Diksha Sundriyal
In Netflix’s ‘The Piano Lesson,’ two siblings get into a fight with each other over selling a family piano. Boy Willie Charles believes that selling the piano could bring them the money to make investments to elevate their future. However, his elder sister, Berniece, believes that the piano is a family heirloom and a lot of blood and sweat has gone into it for it to be sold so easily. She believes that the piano should remain in the family out of respect for their ancestors and their past. Over the course of the two-hour film, more insights are given into the background of Boy Willie and Berniece’s family, the origins of the piano, and how it landed in Berniece’s care. The stories of the past allow them to understand the connection to the piano, and eventually, this is what helps them agree upon a decision about the instrument. SPOILERS AHEAD
What Happens to Sutter’s Ghost? Why Does Berniece Play the Piano?
When Boy Willie comes from Mississippi to his sister’s house in Pittsburgh, he comes with watermelons and a piece of news. The watermelons are for selling, through which Boy Willie can make enough money to cover a part of the payment required to purchase a piece of land. The news is about the owner of the land, who happens to belong to the same family that once enslaved their ancestors. He reveals that James Sutter has died after falling into a well, which is quite similar to the way several other deaths have happened over the years. He names the Ghost of the Yellow Dog as the culprit, but Berniece believes that he may have had something to do with it, even though he repeatedly and vehemently denies it.
It is one thing to hear about Sutter’s death and another entirely to have his ghost roam around the house. Shortly after Boy Willie’s arrival, Berniece sees Sutter’s ghost. While she is rattled, Boy Willie does not believe in the story. Later, his niece, Maretha, also sees the ghost, and in a different conversation, their uncle, Doaker, reveals that he had seen Sutter’s ghost a few days after his death, even before Boy Willie came home and shared the news with them. Doaker believes that the piano may be the reason behind Sutter’s ghost haunting them. Later, Boy Willie uses the same logic to try and convince his sister to sell the piano, but she refuses to change her mind.
Eventually, Boy Willie gets tired of trying to make his sister see the logic of his argument. He claims that the piano is his just as much as it is hers. He asks Lymon to move it with him, but when they do, the lights start to flicker, and the ghost makes its presence known. When Boy Willie refuses to stop, Berniece gets her gun, which is when the ghost takes over the scene. A scared Berniece asks Avery to bless the house and make the spirit leave. Doaker points out that the piano is the root of all troubles, and it is the one that must be blessed and exorcised. Avery tries his best to get rid of the spirit, but his effort fails and things get even worse when Boy Willie decides to take on the ghost himself.
By this point, there is no doubt in anyone’s mind about the presence of the ghost. Sutter has Boy Willie in a chokehold and is ready to kill him, but Avery’s blessings don’t work their magic. When he gives up, Berniece realizes exactly what she needs to do. All these years, she had refrained from playing the piano because she knew that it was connected to the spirits of her dead family members. When she was a child, her mother used to make her play the piano as it allowed her to talk to her dead husband. Berniece felt the spirits of other dead members of the Charles family roaming around the house at night, and she even heard her mother talking to them.
When her mother died, Berniece decided not to disturb the spirits anymore. She wanted to move on, especially for her daughter, whom she wanted to protect from all the violence and bloodshed their family had seen. While allowing Maretha to play the piano, she never told her the story of its inception and the meaning of the carvings on its structure. Berniece had hoped to leave the past in the past, but with Sutter’s ghost terrorizing them, she realizes that the only people who can help her in this situation are her ancestors. So, after years of ignoring her connection with the ancestors, she decides to reignite it by playing the piano and calling out to them for help. Sure enough, they show up, save Boy Willie, and throw out Sutter’s ghost, which turns to ashes under their touch.
Why Does Boy Willie Agree Not to Sell the Piano?
The playing of the piano re-establishes the connection with the ancestors that Berniece and Boy Willie, in their own ways, had been neglecting for so long. While she acknowledged that the piano was a medium to connect to them, she didn’t want to keep that connection alive by playing the piano because she was scared of what it would do to her. She had seen her mother grieve over their father and then lose herself in that grief. When she died, Berniece promised herself that she would never allow herself to come apart like that. When her husband, Crawley, died, she shut herself up emotionally. This was another reaction to how she’d seen her mother act following her father’s passing. Her mother had become obsessed with the piano, which she cleaned and cleaned until her own blood was mixed with the polish of the piano. She sent her grief outward, but Berniece kept it inside and built the walls that prevented her from opening up to others.
Boy Willie, on the other hand, saw the piano as the only thing left behind by his father that he could use to build upon their legacy. He had no interest in what the piano represented for their family. He simply saw it as a means to make the money that would allow him to have his own land, which is what his father told him was the most important thing to have. Boy Charles had given his life to get that piano, and his son believed that had he lived, he would have sold the thing to get the money to help his family. For Berniece, her father’s death made the piano even more important. She couldn’t simply sell something her father had been so invested in that he ended up giving his life for it.
Even with their opposing views about the importance and the sale of the piano, both siblings refuse to allow the connection it offers with their ancestors. In the end, however, Berniece learns her lesson and plays the piano. She had been scared of the spirits all these years because she thought they would prevent her from moving into the future. But then, she realizes that the spirits of her ancestors are not an impediment but a support system. Without a connection to her past, she cannot step into the future. This is why she plays the piano and calls upon them for help. Almost killed by Sutter’s ghost, Boy Willie is saved when his ancestors return the call for help. This is when he realizes the true measure of the connection that the piano forges between them.
Before this, he had considered the talk of ghosts and spirits as an impossible thing. The things passed down through his family were seen as a means of gaining capital. For him, land was the only thing that was meant to be left behind. Even when he knew the story behind the piano, it didn’t make him sentimental about the instrument. It isn’t until he sees it with his own eyes that he understands the true importance of the piano and Berniece’s determination to keep it. Ultimately, even he has to agree that selling it would be a gross disrespect to their ancestors as it would sever the connection that binds them. So, he gives up on selling it and even tells Berniece that should she and Maretha stop playing the piano, he and Sutter are liable to come back and create chaos.
Does Boy Willie Buy the Land?
At the beginning of the film, the land was to Boy Willie what the piano was to Berniece. While she saw her family history and connection to the ancestors in the carvings and the music of the instrument, Boy Willie saw the connection to his father in the land that he’d set his eyes upon. He had seen his father toil away at someone else’s land his entire life and get nothing out of it. His father had told him that having his own land and building his own thing was the best thing he could do for his family. This is why Boy Willie’s heart is set on getting the last piece of land of the Sutter family, which is on sale since James Sutter is dead. To Boy Willie, buying Sutter’s land feels like reclaiming things for his family, like avenging his ancestors who the Sutters had wronged. It was a way to fulfill his father’s dream of owning his land, and it would become more meaningful as this is the land where his father and his ancestors had spent their lives working but never called it their own.
Boy Willie had devised a plan to get the money to buy the land. He came to Pittsburgh to make money by two means. The first was to sell the watermelons, and the second was to sell the piano. In the end, he realizes the importance of the piano and decides to back away from selling it. However, that leaves him short of the money required to buy the Sutter land. In the end, we see him back in Mississippi on the land that he was supposed to buy. But when he drives away, the “on sale” sign is still there, which shows that Boy Willie wasn’t able to buy it after all. In fact, the sign means that the land is now open to other buyers, as Boy Willie revealed that the seller had decided to keep it from other buyers to allow Boy Willie the window to buy it. But when he doesn’t come back with the money, the seller has to open it to the market.
Read More: The Piano Lesson: Is The Netflix Movie Based on a True Story?
