Doaker Charles Character Analysis in The Piano Lesson

Doaker lives in the first-floor apartment of a Pittsburgh house he shares with his niece Berniece and her daughter Maretha. Doaker is 47 years old and has worked for the railroad for 27 years. He is currently employed as a cook. He is tall and thin, with severe features, looking as if he has “for all intents and purposes retired from the world.” Doaker is fairly quiet and restrained in his opinions, but when he speaks his mind, he speaks clearly and with conviction. He’s also inclined to occasional reveries about his history with the railroad. With his brothers Wining Boy and Boy Charles, Doaker once helped remove the piano from the Sutter house, and he accurately perceives that Sutter’s ghost has to do with the piano’s past. Doaker was once married to a woman named Coreen, though she’s out of his life now. A caring uncle, Doaker generally stays out of Berniece’s efforts to raise Maretha, but he backs her up firmly when she’s challenged.

Doaker Charles Quotes in The Piano Lesson

The The Piano Lesson quotes below are all either spoken by Doaker Charles or refer to Doaker Charles. 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: 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:

They got so many trains out there they have a hard time keeping them from running into each other. Got trains going every whichaway. Got people on all of them. Somebody going where somebody just left. If everybody stay in one place I believe this would be a better world. Now what I done learned after twenty-seven years of railroading is this…if the train stays on the track…it’s going to get where it’s going. It might not be where you going. If it ain’t, then all you got to do is sit and wait cause the train’s coming back to get you. The train don’t never stop. It’ll come back every time.

Related Characters: Doaker Charles (speaker), Boy Willie, Lymon Jackson

Page Number and Citation: 19

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:

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:

Doaker Charles Character Timeline in The Piano Lesson

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

The play takes 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... (full context)

...household, there’s 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,... (full context)

Doaker is surprised that Boy Willie and Lymon have traveled all the way from Mississippi. Boy... (full context)

Spirituality and the Supernatural Theme Icon

...so noisily at five o’clock in the morning. Boy Willie ignores her scolding and tells Doaker to get him and Lymon a drink—they’re celebrating. Sutter drowned in his well, he explains—everyone... (full context)

...about how Boy Willie and Lymon came to own the truck. As the men drink Doaker’s good whiskey, Boy Willie explains that Lymon bought the truck in order to dodge the... (full context)

Boy Willie and Doaker then discuss Wining Boy, Doaker’s brother. Wining Boy’s wife Cleotha died awhile back. Wining Boy... (full context)

Doaker changes the subject, asking after Lymon’s family, who still live in Mississippi. Lymon explains that... (full context)

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

Love, Relationships, and Independence Theme Icon

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

...standing at the top of the stairs. Boy Willie says that she’s imagining this, but Doaker says that Berniece wouldn’t make up such a thing and encourages her to tell them... (full context)

After Berniece goes upstairs to wake up Maretha and Doaker exits, Lymon suggests that Boy Willie stay in Pittsburgh with him. Boy Willie refuses, though—he... (full context)

Boy Willie changes the subject, teasing Doaker about all the girlfriends he’s rumored to have in Mississippi (he travels there every month... (full context)

The younger men are distracted from Doaker’s monologue by the breakfast he is cooking. Then Maretha enters, and Boy Willie coaxes the... (full context)

Just then Avery Brown knocks on the door, and Doaker lets him in. Avery is 38, “honest and ambitious,” well-dressed, and carrying a Bible. He... (full context)

...days later, Wining Boy, 56 years old, is sitting at the kitchen table, drinking, while Doaker washes dishes. Wining Boy used to be a professional musician and still tries to project... (full context)

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

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

Doaker’s and Wining Boy’s brother, Boy Charles (the oldest of the three brothers and Berniece’s and... (full context)

Doaker doesn’t know exactly what happened after Sutter got home. Soon after, Boy Charles’s house was... (full context)

...gets Lymon to help him attempt to move the piano. While this is going on, Doaker hears Sutter’s ghost. The ghost is heard again as they’re sliding the piano back in... (full context)

...brother, repeating, “He ain’t here, is he?” Boy Willie doesn’t try to defend himself, and Doaker pulls her back. Suddenly they’re interrupted by a terrified scream from upstairs—it’s Maretha calling, “Mama!” (full context)

The next day, Doaker is ironing his railroad uniform and cooking something on the stove, singing a song as... (full context)

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

As Lymon and Boy Willie continue to wrestle with the piano, Doaker comes in and orders them, with quiet authority, to leave the piano alone until Berniece... (full context)

...Willie is attaching wheels to a wooden plank. Maretha is sitting by the piano and Doaker sits at the table. Boy Willie tells Maretha the story of the Ghosts of the... (full context)

...upstairs. Since Maretha’s still scared of Sutter’s Ghost, Boy Willie goes with her. Berniece asks Doaker what’s been going on, and he explains that Boy Willie and Lymon are getting ready... (full context)

Avery arrives then with his Bible and chats with Doaker about his growing congregation. He says that he’s ready to bless Berniece’s house. Boy Willie... (full context)

...runs out after her. Berniece tells Avery to go ahead and bless the house, but Doaker interjects that the piano is what needs to be blessed. Avery hands Berniece a candle... (full context)