Roderick Asks Stella to Leave, Explained：tear someone apart

What's really going on

Roderick thinks he is rescuing Stella, but he has misread what she wants. His plan — London, a small flat, tearing down Windward — is generous and completely beside the point, because Stella is not afraid of the house; she is drawn to it. Her line, "You talk about destroying that house. You'd be tearing me apart," makes the house and her mother the same thing. Roderick answers with the language of health and sense, calling her beliefs "horrible, unhealthy stuff" and telling her to "turn your back on the past and run." She refuses, and the love scene turns into an ending: she says she hates him, and vows he will never make her forget her mother. The visit makes him a rival to a ghost — a contest he cannot win.

Theme

このチャプターで学べること

• A refused plea can turn affection into blame.
• Rick's promise of a tiny flat is really a promise of safety.
• Stella measures love by a mother, not a man.
• The quarrel ends on a line no apology can undo.

発音のポイント

• right about one — Link right, about and one so they run together.
• thought this thing — The t in thought often drops before this thing.
• under the impression — The and under reduce, so impression takes the stress.