Berniece Character Analysis in The Piano Lesson

Berniece, one of the protagonists, is Doaker’s niece and lives with him in Pittsburgh, having moved there from Mississippi a few years ago. She is 35 years old and has an 11-year-old daughter, Maretha. A widow, Berniece has been in mourning for her late husband, Crawley, for three years. Berniece cleans house for a steel mill bigshot in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood. Berniece is a strong-willed woman, portrayed as levelheaded, serious, and single-mindedly focused on providing for Maretha and herself. However, she can be fiery and emotional when the moment calls for it: for example, she resolutely refuses to sell the family piano when her brother, Boy Willie, asks. Though she refuses to play the piano herself or to teach Maretha its history because of the sorrowful memories it evokes, she senses that it occupies an important place in the family’s identity and won’t part with it. Berniece has been dating Avery Brown for a couple of years, though it’s suggested that her independent streak and self-sufficiency will complicate matters between the two of them. At the end of the play, Berniece finally plays the piano in order to expel Sutter’s ghost, allowing herself to be positively connected to the spirits of her parents and ancestors for the first time in many years.

Berniece Quotes in The Piano Lesson

The The Piano Lesson quotes below are all either spoken by Berniece or refer to Berniece. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Racism and Self-determination Theme Icon

BOY WILLIE: Lymon bought that truck so he have him a place to sleep. He down there wasn’t doing no work or nothing. Sheriff looking for him. He bought that truck to keep away from the sheriff. Got Stovall looking for him too. He down there sleeping in that truck ducking and dodging both of them. I told him come on let’s go up and see my sister.

Related Characters: Boy Willie (speaker), Berniece, Lymon Jackson, Jim Stovall

Related Symbols: Truck

Page Number and Citation: 6

Explanation and Analysis:

BOY WILLIE: Sutter’s brother selling the land. He say he gonna sell it to me. That’s why I come up here. I got one part of it. Sell them watermelons and get me another part. Get Berniece to sell that piano and I’ll have the third part.

DOAKER: Berniece ain’t gonna sell that piano.

BOY WILLIE: I’m gonna talk to her. When she see I got a chance to get Sutter’s land she’ll come around.

DOAKER: You can put that thought out your mind. Berniece ain’t gonna sell that piano.

Related Characters: Boy Willie (speaker), Doaker Charles (speaker), Berniece, Sutter (Sutter’s Ghost), Mama Berniece, Papa Boy Charles, Robert Sutter, Ophelia Sutter

Related Symbols: Piano

Page Number and Citation: 9

Explanation and Analysis:

DOAKER: You know she won’t touch that piano. I ain’t never known her to touch it since Mama Ola died. That’s over seven years now. She say it got blood on it. She got Maretha playing on it though. Say Maretha can go on and do everything she can’t do. Got her in an extra school down at the Irene Kaufman Settlement House. She want Maretha to grow up and be a schoolteacher. Say she good enough she can teach on the piano.

Related Characters: Doaker Charles (speaker), Berniece, Boy Willie, Maretha, Mama Ola

Related Symbols: Piano

Page Number and Citation: 10

Explanation and Analysis:

That’s why I come up here. Sell them watermelons. Get Berniece to sell that piano. Put them two parts with the part I done saved. Walk in there. Tip my hat. Lay my money down on the table. Get my deed and walk on out. This time I get to keep all the cotton. Hire me some men to work it for me. Gin my cotton. Get my seed. And I’ll see you again next year. Might even plant some tobacco or some oats.

Related Characters: Boy Willie (speaker), Berniece, Doaker Charles, Sutter (Sutter’s Ghost)

Related Symbols: Piano

Page Number and Citation: 11

Explanation and Analysis:

WINING BOY: A lot of things you got to find out on your own. I can’t say how they talked to nobody else. But to me it just filled me up in a strange sort of way to be standing there on that spot. I didn’t want to leave. […] I walked away from there feeling like a king. Went on and had a stroke of luck that run on for three years. So I don’t care if Berniece believe or not. Berniece ain’t got to believe. I know cause I been there. Now Doaker’ll tell you about the Ghosts of the Yellow Dog.

Related Characters: Wining Boy (speaker), Berniece, Doaker Charles

Page Number and Citation: 35

Explanation and Analysis:

Boy Charles used to talk about that piano all the time. He never could get it off his mind. […] He be talking about taking it out of Sutter’s house. Say it was the story of our whole family and as long as Sutter had it…he had us. Say we was still in slavery. Me and Wining Boy tried to talk him out of it but it wouldn’t do any good. Soon as he quiet down about it he’d start up again. We seen where he wasn’t gonna get it off his mind…so, on the Fourth of July, 1911…when Sutter was at the picnic what the county give every year…me and Wining Boy went on down there with him and took that piano out of Sutter’s house.

Related Characters: Doaker Charles (speaker), Berniece, Boy Willie, Wining Boy, Sutter (Sutter’s Ghost), Boy Charles

Related Symbols: Piano

Page Number and Citation: 45

Explanation and Analysis:

Mama Ola polished this piano with her tears for seventeen years. For seventeen years she rubbed on it till her hands bled. Then she rubbed the blood in…mixed it up with the rest of the blood on it. Every day that God breathed life into her body she rubbed and cleaned and polished and prayed over it. “Play something for me, Berniece. Play something for me, Berniece.” […] You always talking about your daddy but you ain’t never stopped to look at what his foolishness cost your mama. Seventeen years’ worth of cold nights and an empty bed. For what?

Related Characters: Berniece (speaker), Boy Willie, Mama Ola, Boy Charles

Related Symbols: Piano

Page Number and Citation: 52

Explanation and Analysis:

BERNIECE: You trying to tell me a woman can’t be nothing without a man. But you alright, huh? You can just walk out of here without me—without a woman—and still be a man. That’s alright. Ain’t nobody gonna ask you, “Avery, who you got to love you?’’ That’s alright for you. But everybody gonna be worried about Berniece.

Related Characters: Berniece (speaker), Avery Brown, Maretha

Page Number and Citation: 67

Explanation and Analysis:

I was only playing it for her. When my daddy died seem like all her life went into that piano. She used to have me playing on it […] say when I played it she could hear my daddy talking to her. I used to think them pictures came alive and walked through the house. Sometime late at night I could hear my mama talking to them. I said that wasn’t gonna happen to me. I don’t play that piano cause I don’t want to wake them spirits. They never be walking around in this house.

Related Characters: Berniece (speaker), Avery Brown, Maretha, Mama Ola, Boy Charles

Related Symbols: Piano

Page Number and Citation: 70

Explanation and Analysis:

AVERY: You got to put all of that behind you, Berniece. That’s the same thing like Crawley. Everybody got stones in their passway. You got to step over them or walk around them. You picking them up and carrying them with you. All you got to do is set them down by the side of the road. You ain’t got to carry them with you. You can walk over there right now and play that piano. You can walk over there right now and God will walk over there with you. […] You can walk over here right now and make it into a celebration.

Related Characters: Avery Brown (speaker), Berniece, Boy Willie, Maretha, Crawley

Related Symbols: Piano

Page Number and Citation: 71

Explanation and Analysis:

That’s when I discovered the power of death. […] [The white man] can’t hold that power over you. That’s what I learned when I killed that cat. I got the power of death too. I can command him. I can call him up. The white man don’t like to see that. He don’t like for you to stand up and look him square in the eye and say, “I got it too.’’ Then he got to deal with you square up.

Related Characters: Boy Willie (speaker), Berniece

Page Number and Citation: 88

Explanation and Analysis:

You ought to mark down on the calendar the day that Papa Boy Charles brought that piano into the house. You ought to mark that day down and draw a circle around it . . . and every year when it come up throw a party. Have a celebration. If you did that she wouldn’t have no problem in life. She could walk around here with her head held high. […] You got her going out here thinking she wrong in the world. Like there ain’t no part of it belong to her.

Related Characters: Boy Willie (speaker), Berniece, Maretha

Related Symbols: Piano

Page Number and Citation: 91

Explanation and Analysis:

AVERY: Berniece, I can’t do it.

(There are more sounds heard from upstairs. DOAKER and WINING BOY stare at one another in stunned disbelief. It is in this moment, from somewhere old, that BERNIECE realizes what she must do. She crosses to the piano. She begins to play. The song is found piece by piece. It is an old urge to song that is both a commandment and a plea. With each repetition it gains in strength. It is intended as an exorcism and a dressing for battle[.])

Related Characters: Avery Brown (speaker), Berniece, Boy Willie, Doaker Charles, Wining Boy, Sutter (Sutter’s Ghost)

Related Symbols: Piano

Page Number and Citation: 106

Explanation and Analysis:

Berniece Character Timeline in The Piano Lesson

The timeline below shows where the character Berniece appears in The Piano Lesson. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...place in the kitchen and parlor of Doaker Charles’s house. Doaker lives with his niece Berniece and Berniece’s 11-year-old daughter, Maretha. An old upright piano sits in the parlor; on the... (full context)

...the vague feeling of a gathering storm. Offstage, Boy Willie is calling for Doaker and Berniece as he knocks at the door. Doaker, who at 47 is tall, thin, and severe-looking,... (full context)

...has broken down three times since they left Mississippi. Boy Willie calls for his sister Berniece, whom he hasn’t seen in three years. (full context)

Spirituality and the Supernatural Theme Icon

Berniece enters. She’s 35 and still in mourning for her late husband, Crawley, who died three... (full context)

Berniece looks outside at the truck filled with watermelons. She’s skeptical about how Boy Willie and... (full context)

...Boy, Doaker’s brother. Wining Boy’s wife Cleotha died awhile back. Wining Boy visited Doaker and Berniece a year ago and didn’t offer to help pay for food. Wining Boy used to... (full context)

...already; he’ll get another part by selling the truckload of watermelons. If he can get Berniece to agree to sell the piano, he’ll have the remainder. Doaker warns Boy Willie that... (full context)

Doaker continues that Berniece hasn’t played the piano since Mama Ola died seven years ago. Berniece claims the piano... (full context)

...he’s come to Pittsburgh with a truck full of watermelons and a determination to sell Berniece’s piano. (full context)

Love, Relationships, and Independence Theme Icon

Doaker maintains that Berniece will be hard to convince. He tells Boy Willie that Avery Brown followed Berniece to... (full context)

Just then, the men hear Berniece shouting from upstairs. As Berniece enters the room, breathless, Boy Willie runs upstairs to see... (full context)

...Sutter died; he thinks the “Ghosts of the Yellow Dog” got Sutter. Lymon agrees. But Berniece tells the two men to leave her house—they only bring trouble. She even blames Boy... (full context)

After Berniece goes upstairs to wake up Maretha and Doaker exits, Lymon suggests that Boy Willie stay... (full context)

...she doesn’t know anything about the pictures carved on the piano, Boy Willie is surprised. Berniece calls for Maretha before Boy Willie can press the issue. (full context)

Berniece comes in with Maretha and greets Avery. Before she and Avery take Maretha to the... (full context)

Doaker also tells Wining Boy about Berniece’s lingering grief over her husband, Crawley, who died three years ago. He thinks Berniece needs... (full context)

...Dog. Boy Willie says the Ghosts have gotten around a dozen men so far, though Berniece claims that she doesn’t believe in them. Wining Boy says that even white people in... (full context)

...on to have three years of good luck. So it doesn’t matter to him if Berniece believes in the Ghosts—he was there, and he knows for himself. (full context)

After they admire Berniece’s piano, Doaker starts telling Lymon the story behind Berniece’s refusal to give it up. It... (full context)

After some time had passed, Ophelia began to miss Mama Berniece’s and Papa Boy Charles’s company and labor. When it proved impossible to trade the piano... (full context)

Doaker’s and Wining Boy’s brother, Boy Charles (the oldest of the three brothers and Berniece’s and Boy Willie’s father), talked about the Sutter piano all his life. He always said... (full context)

...of the Ghosts of the Yellow Dog got started. And this, Doaker concludes, is why Berniece won’t sell the piano. (full context)

Wining Boy sits down at the piano and begins playing and singing. Berniece and Maretha enter, and Berniece greets Wining Boy briefly before going upstairs. After she’s gone,... (full context)

Berniece turns to making Wining Boy’s dinner, but Boy Willie keeps talking. He argues that the... (full context)

Berniece stands by the piano and tells Boy Willie to look at it. She says that... (full context)

When Boy Willie denies that he’s ever killed anybody, Berniece says that he killed Crawley just as surely as if he’d pulled the trigger. Boy... (full context)

...have pawned; he says that the shop owner wouldn’t offer him enough money for it. Berniece is still at work, and Boy Willie and Lymon are out selling watermelons. Maretha is... (full context)

Doaker says that he thinks Berniece is wrong about Boy Willie pushing Sutter in the well. Rather, he thinks that Sutter... (full context)

Berniece has set up a tub in the kitchen and is heating water for her bath... (full context)

Avery asks Berniece who is loving her, and Berniece retorts that Avery is telling her that a woman... (full context)

Berniece tells Avery they can talk about this again once he’s gotten his church established. Right... (full context)

Avery suggests that Berniece could start a church choir. If Boy Willie saw that Berniece was using the piano... (full context)

Berniece says that Maretha doesn’t know anything about the piano’s history. Berniece doesn’t want to burden... (full context)

Hours later, after Berniece has gone to bed, Boy Willie sneaks into the darkened house with a woman named... (full context)

While Berniece is making tea in the kitchen, Lymon knocks. He says he’d been with a woman,... (full context)

Berniece says that Lymon shouldn’t have too much trouble finding a job—it’s all in how you... (full context)

...a little more, and after an awkward pause, Lymon dabs a bit of perfume behind Berniece’s ear (he’d just bought the bottle off a man on the street) and kisses her.... (full context)

...Doaker comes in and orders them, with quiet authority, to leave the piano alone until Berniece comes home. Boy Willie relents and heads out with Lymon in search of a rope,... (full context)

Berniece gets home and sends Maretha upstairs. Since Maretha’s still scared of Sutter’s Ghost, Boy Willie... (full context)

Berniece ignores Boy Willie and starts doing Maretha’s hair. When Berniece scolds Maretha for resisting the... (full context)

...a landowner, so that he can stand on equal footing with the white man. If Berniece keeps teaching Maretha that she doesn’t have anything, she’ll grow up resenting Berniece. He believes... (full context)

...and chats with Doaker about his growing congregation. He says that he’s ready to bless Berniece’s house. Boy Willie mocks the idea, saying that the haunting is all in Berniece’s imagination.... (full context)

...senses the presence of Sutter’s ghost. Grace leaves, uneasy, and Lymon runs out after her. Berniece tells Avery to go ahead and bless the house, but Doaker interjects that the piano... (full context)

...Boy Willie is thrown down the stairs, but he runs back up. Avery admits to Berniece that he’s powerless to expel Sutter’s ghost. After a few stunned moments, Berniece abruptly realizes... (full context)

Berniece begins to chant, “Thank you. Thank you.” Calm descends over the house. Maretha comes back... (full context)