The Piano Lesson is a play by August Wilson that tells the story of the Charles family and their struggle to come to terms with their past and make choices about their future. At the center of this struggle are the two main characters, Boy Willie and Berniece.
Boy Willie is a young man in his early thirties who has recently inherited a truckload of watermelons. He is determined to sell the watermelons and use the money to buy the family's ancestral piano, which is currently in the possession of his sister, Berniece. Boy Willie is a strong-willed and independent character who is not afraid to stand up for what he believes in. He is also somewhat impulsive and hot-headed, as seen when he gets into a physical altercation with his cousin, Lymon, over a minor disagreement.
Berniece is Boy Willie's older sister and the current owner of the piano. She is a deeply religious and spiritual woman who is deeply connected to the history of her family and the piano. Berniece is resistant to the idea of selling the piano and is willing to do whatever it takes to keep it in the family. She is also fiercely protective of her daughter, Maretha, and is determined to keep her away from the dangers and hardships that she herself faced as a young woman.
Other important characters in the play include Wining Boy, the Charles family's uncle, who is a talented pianist and a source of wisdom and guidance for the younger members of the family. There is also Doaker, Boy Willie and Berniece's uncle, who serves as the family's unofficial historian and helps to provide context and background information about the piano and its history. Finally, there is Lymon, Boy Willie's cousin, who is a smooth-talking salesman with a knack for getting into trouble.
Overall, The Piano Lesson is a powerful and poignant exploration of the complex relationships between family, history, and identity. The characters of Boy Willie and Berniece are at the heart of this struggle, and their choices and actions drive the action of the play forward and ultimately determine the course of their family's future.
The Piano Lesson (TV Movie 1995)
At the heart of his play stands the ornately carved upright piano which, as the Charles family's prized, hard-won possession, has been gathering dust in the parlor of Berniece Charles's Pittsburgh home. The ghost of Sutter is both a literal manifestation and a symbol of the past that both Berniece and Boy Willie, in their different ways, are trying to ignore. . They both are rebels against society for different reasons. In the Piano Lesson, Wilson has produced powerful, lasting characters, including Berniece and Boy Willie. Due to the fact that I couldn't connect to any of the characters it remained easier for me to stay on neutral grounds. This dilemma is the real "piano lesson," reminding us that blacks are often deprived both of the symbols of their past and of opportunity in the present.
Doaker Charles Character Analysis in The Piano Lesson
The Dramatic Vision of August Wilson, Washington, D. My brother is really interested in chemistry, and doesn't like to read; so when he recommends something, I check it out. In his second Pulitzer Prize-winner, The Piano Lesson , Wilson has fashioned his most haunting and dramatic work yet. Obsessed with women, he will also appear prominently in his seduction of Berniece, where he helps bring her out of her mourning for her dead husband. A winner of both the Pulitzer Prize for drama and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, The Piano Lesson focuses on a family at a crossroads, as they grapple whether to move forward with the American dream or to return to During the 1930s, African Americans began the great migration north as they sought to fulfill the American dream.
The Piano Lesson by August Wilson
The ghost of Agamemnom in Aeschylus's Oresteia is perhaps one of the earliest examples, but the most foundational today is certainly the ghost in Hamlet. Sometimes, you need to break out and write a new history. He more than anyone in the cast has settled into his role in the white man's world, and enjoys his steady job as an elevator operator while saving money to start his true calling as a preacher. She doesn't know much about her family's history, but she is interested when Boy Willie starts to tell her. The introductions were interesting, and the story progressed at a solid pace as the tension slowly increased. I will say though, the one dimensional feel that was given to Avery's character he's the love interest of one of the main characters felt very robotic when he was simply quoting full passages from the bible just so that he could uphold his role as a "preacher. .
