ENGL 2581: Women Writers

Dr. Sigler

The Piano (1993)

"One day when my mother and father were singing together in the forest, a great storm blew up out of nowhere. But so passionate was their singing that they did not notice, nor did they stop as the rain began to fall, and when their voices rose for the final bars of the duet a great bolt of lighting came out of the sky and struck my father so that he lit up like a torch. And at the same moment my father was struck dead, my mother was struck dumb! She never spoke another word." (Flora, The Piano)

Writer and Director: Jane Campion

Cinematography: Stuart Dryburgh

Editing: Veronika Jenet

Music: Michael Nyman

Cast: Holly Hunter (Ada); Harvey Keitel (Baines); Sam Neill (Stewart); Anna Paquin (Flora); Kerry Walker (Aunt Morag); Geneviève Lemon (Nessie); Tungia Baker (Hira); Ian Mune (Reverend); Peter Dennett (Head Seaman); Te Whatanui Skipwith (Chief Nihe).


DISCUSSION QUESTIONS ABOUT CHARACTER AND PLOT

  1. Ada seems to be practicing a form of what some call "elective mutism"—a refusal, not an inability, to speak: "I have not spoken since I was six years old.  No one knows why, not even me."  Clearly, this is an unusual narrative situation, in that the "narrator" remains mute through (nearly) the entire film. How does Ada's muteness reflect her identity and character?  Why is she silent? What does her silence cost, and what does it (help) achieve?
  2. What is the basis of Ada's relationship to her piano?  Why is the piano so important in her life throughout most of the film? What are some of the functions and/or effects of music in the film: of Michael Nyman's score, of Holly Hunter's playing, and of Ada's self-expression?
  3. What is the basis of Ada's relationship to Stewart?  What attitudes toward men, women, and men and women's relationships are revealed in their "marriage"?
  4. In one scene, Ada and Flora discuss Flora's father, whom Ada never married.  She tells Flora that "He became frightened and stopped listening."  How is this statement central to Ada's relationships with Stewart and Baines?
  5. "Reader, I married him....":  Some critics have interpreted the ending of The Piano as representing Ada's choice to live.  Yet, the ending might also remind us of the very limited choices Ada really has. Why does Ada almost commit suicide near the end of the film?  What causes her to choose not to die?  What is the purpose of the final scenes in The Piano (the scenes in Nelson, after Ada's near-drowning)?  What do you think Ada means by her final statements about death and silence?
  6. The character of Stewart is a vexing one, with many reviewers praising Sam Neill's ability to render him as something more than a two-dimensional creep (and an overly-obvious symbol of simple-minded colonialism). How would you characterize Stewart? A man undone by his inability to be with a strong wife? A jealous would-be rapist and sadistic batterer? A confused, betrayed businessman and cuckold?
  7. The first time Stewart sees Ada he makes three judgments about her: first, he thinks she is deaf (he speaks loudly asking her if she can hear him); second, he thinks she is "so small," and third, he confides to Baines that "she looks stunted."  What do these judgments suggest about his character?
  8. Evaluate Stewart's decision to board up the "outside" of the house (locking Ada in) and then his decision to remove the boards.  What does his behavior reveal about his character and relationship to Ada?
  9. Explain how Stewart's violence directed toward Ada is a logical outcome of his previous attitudes and behavior.  Why does Stewart allow Ada to leave with Baines?
  10. How would you characterize the early stages of Baines' and Ada's relationship?  What does each of the characters want in the early stages of their relationship? Why does Baines return the piano to Ada?
  11. Some critics were very uncomfortable with the scenes where Baines "bargains" with Ada for the piano, and with the scene later where Stewart spies on them.  What was your reaction? How should we feel about Baines, and his "bargain" with Ada?  What is the role of voyeurism in the film?  Who are the voyeurs?  Who are the objects of their gaze?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS ABOUT SYMBOL AND THEME

  1. What is the function of the central symbol of the piano in The Piano as it is abandoned, sold, deconstructed, reconstructed, touched, played?Early in the film, one of the Maori women refers to Ada as an angel. Later in the film, at the pageant, Flora and other girls wear angels' wings.  Later, Flora is shown running around still wearing her pair of wings.  Near the end of the film, Flora's wings are shown being swished in a clear stream, presumably by Ada.  Why this emphasis on angels?What attitudes toward other cultures (esp. the Victorian world vs. the Maoris) are revealed in the film?  Consider the parallels between Stewart's relationship with Ada and his relationship to the Maoris.In what ways does the film employ and comment upon themes (e.g. of gender, colonialism, individual identity) from the Victorian writings we've read by Prince, Jacobs and Stowe, or the novel Beloved, which is set in the nineteenth century? Given that The Piano is a "period piece," set in nineteenth-century New Zealand and obviously concerned with that setting's attendant issues of colonialism and civilization, what is the relevance of the film to contemporary issues of feminism, equality, and sexuality? What can we learn about ourselves, today, from these "nineteenth-century" characters?
  2. Many feminist critics have lauded The Piano as a successful feminist film. The fact that Ada does not speak, has no voice, is, of course, a central concern of feminist criticism, for too many women have too long been kept silent—no less so in this medium than in any other. And The Piano seems, at least on the surface, a feminist work that provides viewers with a strong-willed female at its center. At the same time, here we see, in a disturbing but crucial scene, a gruesome mutilation, and in another, an unwilling female victim eventually exploding into passionate response to a coercive man. Some feminist critics have thus argued that this looks suspiciously like a typical "master" narrative, that the film reinforces the patriarchal fantasy that what a woman wants is sexual brutality from a primitive man. What do you think? Is this a feminist film? Why or why not? What does The Piano suggest to us about misogyny, coercion, mutilation, expression, domination?