THE PIANO 1993 by Jane Campion Outline Thesis

THE PIANO 1993 by Jane Campion

• • • Outline Thesis –Movie Background Post-colonial Influences – Movie Plot -- Themes – –Oppression of Women and Aborigines and their Resistance/Survival Character Analysis -- Women’s Process of Individuation • Colonizer (1): Stewart money-oriented, possessive • Mother-Daughter symbiosis • Baines as a Translator: marginalized, trading at first, but recognizing her values • Flora vs. Ada – Flora’s gradual isolation and then socialization (e. g. - Angel’s wings) Symbols –Piano as her means of self-expression piano key as a gift Ada’s inner voice/will power can be heard by Stewart her throwing out the piano music with metal sounds (a new identity? ) Indigenous people (race and racism) Conclusion Works Cited

Thesis The Piano is a narrative that critiques European patriarchy and societal norms during the 19 th century through the presentation of different character relationships. It shows that rebellion against deeply embedded social structures is possible and necessary in order for the oppressed to grasp voice, speak and be heard.

Movie Background • Time: mid-19 century • Location: New Zealand frontier • Colony background: 1840 Treaty of Waitangi New Zealand became a colony of Great Britain, and there were increasing numbers of European settlers to New Zealand, particularly from the British Isles. In The Piano, Stewart and Baines are colonizers from Europe.

Post-colonialist Influences • European men buying land very cheaply • Marriage as just an economic/ contractual arrangement (Ada as a commodity) • Stewart (and Baines) as a symbol of repression and the European colonizer • Maoris- cheated/ stripped of ancestral lands; Baines using their language to manipulate/ bargain with them for the land (ironic) • Interactions of gender and race--> discrimination and bad treatment

Plot

Themes • Patriarchal oppression of women and Maoris • Construction of sexuality in 19 th century colonial New Zealand within the power structures of the times • E. g. skirt and laces • E. g. women’s piano playing • The Story of Blue Beard (Blue Beard vs. Stewart) • Silence (Ada's silence and Maori's ‘other’ language) • Ada’s Self-Preservation and Domestication • Voice (Ada: Mind's voice vs piano • Music (before and after) • Her marriage and learning of language • the transformation of mother-daughter relationship

Character Analysis-Ada • • • ego/ self-concerned (looks and kisses her reflection in the mirror) strong willed (live vs. die/ fondles Steward. . . etc. ) innermost thoughts- her piano expression to the world- Flora (interprets the sign language)/ her writing pad Ada-Stewart vs Ada-Baines a gap between Ada and Stewart, the separarted unknown past and disconnection as a married couple Baines as an escape from Stewart abandons her piano in the end and lives in a townsacrifice part of her identity/ Ada's change

Flora vs. Ada Analysis Flora • lonely, dogs and imagination as companion, tree episode • Made up stories about her parents' story • change of affection from Ada-Stewart and then back to Ada after the finger trauma Flora- Ada • intimate in the beginning, but then grew apart due to Ada's secret

Stewart vs. Baines • Stewart (May not know himself, “civilized”, Egoistic, possessive, repressive, dominant) • Baines (may be escaping from past events, avoiding the present like Ada who is isolating herself, at the beginning objectifies Ada until giving the piano back to her-sign of respect, ) • Attitude Stewart vs. Baines towards piano • Maori • Respect/tattoo land profitable • Baines and Flora both act as intermediates • Stewart's ‘castration’ and reversion to a childlike state

Symbols • Piano (圖) The losing of the piano at the end symbolizes how she decides to open up and be silent no more (starts to speak, conforms to society…etc) and REBIRTH, the death of her reliance on the piano and the start of her new life • Rope (link Ada and piano) • The metal finger (how it changed her music playing, made Baines a part of her, ) • Angel wings- innocence/ cathartic moment

IDENTITY PASSION/SENSUALITY A PART OF HER BODY SOUL REACTION EMOTIONS FREE WILL COMPANIONSHIP VOICE BURDEN OF MEMORIES

Maoris (Race and Racism) • Civilization–European cultural values • The relationship between the colonized and the colonizer (Stewart/sisters-Maori, Baines-Maori) • The Maori in the movie- ignorant, innocent, imitating colonizer--> what effects this has on natives (they touched the piano/ the reaction when watching Blue Beard play. . etc. ) • Does the director have any responsibility to make the true Maori voice heard?

Maori subaltern cannot speak • Maori's voice, can they speak? • do they really just serve as a background? a character • what point(s) does Campion want to make about them in this film? • cultural differences? • how they are oppressed --> but the movie shows them innocently happy? ? . this leads back to how they are background/foil

Conclusion • The contrast between repression (voice of silence) and oppression (brutal behavior); the contrast between civilized (or "apparent civilization") and uncivilized. • Ada's unleashing of her own sexuality and her rebellion against Stewart's possessiveness suggests how her anger and voice could be expressed through actions. • Ada's rebellion also shows how the European colonizers' quest for power and settling new lands had a hidden (not hidden anymore) dark side of injustice, cruelty, and insecurity.

Sound Track Ada’s music - • It's as though I had to write the music of another composer who happened to live in Scotland, then New Zealand in the mid-eighteenth fifties. Someone who was obviously not a professional composer or pianist, so there had to be a modesty to it. Except that Holly Hunter played Ada playing the piano with enormous dedication and intensity. … • Since Ada doesn't speak, the piano music … becomes a substitute for her voice. The sound of the piano becomes her character, her mood, her expressions, her unspoken dialogue, her body language. ” (source)

Sound Track Ada’s music - • "The Heart Asks Pleasure First/The Promise“/”The Sacrifice” -- Ada theme – [missing the piano] 23: 40 – [playing the piano on the beach] – [3 rd lesson] [5 th lesson lying by him Blue Beard] – [running to Baines; attempted rape by Steward] – [being punished by Stewart] • “Deep Sleep Playing” – music played while asleep 1: 21 – When knowing that Baines is leaving 1: 25

Sound Track Ada’s music – • Chopin’s music (Chopin Op. 7 no. 1 Mazurka in B flat major ) – [1 st lesson] 2 nd performance 36: 49 –stopped by Baines • “The Scent of Love”/ "Big My Secret“ – [The piano is moved to Baines’s] 32: 57 – 2 nd lesson --[when Flora is excluded] 40: 06 – Ada with her piano back, lost 1: 08 – The embrace and the sex scene 1: 12 • “The Mood That Passes Through You – [6 th lesson]: the nude scene] 58: 14 • 4 th Lesson 47: 50 her own music Chopin • “From Here to There” • The last piano lesson – Chopin again