Essay Questions for The Piano Lesson
Directions: Essay 3: Please choose and write on one of the following topics below. Be
sure to support your answer with specific examples from the play.
Your paper should be at least two pages long with one-inch margins
around the entire page. Please feel free to use more than two pages if
necessary.
Please on a separate cover page, place your name and the question you
are answering. Also answer specifically how the written play differ
from the video. (For example, are scenes or activities in the written
script left out of the video? What character actions occur in the play
that do not occur in the video or vice versa. Do some characters appear in
the written script who do not appear in the video or vice versa. I will
not accept any outdoor scenes as differences.) Remember, I will not
read your paper unless you answer this question to my satisfaction. All
papers must be typed.
Note: (Be sure not to give me a synopsis of the play. Remember, we will all read
and view the video. Be sure to use examples and citations from the play to
support your premise.)
1. Who is the protagonist (main character) in the Piano Lesson?
2. In regards to selling or keeping the piano, who is right – Boy Willie or Berniece?
3. Boy Willie says that he wouldn’t be interested in selling the piano if it were
getting more use; for example, if Berniece were giving lessons on it. Why is
“use” so important to Boy Willie?
4. Why is Lymon going to stay in the city? The play provides several answers.
5. What is the lesson in The Piano Lesson? Who teaches whom?
6. This play is composed largely of stories. There is little onstage action, but much
reportage. Discuss each character in terms of his/her role as storyteller. Then
discuss each story in terms of its role in building The Piano Lesson’s plot.
7. The play’s resolution seems to come when Berniece plays the piano and
vanquishes Sutter’s ghost. What metaphor might be at work here to give the play
its “higher meaning?”
8. Wilson says in the introduction that the house has “a lack of warmth and vigor.”
Does this change by the end of the play?