51 pages • 1 hour read
The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Persistence of Identity
Through its dual timelines, the novel follows its characters from youth to their later years, exploring how their personalities develop over a lifetime. However, certain core qualities in their natures persist through the years, indicating that fundamental aspects of their identities do not change, despite external circumstances and life experiences.
Augusta and Irving’s reunion at Rallentando Springs offers strong evidence of this idea: Neither of them has fundamentally changed at their core. Irving recognizes Augusta by her self-contained manner as well as her tuchus (Yiddish slang for “derriere”). Augusta, in turn, identifies Irving by his blue eyes, which are still filled with mischief. Irving also notices that Augusta’s lofty demeanor has not changed. He still thinks of her as “a matchless being—rare, exotic, wary, exceptional” (162). The years haven’t changed the essence of who they are or how they perceive one another.
However, while Irving believes he is fundamentally the same man Augusta once loved, he thinks that life’s challenges—such as his divorce—have changed him. Still, other aspects of his character are directly tied to Augusta’s influence. His interest in literature, for instance, stems from the book of poetry she gave him as a graduation gift, and his dedication to swimming results from a wish to feel closer to her by taking up the exercise she loves. These shared interests become opportunities for reconnection.
A key moment of self-realization for Augusta occurs when Jackie brings her a dress for her birthday. Donning the dress becomes a powerful metaphor for how Augusta integrates her past and present identities, and she thinks that she isn’t “merely her eighty-year-old self—she [is] fourteen and sixteen, two and twelve” (211). This blending of identities bridges the gap in Augusta’s adult life that has kept her from experiencing the affection, optimism, and hint of magic she knew in her youth. She realizes that her personality has not fundamentally changed through the years. Rather, she has consciously denied herself certain activities or refrained from choices that reminded her too keenly of the pains and failures she experienced when she was 18 and lost Irving and Aunt Esther within months. In an attempt to protect herself, she constructed a version of herself that would be invulnerable to similar pain.
However, when she meets Irving again, Augusta realizes this long self-denial has been ineffective. Her love for Irving never changed or disappeared. When Jackie produces Esther’s apothecary case and makes soup, Augusta realizes also that her interest in Esther’s work never disappeared, either. When she honors both those interests, Augusta makes peace with her past and with her younger self. By integrating all the aspects of her identity—past and present—she finds contentment, a satisfying romantic relationship, and productive professional work. Ultimately, the novel shows that while both protagonists acquire knowledge and coping mechanisms over time, their fundamental personalities, needs, and hopes are integral aspects of their identities. Rather than being erased by time, these core aspects endure and shape the choices that define their lives.
The Limits of Medical Knowledge
The novel contrasts Western medicine with alternative practices, examining the opportunities and limitations of both. Aunt Esther highlights these limitations when she reminds Augusta that medicine can offer wellness but not immortality. Though Augusta understands this on a logical level, her grief at losing the people she loves compels her to see these losses as failures: She blames the medical establishment for not discovering insulin in time to save her mother’s life, and she blames herself for being unable to ease Esther’s suffering. Though Augusta initially confuses limitations with failures, over time, she comes to see that she is mistaken for thinking so.
The novel explores the strengths and weaknesses of both medical traditions by pitting them together in certain scenarios. For instance, Solomon Stern insists that Western medicine is superior to traditional practices like Esther’s since it is based on rigorous research, testing, documentation, and empirical evidence. However, when Western medicine fails to cure Irving’s influenza or help Harriet Dornbrush conceive, Aunt Esther’s herbal remedies appear to do both. As a result, Augusta begins to think that Esther’s knowledge is more powerful, especially since Esther’s elixir even helps Bess on the complex matter of understanding her own heart.
However, Augusta overestimates Esther’s remedies, attributing magical qualities to them rather than understanding their purpose of restoring balance to the mind or body, as outlined by the inscription on Esther’s mortar. Augusta misapplies the elixir by trying to use it to discover Irving’s feelings without gaining his consent or participation. This, she comes to realize, is also a violation of boundaries; Augusta disrespects the ethical boundaries that Esther upholds regarding the use of her remedies. Augusta’s misstep highlights that medicine’s limitations extend beyond physical efficacy to the healer’s intention—whether it serves the patient’s wellbeing or the healer’s personal desires.
Another way the novel explores the limits of medicine is through examining the resistance that Augusta encounters as a woman in a male-dominated profession. One of her father’s patients openly states that he doesn’t trust a woman to prepare his pills, reflecting patriarchal ideas that women are less capable of rigorous thought or that they must confine their labor to domestic spaces. Such restrictions on knowledge are not inherent, but they are imposed by cultural attitudes that restrict women from participating or sharing in medical knowledge. In contrast, Esther’s folk remedies are traditionally shared among and handed down to women within close-knit communities, which makes them appear suspect to outsiders. This secrecy sets its own limitations on the ways these healing practices can be communicated and maintained.
The novel exposes another limitation of medicine: Remedies can be misapplied, as when Nathaniel drinks—on two separate occasions—the elixir meant for Irving. This error underlines that the healing arts are intended to be a knowledge shared among the healer and the patient and that the purpose should be to the patient’s benefit. The novel’s Epilogue highlights the idea that ethical and efficacious medicine must be rooted in healing and restoration, aligning with the inscription etched on Esther’s mortar. These ethical limits reflect the larger truths about the limits of human ability and mortality.
Moving From Loss to Restoration
In their journey from loss to restoration, characters in the novel explore the painful effects of grief and the ways in which the heart, like the body, can be healed. While this process isn’t always successful—evident in the early death of Irene Stern and Solomon Stern’s lasting grief—the novel’s broader theme of healing is underscored by its resolution, which offers reconciliation and restoration for its principal characters.
The novel first examines reactions to loss through the Sterns’ response to losing Irene, and later through Augusta’s loss of Irving. As a teenager, Augusta tries to cope with her grief at the loss of her mother by sharing her father’s strategy of immersing himself in work. She is determined to learn his business because “[s]he want[s] to please him, to bring back his smile, to pierce the screen of his grief so that he might return to her” (49). Yet, as Augusta’s own experiences prove, while work can be a refuge or distraction from pain, it cannot replace the emotional satisfaction of human relationships.
After her mother’s death, Augusta resents Esther’s presence in the household, worried that Esther might replace or undo her mother’s influence. In time, however, Augusta realizes that new relationships can still form even in the midst of loss and pain, and she comes to admire and rely on Esther. When Esther donates Irene’s boots to Harriet Dornbrush, Augusta wants to protest, since she feels like she is losing another part of her mother. However, Augusta lets Harriet take the boots, hoping that they will help her conceive. Through this, Augusta participates in Harriet’s own journey from loss to restoration, which culminates in Harriet bearing several children.
The dual loss of Irving and Esther within months shapes Augusta as deeply as Irene’s death shaped Solomon. Like her father, Augusta seeks solace in her work. This proves an incomplete remedy, but Augusta’s life isn’t entirely without affection as she remains close to her sister and forms an attachment to her niece, Jackie. Jackie becomes a key figure in Augusta’s eventual restoration. While visiting Augusta in Florida, Jackie bridges the gap between Augusta’s past in New York City and her present in Rallentando Springs. By bringing Esther’s apothecary case, she delivers a piece of the family heritage that Esther intended for Augusta. Similarly, by bringing Augusta’s birthday dress, Jackie provides the means by which Augusta finally confronts and reconciles with her past.
On a larger scale, the character arcs of both protagonists chart a shared path from loss to restoration, culminating in their reunion 62 years after parting. Irving manages to redeem the night Nathaniel upstaged him with a proposal, and Augusta finally admits her feelings, as well as her fears, instead of hiding them. They are together at last, and both Irving and Augusta feel as if their lives are restored to the shape they were meant to have, affirming the possibility of healing and reconciliation even after profound loss.
Unlock all 51 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features: