12-1-10

“When my mama died I shut the top on that piano and I ain’t never opened it since. I was only playing it for her. When my daddy died seem like all her life went into that piano.”
Act Two, Scene 2
Page 70 -Josh is working on this one


In Act Two, Scene two of The Piano Lesson, we learn that Berniece refuses to play on the piano because of her fear of the supernatural and to an extent, the events of the past. In this scene, Avery has come to talk to Berniece about marriage again. We learn that Berniece might think about her relationship with Avery after he gains control of his church. We also learn of the reason why Berniece refuses to play on the piano anymore. “When my mama died I shut the top on that piano and I ain’t never opened it since. I was only playing it for her. When my daddy died seem like all her life went into that piano.”(Wilson 70). Berniece is saying here that she only played the piano for her mother, and she claims that when her father died, her mothers life went into the piano. In a later statement, Berniece claims to see spirits and claims that she does not “want to wake them spirits” (Wilson 70) by playing on the piano. She learned of the spirits from her mother, claiming to have seen “mama talking to them” (Wilson 70). Not playing on the piano is Berniece’s method of avoiding the past, and like her situation with Crawley, she isn’t ready to leave the past behind and move on yet.