August Wilsons: The Piano Lesson

The basic theme of the play is universal for both blacks and whites on how the past can burden the present. However, Wilson puts an interesting twist on this theme by giving his audience a perspective in African traditions and mystical beliefs. The characters in the play have lost touch with their African lineage and neglected their ancestors, which is the underlying cause of the play’s conflict.

The piano is the center of conflict. Boy Willie wants to sell it and Berniece refuses to because her father died retrieving it from the Sutter’s home. The piano is engraved with carvings of the Charles family history. We can compare the piano to an orita meta. Translated in English, orita meta means “sacred altar” and was considered by ancient African tribes as a crossroad between the living and the dead. In

Although Berniece understands the importance of her roots more then any of the other characters, she chooses to neglect her ancestry until the final scene in the play. She refuses to play the piano in order to forget her tragic past. However, the lost connection to her ancestors causes the loss of their protection, and allows Sutter’s ghost to haunt them. The Reverend Avery tries a Christian exorcism, which only seems to make the ghost stronger. Boy Willie attempts to physically fight Sutter’s ghost, but ends up at the bottom of a staircase. It is only until Berniece brings herself to sit down and play the piano that Sutter’s ghost is exorcised. She begins to play on the piano while chanting “I want you to help me, I want you to help me, I want you to help me Mama Berniece, I want you to help me Mama Esther, I want you to help me Mama Ola…” (Wilson 107). The calling of the ancestors for help intensifies the play’s African heritage by excluding Christianity as a solution.

In her article, The History Lesson: Authenticity and Anachronism in August Wilson’s Plays,

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