What does Boy Willie want to do with the piano?
The play focuses on the arguments between a brother and a sister who have different ideas on what to do with the piano. The brother, Boy Willie, is a sharecropper who wants to sell the piano to buy the land (Sutter’s land) where his ancestors toiled as slaves.
What is the significance of maretha taking piano lessons?
Maretha. Berniece’s eleven-year-old daughter. Maretha is beginning to learn piano. She symbolizes the next generation of the Charles’ family, providing the occasion for a number of confrontations on what the family should do with its legacy.
What does Berniece suspect that Boy Willie has done?
When Boy Willie tells them that Sutter, the man whose family used to own the Charles family during Slavery, has fallen into a well and drowned, Berniece suspects Boy Willie of having murdered him.
Why does Boy Willie give up trying to sell the piano?
He wants to buy land in Mississippi where his family was once enslaved. Berniece refuses to sell the piano, because it represents the family’s past. Boy Willie thinks the piano is valuable only because it can be sold to secure his future. Berniece uses the piano to exorcise the ghost and save her brother.
Who is the ghost of the Yellow Dog?
The incident ended in Boy Charles being burned to death in a boxcar while trying to escape, and he and those who died with him were dubbed the “Ghosts of the Yellow Dog.” From then on, the accidental deaths of slave- owners were attributed to these “Ghosts.” Doaker brought the piano with him when he moved North with …
What does the piano symbolize in The Piano Lesson?
The Charles family’s piano, which resides in Berniece’s house, symbolizes the family’s history and identity—both their past sorrows and their hopes for the future.
How did Sutter die in The Piano Lesson?
Willie asks his uncle for a celebratory drink: the Ghosts of the Yellow Dog have drowned Sutter in his own well. Willie intends to sell the family piano and use the money to buy Sutter’s land, the land his ancestors once worked as slaves.
How did Crawley Bernice’s husband die?
Lymon and Willie escaped, Crawley died from a shooting.
How old is Bernice in The Piano Lesson?
35 years old
When was the piano lesson first produced on stage?
December 1987
What happens at the end of the piano lesson?
The play reaches its climax when Boy Willie and Lymon attempt to roll the piano out of the house. In the end, Boy Willie heads back down to Mississippi without selling the piano. Before leaving, though, he reminds his sister to keep playing on the piano, or he and Sutter many just be back.
What city is the play The Piano Lesson located in?
Pittsburgh
Who wrote the piano lesson?
August Wilson
Who is the protagonist in The Piano Lesson?
For most of the play, Boy Willie acts as the protagonist. We say so because he drives the actions of the play. It’s his stubborn insistence that piano be sold that causes all of the play’s conflict. However, at the end of the play his sister Berniece kind of steals the show.
Who is cleotha in The Piano Lesson?
Cleotha, who died recently at 46, was Wining Boy’s ex-wife. At the time of Cleotha’s death in Kansas City, Wining Boy was living elsewhere and hadn’t known she was sick. They first met when Cleotha was 16.
What year was The Piano Lesson published?
1987
What genre is The Piano Lesson?
Drama
What is the setting of the piano lesson?
Who carved the piano in the piano lesson?
So, Sutter ordered Willie Boy, Berniece and Boy Willie’s great grandfather, to carve pictures of them into the piano. Willie Boy did as he was asked, but went even further. He carved the faces of his wife and child, who were traded for the piano, but he also carved the whole history of his family.