Quotes From The Piano Lesson

In this play, The Piano Lesson, by August Wilson, readers can see Berniece struggle to accept the piano’s prime significance and traumatic past which it represents. In Berniece’s case, she ultimately struggles to accept what the piano represents, her family's ties to it and the stories behind the piano itself, it’s in her home, but she can barely look at it and has not touched it since her mother has passed. Her daughter plays it, but does not know the piano’s significance to her family, with their ancestral past. Bernice does not want to let the piano go but, she doesn’t fully embrace it either, which causes her to not fully move on with her life. Berniece still has not fully forgiven Boy Willie, or gotten over the fact that Crawley is gone,

Bernice struggles to fully see what is represents, her family’s past and her ancestry. The piano’s significance is fundamental because it has a connection to her ancestry. When Berniece moved to the north, she brought the piano with her, “He didn’t want me to bring it up here-- but I wasn’t gonna leave it down there.” Ordinarily, she was going to bring the piano with her because it had a connection to the piano, through her family ties. She used to play the piano for her mother when she was younger, and she was good at it too, whenever her mother wanted she would just tell Berniece to play something for her and she would “..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.” When she talks about her playing for her mom, she mentions that late at night her mom would be conversing with these “pictures” or “spirits,” which is another reason why she doesn’t want to play the piano, in far that she will ‘awaken’ them. Berniece disliked the fact that her mom devoted so much time of her life to a piano, and with both of her parents gone, t makes it harder for her to move on

You ain’t even told her about that piano, like that’s something to be ashamed of.” Her mother doesn’t tell her about the story behind the piano because she doesn’t want Maretha worrying about all of these problems going on between them already. She doesn’t tell Maretha anything about the history of the piano, which does upset Boy Willie because she has to know the story just as everyone else does. Even though Maretha doesn’t know the story, her mom doesn’t want to tell her and scare her even more than what she already does, “Maretha scared to sleep up there now. Maybe if you bless the house he’ll go away,” she was scared because she had seen Sutter’s ghost, maybe her mom was only trying to protect her from a stronger force. Bernice wanted better for her daughter, which is a reason to which why she moved up to the north and set herself a better life, for both of