social and cultural equality. By having Brown’s Christian-influenced attempts to
exorcise Sutter’s ghost fail, Wilson undercuts the value of Western belief systems
in this context. In addition, the kiss Berniece shares with Lyman, who was also
present at her husband’s death, signals a movement toward African cultural
roots. Focusing on Afrocentrist elements, students might explore the ways they
help define African American identity and whether or not such definitions are
effective in combating racism. Elam also discusses African cultural influence in
Wilson’s plays.
4. In the chapter “August Wilson As Teacher: The Piano Lesson” in her The Dra-
matic Vision of August Wilson (1994) Sandra G. Shannon discusses the original
open-ended version of the play’s final scene that director Lloyd Richards found
unsatisfying; the curtain came down as Boy Willie wrestled Sutter’s ghost. For
Wilson, the ending “wasn’t important. The important thing... was Boy Willie’s
willingness to engage the ghost in battle.” Richards, however, argued that audi-
ences needed to find out the fate of the piano, thus prompting Wilson’s revision,
which includes one of the siblings giving up the piano. Using Shannon’s discus-
sion of lessons in the play, students can consider whether or not the ending
provides a resolution to the siblings’ conflict. The end of the play shows Berniece
and Boy Willie working together, but are their respective views about the piano
(and what it stands for) reconciled? How does the ending revise our perspective
on the play’s central theme and conflict?
- In a 1993 interview with Nathan L. Grant (Bryer and Hartig, pp. 172–187),
Wilson pinpoints Berniece as the protagonist or object of the “lesson” indicated
in the play’s title, stating: “the play’s about Berniece, it’s not about Boy Wil-
lie. Berniece is the only character in the play who goes through any changes.”
Despite Berniece’s desire to preserve the piano, she seems reluctant to embrace
black culture and history. Afraid to touch or play the piano, she sees it and the
legacy it symbolizes as a burden not be passed on to future generations. While
the piano serves as homage to the sacrifice of past generations and survival, her
refusal to play it suggests a repugnance of the piano’s association with slavery and
her family’s oppression. Berniece furthermore expresses internalized racism when
she associates blackness with backwardness, warning her daughter Maretha not
to “show... your color.” She later scolds her daughter for fidgeting while comb-
ing her hair: “If you were a boy I wouldn’t be going through this.” Using Wilson’s
comments to Grant as a point of departure, discuss what changes Berniece’s
character goes through and why. How do the actions and words of other char-
acters promote a change in her? Alternately, students can argue against Wilson’s
assessment by showing how other characters change and why.
RESOURCES
Primary Works
Jackson R. Bryer and Mary C. Hartig, eds., Conversations with August Wilson
( Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2006).
A collection of interviews spanning 1984, the year of Wilson’s first major success,
to September 2004, less than a year before he was diagnosed with inoperable liver
cancer.