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¶ … Piano Lesson, by August Wilson, who one a Pulitzer Prize for the work in 1990. Specifically, it will address the form, protagonist, and analyze a character in the play.
THE PIANO LESSON She is a woman living in the past because she mourns her dead husband Crawley, her dead parents, and her heritage. She seems to think she has little to contribute to the family, except for her love of what has already happened. Berniece says to Lymon, "I just stay at home most of the time. Take care of Maretha" (Wilson 79).
The Piano Lesson," written by August Wilson is a climatic play with the climax coming when Berniece finally sits down to play the piano, something she has not done for many years. She conjures up the spirits of her dead ancestors to help her save the piano, and let go of her own personal turmoil. "I want you to help me Mama Esther... I want you to help me Papa Boy Charles... I want you to help me Mama Ola" (Wilson 107). She calls forth the ghost that Willie Boy literally wrestles at the end of the play, leading up to their ultimate reconciliation. Boy Willie gives up the piano because he finally realizes the importance it plays in the family. "Hey, Berniece... If you and Maretha don't keep playing on that piano... ain't. no telling... me and Sutter both liable to be back" (Wilson 108).
Berniece is one of the most pivotal characters of the play, second only to Boy Willie in terms of importance. She appears in almost all the scenes, and is the only thing in the way of Boy Willie and his
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Berniece played the piano as a child for her mother, and has not touched the piano since. She also served as the priestess who channeled the family's ghosts. Her music enabled her mother to speak with her dead father and helped animate the carved figures her grandfather carved on the piano. As she continues to live in the past, people begin to get disgusted with her and her lifestyle, including Avery, her boyfriend.
What is you ready for, Berniece? You just gonna drift along from day-to-day. Life is more than making it from one day to another. You gonna look up…
This is certainly suggested in Boy Willie's ruthless and callous demeanor with respect to an heirloom for which his father gave his life. Doaker reports at one point that "he say he gonna cut it in half and go on and sell his half. They been around here three days trying to sell them watermelons. They trying to get out to where the white folks live but the truck
But the piano is also inlaid with carvings made by her father's own hands. Bernice's ambivalence is also exemplified in the fact that Bernice refuses to sell the piano, yet she also refuses to play the instrument, for fear of waking the spirits within it. "I don't play that piano 'cause I don't want to wake them spirits" (70). Bernice's brother Willie scoffs "ain't no ghost," which demonstrates his often
Piano Lesson In August Wilson's play The Piano Lesson, Berniece is the protagonist or the heroine and main character, who represents the traditions and heritage of the family going back to the times of slavery and even to Africa itself. Willie on the other hand is the antagonist, a violent and angry man, a thief and a murderer who takes revenge on the Sutter family but now intends to use the
Prompt 2: The Piano Lesson and the Blues The blues is described as a uniquely African American musical tradition, combining folk music, traditional work songs once sun by slaves, jazz, and other musical traditions to describe both personal suffering and to create an oral history of all individuals who have sung it. In August Wilson’s 1986 play The Piano Lesson, an heirloom piano comes to embody the blues tradition for its
At the same time Bernice doesn't tell her daughter the history of the heirloom, in fear of waking the spirit. This means that even Bernice is not using her legacy positively, but is afraid of it. Both characters are able to embrace their history with pride by the end of the play, as Boy Willie comes to understand the Piano's significance and Bernice begins to play it again (Sparknotes.com) 3.
Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers is a tale involving five main characters that struggle against the isolation and despair brought on by circumstances in their lives. The story takes place during the late 1930's in an unnamed deep Southern town. McCullers begins the story by introducing the deaf-mute John Singer; he used to live with his friend Spiros Antonapoulos who was also a deaf-mute. Singer doted