The Piano Lesson: Monologues and Character Analysis

Monica Johnson and Nethanya Cortez

Professor Lennon

ENG 1B

6 October 2010

The Piano Lesson: Monologues and Character Analysis

The play The Piano Lesson by August Wilson is on an African American family who leaves the rural South to escape racism, discrimination, terrorism, and exploitation in search for new opportunities in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during the African American Great Migration. As the family tries to look forward and move towards the future, they find themselves not able to look back and accept the painful past of their family history and the brutality of slavery. This is the history that leaves them with the search for identity and unity. Our focus is to reveal Doaker, Boy Willie, and Avery’s values, traits strengths, flaws, ambitions, and attitudes on their obstacles in the monologues in act one, scene one.  

A monologue is a form of dramatic entertainment in which a single performer speaks alone and uninterrupted. In act one, scene one of The Piano Lesson, there are three monologues that reveal the archetype characters of Doaker, Boy Willie, and Avery. An archetype is the original model or type after which other similar things are patterned after.

The first monologue starts on page ten with Boy Willie as the speaker. Boy Willie could be considered the archetype for the bad nigger for the inability to be controlled. In this monologue, he is speaking to his uncle Doaker and a family friend named Lymon and tells them about Sutter’s land and what he plans to do with it.  The monologue reveals more than Boy Willie’s ambitions and values of land ownership and financial independence; it also shows that he is intelligent, selfish, and confident. For example, he tells Doaker and Lymon, that he got a hundred acres of good land. “That’s why I come up here. Sell them watermelons. Get Berniece to sell that piano… Lay my money down on the table. Get my deed and walk on out.” (10-11) Here we quickly learn Boy Willie has a plan on how to get rich quick by getting money, buying land, and making more money off his new land. We also learn that he values Sutter’s land, financial independence, and freedom when he states in his monologue “This time I get to keep the cotton. Hire me some men to work it for me. Get my seed. And I’ll see you again next year.” (11) At this point Boy Willie expresses his desire to leave poverty behind him to progress in his life. In the examination of Boy Willie’s character traits, we see how confident he is when he explains to Doaker and Lymon how Sutter’s land is being sold, and how he has the opportunity to buy it. He demonstrates his intelligence when he tells them that Sutter is discriminating him by asking for more money for the land than he asked Jim Stovall who is the other potential buyer. Boy Willie masks his reaction realizing that if he does bring up the price difference, he may cause conflict and go to jail, thus putting a stop to his goal of land ownership and financial independence.

Boy Willie exudes strength in fact that he is enterprising, industrious, and bold in wanting to own land and be his own boss. The major character flaw of Boy Willie is that he is selfish. He does not ask anyone if he can sell the piano; he simply states that he will without the consideration of others. The lessons of slavery are priceless. Rather than taking in the sentimental and historical value of the family piano, Boy Willie emphasizes his focus on the monetary value. He makes the assumption and impression that he will have his way. His own dreams of owning land and making money by being his own boss cloud his sight of seeing other’s argument on selling the piano. Boy Willie has a headstrong attitude about his potential hurdles blocking him from the achievement of his goals. He displays a powerful character of getting what he wants no matter what the circumstances are. Whether the obstacles include family, racism, or terrorism, they are not going to stop him from selling the piano and getting Sutter’s land. This is his way to put a stop to his exploitation and reach his key to freedom from oppression through land ownership.

In the second monologue that appears on page eighteen with Doaker, as the archetype for Railroad Bill as the speaker. The Railroad Bill archetype is essentially a Black man who works for a rail line company. Doaker speaks to Boy Willie and Lymon about what he has seen and learned from watching people while working at the railroad for twenty-seven years. Throughout act one scene one, Doaker, a cautious and steady character, establishes his neutrality on the conflict of the piano. He sees both sides of the argument from Berniece and Boy Willie, but does not get involved. This demonstrates his values of balance, simplicity, and family. He also expresses his values by living with his niece Berniece and her eleven-year-old daughter Maretha.

In examination of Doaker’s values and traits we examine the fact that Doaker likes balance and is steady as he mentions in his monologue “If the train stays on the track it’s going to get where it’s going.” (19) Even through this simple statement, Doaker displays his strength of steadiness and reliability. He enjoys knowing that he is on right track, therefore keeping his life simple and balanced. However, Doaker’s flaw is his own strength of balance. He is content with his current way of living and does not want to change anything in his life. Doaker has accepted a certain form of survival involving masking, identity and belonging, perhaps succumbing to his own circumstance in life. Doaker’s attitude about his obstacles is another example of his simple and balanced philosophy on life. Though he is retired from the world from moving places, and experiencing new things, he has been working the same job working for the train system for twenty-seven years and again, does not want to change anything. It is a system of what he knows and what works for him making him a very cautious yet steady character.

  Finally, the third monologue to appear begins on page number twenty-four with Avery, the archetype Black preacher, as the speaker. “The Black Preacher is a powerful and influential figure in the Black community.” (Lennon. Legendary Cultural Heroes) In Avery’s monologue he tells Doaker, Boy Willie, and Lymon about his dream that motivated him to become a preacher. The monologues tell us that Avery accepts, believes, and is dedicated to the message received in his dream from the Lord Jesus Christ. Avery values acceptance and achievement; he wants to be accepted as Bernice’s husband since he has been asking for her hand in marriage for over two years, and he wants achievement in getting the loan from the bank to start his congregation.

Avery holds the traits of someone who is ambitious and of a leader. Avery’s ambition is evident in wanting to start his own church. For example, he describes his calling to be a servant of God to Doaker, Boy Willie, and Lymon when he mentions in his monologue “Well, it come to me in a dream… It took me a while before I could accept that.” (24-25) Avery’s strength is his own determination to start his own church. He knew moving to Pittsburgh would offer him more opportunities than the rural south ever could. This was his key to freedom from oppression. The character flaw of Avery is being overambitious in his persistence to marry Berniece that might push her away instead of bringing her in. His attitude on his potential obstacles blocking him from marrying Berniece and having his own congregation are very subtle. He has faith in the Lord and hopes that everything turns out as planned.

  Boy Willie and Avery share a few similarities when compared. They both have an aspiration to lead; they are ambitious and are motivated in getting what they want. Most importantly, both men are trying to find a way out of the oppression that they live in. Boy Willie wants to sell the piano to own land and gain financial independence, while Avery wants a bank loan to start his own church and bring in more money from the people. If both are successful, their achievements will bring in even more money for them. As for obstacles, Berniece stands in the way of both Boy Willie and Avery.

Initially Avery tried to persuade Berniece into selling the piano to help him start his church but realized he could not win and stopped. In contrast however, Boy Willie acknowledged Berniece’s argument, ignored it, and demanded his portion of the profit to help him buy land. Boy Willie’s passion for land ownership comes from self gratification and promotion as opposed to Avery’s goals that come from self promotion and gratification from fulfilling the Lord’s work. Boy Willie is motivated to fulfill his goal by his own oppression of poverty and from the rise in opportunity, while Avery was motivated from his dream. In order to be successful, Boy Willie only needs to convince his sister Berniece to sell the family piano, but Avery’s needs to persuade Berniece to marry him, the bank to give him the loan, and people to join his church. Another major difference is what they will be doing once they have reached their goal. Boy Willie would hire men to work his land in sharecropping which is similar to a growing cycle of debt. Avery on the other hand will be helping people find Salvation through Christ.

Avery’s ambition is on another scale as he tells people of his dreams filled with Christian Biblical allusions. His dreams are very revealing as to who he is. In his dream he encounters three hobos with three candles who are in direct representation of the Three Wise Men in the Christian Bible. The three candles the hobos held symbolize the light of God, and since there were three, they represented the Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He is later led into a room filled with people with sheep heads signifying Christ, the people, and the church. The three hobos clothed him in a blue robe with gold thread. The robe represents righteousness and salvation, and the blue represents heaven, faithfulness, and truth while the gold represents riches of the earth. The voice Avery hears speaking to him and the other men is the voice of God representing His word of truth, love, and wisdom. When God tells them to look beyond the valley filled with wolves and asks to take the sheep across to the other end of the valley, Avery responds “Here I am. Send me.” (25) Here the valley symbolizes the humble people God loves and is considered a place of blessing, while in contrast the wolves embody disguised disbelievers and enemies of God who cause trouble and hunt in darkness. Avery’s mission overall was to guide people to accept and find Salvation in Christ.

When it comes down to who is more honest of the two, Boy Willie appears to be more truthful. His character from the very beginning is straightforward. Though he may be described as crude in speech and manner, he speaks his mind. He lets everyone know he wants to sell the piano and that he wants to buy Sutter’s land with it. If anyone, like Berniece, wants to defend or protect something, it is no secret when it is spoken from Boy Willie. With Avery however, there is an element of secrecy. He may say he wants to be a preacher and his motivation came from his dream, but what sets suspicion is his motive in marry Berniece. It is only known that he has been after her hand in marriage for two years, but he does not give any hints of affection towards Berniece. This is the reason why Boy Willie appears to be more honest than Avery for his straightforwardness and focus on self rather than the “salvation” of others. Boy Willie is powerful because he is not afraid, and he does not play himself down in any manner for Bernice or the whites in the South. Instead he makes an attempt to be just as strong as the White man who controlled his people.