the same job, George researches Elsie and discovers the two of them would work great together, so she offers Elsie a job. As a queer woman of color, George likely experiences the same prejudice Elsie faces as a woman in STEM and more, and it is significant that, even despite their earlier competition, George wants to support Elsie rather than get revenge on her like the male characters in the novel. George is also genuinely excited about the idea that she and Elsie can collaborate and help one another, and when it is revealed that a paper they wrote together is being published in the novel’s epilogue, the two women “are too busy reading and rereading the email and letting out annoying high-pitched screams” (341) to care much else about their surroundings. Overall, Hazelwood uses George as an example of the good that can come when women support women in academia and elsewhere.