Who can claim the Charles family history? Who wants to? Berniece feels that she inherited the right to the piano and part and parcel of inheriting her mother's piano. Can it be property if no one - not the Charles family as a whole, not Berniece and Boy Willie, not Sutter - can make a complete claim to its ownership? Ownershipĭeeply entwined with the previous theme, the concept of ownership also brings into play questions of non-material ownership, vis a vis history and sorrow. The piano defies property-ness, becoming embued with spirits and a life of its own. Boy Willie seeks to own property of his own, believing property to be the key to success. What is property? What can be owned? The Charles family was once property. The concept of property is woven densely through The Piano Lesson. The piano is appropriated for the music of the Charles family and their community, and as such music is made just as much of a cultural battleground as the piano itself. But the only white music ever played on this piano is a few bars plucked out by the beginner Maretha - and she is quickly stopped by Boy Willie and his boogie woogie. The instrument of the title, which holds a prominent place on stage for the length of the play, is a white instrument, part of the western musical tradition. Music is of course a very vibrant presence in a play named after an instrument. The implication is that Berniece's femininity, vis a vis her romantic life, is impeded by the legacy she was left as the only adult female in the family. This connects to the clearly gender-coded way in which history and sorrow are presented, as inextricably tied to the matrilineal heritage of the Charles family. We are made to wonder if being alone is really how Berniece belongs, or if she is hiding from herself, just as she hides from the piano. But Wilson complicates this question by analogizing Berniece's refusal to take a man to her refusal to play the piano. Is she still a woman if she doesn't have a man? Berniece argues yes, certainly, and any modern audience wants to agree. Femininityīerniece's femininity is a disputed ground in the play. The irony is that Boy Willie wishes to sell the elder Boy Willie's statement in order to make his own. Boy Willie's great grandfather also felt the powerful urge to leave a mark, and he did it by carving "we were here" into the wood of the piano. Boy Willie expresses this most explicitly in his speech about his need to do something that will last in the world, to make a mark on a tree that says "Boy Willie was here." This hearkens back to the piano itself. Of significant importance to some of the Charles family's men is the idea of leaving a mark on the world.
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