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Play Review: The Piano Lesson By August Wilson

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Kailee Fisher Linda Stutz English 1301 16 April 2024 The play The Piano Lesson is a drama written by August Wilson where two friends, Boy Willie and Lymon, travel to Bernice’s house in Pittsburgh. Willie’s sister, Bernice, lost her husband, Crawley, three years ago and now raises their eleven-year-old daughter, Maretha, in her house in Pittsburgh where her Uncle Doaker lives with her. Boy Willie and Lymon travel to Pittsburgh to see Boy Willie's family. Bernice and Boy Willie have constant conflict throughout the play until Boy Willie comes to an important realization about the family's past and just how important it is. Boy Willie and Berniece are constantly fighting over a piano that has been in their family for many years. Boy, Willie wants …show more content…

When Berniece expresses her feelings about her husband's death, it shows that this may be a large contributing factor to Berniece’s constant problem with Boy Willie. He is insulted by this comment as any person would be, but Boy Willie’s persistence in selling the piano does not stop. Boy Willie continues to grab a rope and try to strap up the piano in an attempt to make it easier to move out of the house. “Come on Lymon, get up on this side, throw that rope over there and tie it onto the leg.” Boy Willie shouts (81) Boy Willie has Lymon try to help him move the piano, but Boy Willie is still unsuccessful in getting the piano anywhere. Toward the end of the novel, Berniece’s friend, Avery, comes to the home to cast out the ghost of James Sutter. Avery is a priest of the priesthood. Boy, Willie does not think it is necessary to spill holy water and shout out to James Sutter’s ghost, but Berniece does. Boy Willie begins to walk about the house, spilling water and screaming at Sutter’s ghost to leave. Boy Willie slips on the water and sees Sutter’s ghost at the top of the stairs. The windows fly open and it seems as though the house is filled with wind blowing in every

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have a great relationship with Boy Willie. Once Lymon notices the piano and tells Boy Willie, this is where the drama begins. Boy Willie tells Lymon that he wants to sell the piano because he thinks it is worth a lot of money. Doaker already knows that Berniece will not let him sell the piano because of the significance it has within the family. Another reason Berniece does not want to sell the piano is because her daughter, Maretha, is learning how to play it.

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In this play, Wilson illustrates the current generation that is struggling to hold on to their ancestry. He exposes the audience to two such characters named Berneice and her brother Boy Willie, who tell the history of the piano. When he saw the painting of Romare Bearden, he was influenced by it to make this play. “The Piano Lesson is a painting of a little girl at the piano with her piano teacher standing over her and in my mind, I saw Maretha and Berniece” (NY Times). The piano is carved with the faces of their ancestors in slavery, the piano represents a valuable piece of history that the family fights over. In Bearden’s collage he shows a figure playing the piano with a woman that is standing above her trying to teach her how to play.

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The Piano Lesson was one of these plays. Set in Pittsburgh, Massachusetts, it was about a small family of African Americans. The story centers around Boy Willie Charles, and his friend, Lymon Jackson. Boy Willie, who lives in the South, drove up North to Pittsburgh with Lymon, so as to make enough money to be able to buy his own plot of land. To do that, however, he needs to sell a family heirloom which his sister is not willing to let go of.

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August Wilson’s play, The Piano Lesson, expresses the idea that African-Americans must embrace where they've come from before they will truly be able to move forward with their life. In relation to this the piano in the play represents the Charles families years of slavery to the Sutter family, as well as a symbolic representation of the strength and resiliency of the family. Music serves the function of representing the past, present, and the future, through the family piano. The music in “The Piano Lesson” serves as a solution to the characters’ problems and an escape from their hardships. The characters were able to reconcile their pasts through the illustration of music.

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“Papa Boy Charles brought that piano into the house. Now I’m supposed to uild on what they left me”(Wilson 51).If Boy Willie purchases the land he will be able to do more and help his family because he will prosper if he sell it instead of having it sit in Berniece’s house. Boy Willie wants to avoid an argument with Berniece so he decides to take the piano while she is at work. “Come on,let’s get it loaded before Berniece come

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Both came up against external conflicts. Although there were multiple conflicts on the rise; nothing could stop their attempt to own and keep land. Sophie external conflicts were the white auctioneers, who was looking to buy land in Nicodemus, and Frank, who aimed to manipulate the family out of their land. One of Boy Willie’s external conflicts was brought on by the protagonist Bernice, and the other was the ghost of Mr. Sutter. All the external conflicts listed were carried in to disrupt the security of the families, and the suggested ideas of boy Willie and Sophie.

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He goes around with a pot full of water taunting Sutter's ghost and eventually ends up fighting him. At the end of the epic battle Sutter’s spirit is released from the house and Boy Willie has had a change of mind and leaves the

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Papa Boy Charles / I want you to help me / Mama Ola / I want you to help me” (Wilson 107). Berniece realizes while playing the piano that she will not be able to banish Sutter’s ghost on her own, so she calls upon help. She cannot be entirely sure that the ghosts are real at this point, so she can only hope

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The history of what the piano and her family makes it hard for her to have any contact with the piano. Berniece also mentions that she does not want to play it because she might wake the spirits of her ancestors that had passed. We can conclude that, that is the reason she says " Avery.. I done told you I don’t want to play that piano, now or no other time"(page 71). But that changed till one day the family experienced the presence of Sutter, and in order to remove it Berniece was brave enough to play the piano and call out her ancestors to help them remove the

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