The Piano Lesson Essay

Berniece Charles, a protagonist in the play The Piano Lesson, is greatly affected by the history of her piano within her family’s history. She refuses to let her brother, Boy Willie, sell the piano because she feels their family history should be preserved in it, yet she actively tries to leave her family’s past behind her. Berniece fears the piano, and doesn’t want to end up like her mother, who begged Berniece to play for her every day and talked to the piano, believing it to be her husband’s ghost. In August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, the character Berniece is affected by the history of the piano that is connected with her family, which reveals the importance of embracing and remembering your origins. Berniece Charles is a hard-working,

She refuses to tell her daughter about the piano’s history, and therefore her family’s history. Berniece says “She don’t have to carry all of that with her. She got a chance I didn’t have. I ain’t gonna burden her with that piano,” (1242). She feels that the piano’s history within her family is a burden that Maretha shouldn’t have to bear, as she doesn’t want her to have to deal with the traumatic emotions and experiences that she did as a girl. When Boy Willie comes to visit and plans on selling the piano, Berniece vetoes his idea because of her memories of her mother, Mama Ola and what the piano meant to her.
“When my daddy died seem like all her life went into that piano. She used to have me playing on it…say when I played it she could hear my daddy talking to her. I used to think them pictures came alive and walked through the house. Sometime late at night I could hear my mama talking to them. I said that wasn’t gonna happen to me. I don’t play that piano cause I don’t want to wake them spirits. They never be walking around this house,” (1242).
Berniece points out to Boy Willie that while their father was the one who lost his life over the piano, their mother was the one who suffered the most in the end. Berniece feels that it is important to honor the Charles’ family history through the piano, but doesn’t want to burden her daughter with its gravity or become emotionally dependent on it like

Berniece realizes this through the events of the last scene of the play. Boy Willie, after attempting to remove the piano from the house with Lymon, instigates the ghost of Sutter into attacking him. After Avery’s exorcism fails, and Berniece sees that Boy Willie is in grave danger, she realizes what she must do. At this moment, she embraces and remembers her origins by calling upon her ancestors, including her mother, father, and great-grandparents, to help her and drive away Sutter’s ghost. Berniece realizes that she is who she us because of her origins, and that that isn’t necessarily. She has made a life for herself and her daughter to the best of her ability, and doesn’t let the grief of her father’s death affect her as drastically as it did her mother. Once she realizes she doesn’t need to fear becoming like her mother, Berniece accepts and utilizes her ancestors and origins to aid her in the present, without letting the past consume her. This event ultimately leads Berniece to realize she should embrace and accept her history and origins, as they have made her who she is today and can aid her in the