Symbolism In The Piano Lesson

August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, tells a story of a family haunted by the pain of their past and their struggle to find peace to move forward. The story begins with character Boy Willie coming up from the south visiting his sister Bernice. Boy Willie introduces the idea of selling the family’s heirloom, a piano, to raise enough money to buy the land on which his ancestors were enslaved. However, both Boy Willie and his sister Berniece own half a half of the piano and she refuses to let Boy Willie sell it. Through the use of symbolism, Wilson uses his characters, the piano and the family’s situation to provide his intended audience with the lesson of exorcising our past in order to move forward in our lives. Our past will always be a

Hans Christian Anderson one said that where words fail, music speaks. Nowhere is this truer than in The Piano Lesson by August Wilson. The Piano Lesson tells the story of family that struggles in the side and what do with a family heirloom that takes the form of an ornately carved upright piano. Bernice wishes to keep the piano but her brother, Boy Willie, wishes to sell the piano for land because according to him Bernice is not doing anything but letting it sit there and rot because no one is playing it. Yet despite what Boy Willie says the piano actually gets quite a bit of use in the play. Along with playing the piano the characters can also be seen singing in the play. The songs the characters sing and perform does a good job of relating the characters thoughts and actions to a more musical medium. From songs such as Maretha's beginners piece on the piano to Wining Boy's more experienced yet melancholic tune the music of The Piano Lesson tells us about the character's pasts and presents.

In any family argument it is often difficult to pick sides, but nonetheless is imperative to relate to the side that you see best fit. Therefore, I would have to state that I tend to choose Bernice’s side in the argument against Boy Willie. My reasoning is simple, I tend to admire my family roots, thus I have a tough time parting with an heirloom such as the piano. I tend to see the side of Berniece because I would want to protect and take care of an object that inhibits so much of my family’s legacy and not to mention died over. I think that Boy Willie is looking to the future by purchasing the land, but I feel it is important to keep an heirloom such as this piano.

Throughout The Piano Lesson, Bernice is constantly getting into arguments with her brother over a piano that holds carvings of her family history. This piano is a very

Playwright August Wilson uses dialogue to further develop characters in The Piano Lesson. Generally, the words used are simple. Double negatives appear many times throughout the play, especially accompanied by the word “ain’t” (Wilson 1503). The characters’ sentence structure does not vary much. Most sentences utilize the uncomplicated pattern of subject, verb, and a short predicate. Helping verbs and other small verbs are often not included, especially in questions. For example, Boy Willie asks Doaker, “Where your bottle?” (Wilson 1502), and later Berniece inquires, “What the sheriff looking for you for, Lymon?” (Wilson 1502). Some verb phrases are also grammatically incorrect. For example, Lymon says, “I done had good whiskey before” (Wilson 1502), and Boy Willie adds, “Lymon bought that so he have him a place to sleep” (Wilson 1502). Other times, the subject of the sentence is left out when it is clear who the verb’s antecedent is. When Boy Willie brings up Wining Boy, Doaker comments, “He come by here about a year ago. Had a whole sack of money. He stayed here about two weeks.

For example when Doaker and Boy Willie are talking Doaker says”You know she won’t touch that piano. I ain’t never known ger to touch it since Mama Ola died. That’s over seven years now. She say it got blood on it….” So this is saying how Berniece thinks that the piano has something on it that she feels has almost a grudge or vengeance on it because to her it has blood. Therefore, the piano has some kind of spirit or prescence that Berniece doesn’t want to deal with and so hasn’t over seven years. However, this rapidly changes because of Boy Willie’s presence and how Bernice has to quickly make up her mind and start to realize what her family has actually done. The piano as I stated before is an embodiment of the past, and the ending scene proves my point when Berniece calls upon her father Papa Boy Charles and Mama Ola to help her get sutter out of the house and keeping the hostile environment that Berneice is living in. With the ghosts of the yellow dog being a sense of presence in the house and it is scary, and Berneice even sees Sutter within the house when Boy Willie arrived. Berniece has the right approach of taking care of the piano, just because it is a piano doesn’t mean that it isn’t important and that is what Boy Willie sees, is a piano that is just a piece of wood

In the middle of Bernice Charles's parlor it sits, unmoved and wooden. How it came to be there is a story which her uncle Doaker tells well. Her father Willie Boy used to work as a slave under the ownership of Mr. Sutter. He was an amazing wood crafter and continued to bring cash in for his "superior". But Willie Boy didn't always belong to Sutter, instead he used to belong to a certain Nolander, whose wife owned the very piano that he was traded to Mr. Sutter for. When Mrs. Nolander wanted to buy him back as her slave, the new owner refused. Instead he allowed Willie Boy to take his talents into their house and carve a picture into the wood of their piano. He was only supposed to carve himself and Mama Bernice, but instead continued to carve pictures of his whole family that he stored in his memory. After the piano was finished Boy Charles, Willie Boy's father, felt that he should take the piano because he would "say it was the story of [their] whole family and as long as Sutter had it…he had [them]"(Wilson 45). On the fourth of July in 1911, it was done. But sadly, Boy Charles was killed, hiding in a box car afterwards. After his death, Bernice's mother broke down and brought in a woman to teach Bernice how to play. She said that when Bernice played she could hear her father talk to her, and so Bernice continued to play, until her mother's death. Now she won't touch the piano, yet refuses to

Both of these occurrences change the meaning of the piano for Billy Jo. Her badly burned hands make it excruciatingly painful for her to play the piano, let alone enjoy it. Before her mother’s death, the piano allowed Billy Jo to forget her sorrows and the sadness that plagued the dust. It symbolised happiness and freedom from the chains that trapped her in the barren wasteland she resides in. However, after her mother’s death, the piano symbolised the sadness and guilt she feels from her mother’s death.

The play starts off with Boy Willie and his friend Lymon heading towards north to Pittsburgh. Their intentions are to sell a truck load of watermelons, and most of all to convince Berniece into selling the piano. Boy Willie knows very well that Berniece will not give up the piano, but resumes with his journey to sell the piano. The piano in this play is the heart of the play. It is the main cause for the tension between Boy Willie and Berniece. The piano has brought upon many grieves to the Charles family, and has caused many lives. The piano is a symbol for every life that it has taken. And for those lives, Berniece resists in letting go of the piano. Even though, it is the most important matter in the family. To Berniece, the piano is also a prize possession because of their ancestors, but most of all she refuses to sell it because their mother polished it everyday after their father died. Berniece accuses Boy Willie of not considering what their mother has done. But even after all that their family has gone through to finally claim the piano, Boy Willie wants to sell it anyway. The piano is the only family value that both siblings can hold on to and pass on to next generations. Boy Willie feels

Boy Willie, however, wants to release the past and sell the family piano so he can have a new start in life and forget the painful past. "The Piano Lesson" is both unique to the plight of African-Americans and universal in its depiction of the human condition (Gale, 2000, p249). The sibling rivalry, past history versus present time and future, storytelling and gender relationships all cross both unique and universal boundaries. To illustrate, even in today's society there are sibling rivalry that pit brother against sister, brother against brother or sister against sister together to the point of bitter battle. In addition, there are still people in today's society that have difficulties in resolving painful past experiences with the present and future. In regards to gender relationships, there are still a lot of mysteries in the realm of love between two people. Bernice is the African-American way, staying true to her roots and not parting with the heritage. Although she finds this painful, she will not part with her heritage. Her heritage is “tangible in the presence of the piano itself” (Sparknotes, 2014). Therefore, even though the theme of this play surrounds itself around African-Americans, the situation can easily be applied to all races and time periods.

She looked just like that. And he put a picture of my daddy when he wasn't nothing but a little boy the way he remembered him." (44) The piano is a symbol of the family because it is literally covered with this history. Doaker states that Boy Charles "say it was the story of our whole family and as long as Sutter had it . . . he had us" (45) Under normal circumstances, a piano would not be something valuable enough to risk your life in order to steal. However, it is clear that Boy Charles viewed it as an important family heirloom, a symbol of their family history. By stealing the piano, he hopes to end the control that Sutter has over them.

He certainly identifies the piano with Ada. He strokes it and dusts it while naked, he tries to pry into its secrets like a lover. Ada even snaps the lid shut on his fingers when they stray into its recesses. It becomes the bargaining tool in their growing love affair and when she sends him her love note it is written on a piano key. At the end, the piano is considered a coffin and Ada throws it overboard of the Maori canoe, to get rid of her past. To start a new life.

As an adult, Jing-mei’s mother offers her the piano once more, and Jing-mei accepts the gift. Appreciating the encouragement and faith her mother bestows upon her Jing-mei decides to care for the piano. The piano piece

In The Piano Lesson each central character learns a lesson. August Wilson uses plenty of symbolism throughout his play, the strongest symbol being the piano itself, representing the family's history, their long struggle, and their burden of their race. Throughout the play, the conflict revolves around the piano, and Berniece and Boy Willie's contrasting views about its significance and about what should be done with it. Berniece is ashamed and cannot let go of the past, or the piano, and Boy Willie wants to move his life forward, and use the piano to do so. Wilson portrays the 'lesson' of the piano as accepting and respecting one's past and moving on with one's life gracefully, through Berniece and Boy Willies contrasting actions and the

     The poem Piano, by D. H. Lawrence describes his memories of childhood. Hearing a woman singing takes him to the time when his mother played piano on Sunday evenings. In the present, this woman is singing and playing the piano with great passion. However, the passionate music is not affecting him, because he can only think about his childhood rather than the beauty of the music that exists in his actual space.