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Introduction
August Wilson, an American playwright, wrote a play The Piano Lesson and was premiered on 26 November 1987. It was played first in Yale Repertory Theatre before it debuted in Broadway in 1990. The play received well-praised and positive perception among its audience.
Perhaps one of the contributing factors that made this piece entertaining is the characterization of the characters in it. Carrie Dorsey of Virginia Community College System (2003) described them as “colorful characters”, in which it has “festering family conflict” (Dorsey, 2003).
The accuracy or the realism of the characters within certain regards is fairly important of why this play became very much effective as contributing element of the splendor of the piece. To discern this is through discussing a little review of the story and discussion of each character for some key element needed.
The play’s primary theme is inheritance and legacy. The material inheritance is the piano that had been to the family of Berniece and Boy Willie for generations. Each has different aim with the inherited piano.
Boy Willie Charles
First part of the play opened where Boy Willie has a plan to sell the old piano. His real dream was to have a farm and he will only be able to buy one if he sold the piano. He was fixed in selling the piano despite its heritage value just to own the piece of land he is tending with, to be free from the fragment of enslavement and be an independent farmer (Ardentheater, 2008).
Among the characters in the play within the Charles family, he was the one who remained in the South. He attended the land that the ancestors enslaved for in generation. In parallel to his faithfulness in the farm where the family worked is his interest to dispatch the piano that also been with the Charles’s for generation for his personal motive.
Berniece, Boy Willie’s sister, on the other hand strongly opposed Boy Willie’s plan and wanted to restore and carry on the legacy. Thus this brings conflict between him and Berniece, the tension build up and revolved with this.
Boy Willie’s argument regarding the old piano is about practicality. He is pointing to Berniece that she’s not even playing the piano, and that it should be used for more beneficial pronouncement.
Analyst said that this argument of Boy Willie is a “good example of pragmatic approach in life”, it is regarded to be realistic in the given situation especially in those depressing period (Answers.Com 2006).
However, it doesn’t mean that Boy Willie is right as his justification obviously lies on the selfish motivation he has since. He failed to see that he is about to get rid a family’s only and real heritage to acquire something that had been a superficial and subliminal piece attached in their ancestry.
Berniece Charles
Berniece Charles is Boy Willie’s sister whom she he had been clashing with regarding the Charles’s old piano. Her attachment to the old piano is also regarded as something truthful within the given circumstances.
She had been long away from the South; she suddenly has strong emotional attachment with the tender memories of their family through the legacy upon her return at their Uncle Doaker house with her daughter.
She had been ambivalent with her interest to the old piano. On the other hand, she is very protective of it. For her this legacy is the only thing to restore the memories she has with her family.
Her complexity, which made her character very realistic, is about her attitude toward the piano. It was recalled that when she was young she used to play the piano, but when the sad happenings occurred in the family she stopped playing even upon her return.
What added to this is her interest for her daughter to learn and play the piano. This could signify that she still values and respect individual preference evident with her relationship to her daughter.
In the latter part, out of her concern to protect the old piano she threatens with a gun Boy Willie and Lymon when they are about to get the piano forcibly. Her reaction is brought by intense emotion which human beings are capable to have in as reaction of a certain circumstance (Answer.Com, 2006).
A subliminal concern of the story aside from the old piano is the future of Biernice’s daughter, Maretha. One of the concerns of Boy Willie in selling the old piano is to have Maretha to get schooled formally.
To the analyst, its Maretha who play the important role in the story as the future of the family will be on her trail. It will depend on whose decision will prevail to Maretha, whether the legacy of the family will be restored with her as what her mother preferred to, or it will be erased with the “change” that her Uncle Boy Willie wanted to happen for the future of the Charles’s.
Works Cited
- “The Piano Lesson (Characters)”. Reference Library: The Piano Lesson Characters. Answer.Com. 2006. Web.
- “Supplementary Study Guide for The Piano Lesson”. Ardentheatre.Org (PDF). 2008.
- Dorsey, Carrie. Drama in Developmental Classroom: August Wilson’s A Piano Lesson as Text. Inquiry. 2003. Virginia Community Classroom System
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