How to Stop Time

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017

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Part 4, Chapters 5-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 4: “The Pianist”

Part 4, Chapter 5 Summary: “London, 1607–1616”

Tom is 26 years old in 1607. His voice deepens, and his shoulders broaden. Rose says his face looks more manly now. They finally marry. Sometime after, Grace marries a shoemaker’s apprentice. Rose gives birth to a daughter; they call her Marion. Rose worries about Marion’s small size, fearing that she won’t survive. Tom fears Marion will be like him and stop aging. King James’s ascension to the throne brings a rise of superstition to the kingdom. Ignorance and superstition changes doubts into actions. Tom observes such actions occurring around him, from the butcher believing a certain farmer’s pigs are demons to friends accusing each other of devil worship. Around this time, Shakespeare releases Macbeth, his most superstitious play. Things escalate at home as Marion and Rose grow older and Tom stays the same. They receive dirty looks or are spat at. They alter their lifestyle to protect Marion from the rumors. They don’t go out together and homeschool Marion. She loves reading and takes to quoting Michel de Montaigne. One day she reads something scratched into their door—“Satan Resides Here” (217)—and asks Tom if he really is Satan. They decide to leave London.

Part 4, Chapter 6 Summary: “London, Now”

Tom brings his lute to class and shares its history. He plays a tune called “Flow My Tears” and explains that was a hit during its time. He plays another song. This time the students recognize “Billie Jean.” The class sings along. Camille and her class peer in on their way outside. Camille joins the singing. Tom sees Daphne in the hallway and stops playing. Daphne encourages him to continue as she loves the song.

Part 4, Chapter 7 Summary: “Canterbury, 1616–1617”

Tom, Rose, and Marion move to Canterbury. Tom looks for work at the inns, alehouses, and theatre playing the lute. Finding nothing, he plays in the street while Rose and Marion sell flowers. Tom teaches Marion French. Rose fears all this education will separate her from her peers. Marion plays the pipe, preferring music “made of breath not formed from fingers” (222). She sometimes plays in the street. She earns her first penny and declares it her lucky coin. That luck doesn’t last. On their way to church, some teen boys mock them, specifically Rose and Tom for the supposed age gap. Then their landlord, Mr. Flint, asks odd questions about Tom being Rose’s son and Marion speaking French. Gossip spreads. One day at the market, a man approaches Marion and accuses her of being the spawn of a witch who keeps her husband young for her pleasure. Rose tells Tom they must go back to London. Tom tries to convince her that the only way for them to be safe is for him to leave. Rose finally agrees. They leave for London together, and Tom breaks away. Marion gives Tom her lucky coin to remind him of her.

Tom finds work playing at the Mermaid Tavern. He becomes a big hit with the travelers. He distracts himself with alcohol and prostitutes. He sometimes looks for Rose and Marion in Shoreditch, where they had planned to go. One day in 1623 during the plague, Tom sees a woman holding a baby walking by the river. It is Grace. He greets her. She notes he hasn’t changed a bit. He asks after Rose. Grace tells him she has the plague and misses him, regretting that she sent him away. Tom wants to see her. Grace hesitates to give him the address as Rose won’t want him to catch it, but Tom persuades her.

Part 4, Chapters 5-7 Analysis

It is the age of superstition. King James rules. Everyone is quick to see demons everywhere. Tom and Rose are blessed with a baby girl, Marion, but Rose lives in fear for Marion’s safety and survival, and Tom worries about witchcraft accusations. The performance of Shakespeare’s Macbeth enhances the superstitious atmosphere. Macbeth carries its own superstitions in theatrical circles, even to this day, with some saying that uttering the name Macbeth in a theater will lead to disaster. Mentioning the play here makes Tom’s fears all that more realistic. The community’s suspicions grow when Marion and Rose noticeably age and Tom does not. Naturally, they move, but it isn’t long before their new neighbors have similar thoughts. Tom can’t watch his wife and daughter go through the same trial and death as his mother. They have no choice but to move again.

To ensure his family’s safety, Tom makes the hard choice to leave. This separation costs Tom everything. Marion gives him her lucky coin as a keepsake to remember her by, and it becomes one of his most valued possessions. This is the start of his loneliness. He keeps himself preoccupied by drinking in the Mermaid Tavern, where he plays the lute.

Music again becomes his solace. He brings his lute to his history class to show his students and teach about its history. He plays “Flow My Tears,” a traditional lute song by John Dowland, a popular Elizabethan aria portraying intense melancholy and despair. It is a song Tom identifies with; his students, however, do not. He switches to playing “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson, Camille’s favorite. Coincidently, Camille stops by as he plays and joins the class in singing along. Music brings them together.