A Search for Pleasure — The Piano
Oh, the love triangle! A plot so typical of every film nowadays, especially a staple of the Young Adult genre. However, The Piano is not your regular kids’ show, or a film designed to capitalise on the raging hormones of teenage girls. The Piano (1993) is a cinematic masterpiece, and the use of the love triangle (or really “love vertex” with Ada in the cusp), allows Jane Campion (renowned director) to progress the narrative of the film.
Through her gentle cinematic skills she manages to entice the audience into a complex world where push comes to shove, where all sides are hanging onto the last lengths of rope in an imaginary tug-of-war situation where nobody seems to win until the end.
So, let’s introduce our vertices of this love triangle made in hell.
Alisdair Stewart is your regular “gentleman” of the 19th century. He wears a top hat, has combed-hair, and has the stereotypical chauvinism of an egotistical man of his time.
He’s a ballsy guy, even saying in a letter to his soon-to-be-wife:
“God loves dumb creatures, so why not you?”
Alisdair is the leader within the house and the community as a whole. He is educated and “civilised”. However, he lacks empathy and he lacks intercultural understanding, as is typical for an Anglo.
“What do they want the land for? They don’t do anything with it.”
Early in the film he marries his new wife, Ada McGrath. She’s mute, and has a daughter, Flora who acts as her translator.
From the way that Alisdair sees Ada, we’d think he only sees her as a “piece of meat”, especially her being a “mail-order” bride.
The only thing bigger than Stewart’s ego is his jealousy. He thinks he controls everything, but the one thing he can’t control are human emotions.
The frontiersman occasionally attempts to clear-up his misunderstands; “Morag, what would you think if someone were to play a kitchen table… like it were a piano?” His problem is that he fails to understand the views of others, and this attempt at understand is later seen as his voicing of “simply a concern”.
His indifference and lack of empathy for Ada’s desires and her lifestyle is what leads to his personal downfall and his descent into hysteria.
Alisdair’s ego-fueled grasp of Ada is broken partly by his own actions.
““We’re a family now. We all make sacrifices, and so will you! You will teach [Baines] and I will see to it!”
Ironically, Ada falls in love with Baines which seals the dissolution of her relationship with Alisdair. And it is Alisdair’s jealousy of this relationship which is the major catalyst of the film’s story.
Stewart’s insecurities in his discovery of McGrath’s unfaithfulness are quiet, in the beginning. The story moves on without a major turn of events.
This was until Flora, in her young innocence, mentions that “[Ada] doesn’t even teach [Baines] the piano” in talking to her father.
Lets just say that he wasn’t very happy when he saw Ada at Baines’ place. Ada’s now on his watch.
It seems like Alisdair’s been ‘betrayed’ by his wife. Stewart shows his wife that he knows of her “wrongdoings”, finding her in the woods on her way from her lover’s house. What’s going to happen when they go to bed that night?
In a turn of events, at least in the viewer’s perspective, Ada grabs the naked buttocks of her spouse. He resists her actions, however soon admits he “want[s] to touch [her]”. “Why can’t I touch you? Don’t you like me?” he asks her. Ada stares at him.
We see the innocent side of the ‘coloniser’ in this moment. His attitude towards his partner changes after seeing her with Baines, and he shows weakness. He decides to trust Ada to stay at home, and asks her if she will see Baines. Ada shakes her head, looking innocently into his eyes. “Good… Good,” he replies.
In his attempt to take Ada’s heart, he tells her that “Perhaps with some time.. [she] might come to like [him]”. His attempts are futile... Ada’s daughter, Flora, passes a piano key that her mother decorated as a symbol of love for George Baines. Upon seeing this, Alisdair loses all hope in his woman. “Why? I trusted you!” he shouts. From this critical point the rest of the story will unfold.
Ada’s choice of man in the love triangle has sealed the fate of Campion’s narrative, and the emotions of Stewart will compel his actions. “I trusted you! I trusted you! Do you make me hear?” he cries. “Why do you make me hurt you?!” In tears he whimpers; “We could be happy.” And the cascade of events before the climax emanates. “You have made me angry! Speak!” Stewart grabs her arm with one hand, his axe into another. “You lied to me! You will answer for this!” he shouts. “Speak or not, you will answer for this!” There is no going back. Alisdair pins Ada’s hand to a tree stump. “Do you love him?! Do you?! Is it him you love?!” His hand drops, the axe splitting Ada’s finger.
Nothing can ever be the same. It is these essential minutes where Campion packs the most emotion into the film, and pushes the plot forwards. The possibility of a relationship with Alisdair is lost, and in his final attempt at discipline he hurts Ada in the worst way he can think — he rids her of her ability to play the piano, her voice and soul.
He visits George Baines at night. “I’ve had that face in my head hating it. But now I’m seeing it… it’s nothing”, he says, gun pointed at Baines’ head. He tells his former companion to “get up”, and asks: “Baines, has Ada ever spoken to you?” “Have you ever heard words?” he questions. “I heard it here. I heard her voice, here in my head. The harder I listened, the clearer I heard her,” he continues. In his head, “[Ada] said, ‘I have to go. Let me go.’ ‘Let Baines take me away. Let him try and save me.’” The frontiersman explains, that “[he] wish[es] her gone, [he] wish[es] [Baines] gone. [He] want[s] to wake up and… find out that [it]… was all a dream.” And from this moment, Alisdair is not seen again.
He has given up on his chase for romance, and he has settled the dispute in the romance between him and Baines in Ada’s heart. The engineering of the film has its foundations on the love triangle. All major events occur in relations to it, and Alisdair is a major node in the network. He is the “chief”, the decision-maker. He is the leader in this community. He has everything except for his love’s heart, which cannot be won with power and aggression. It is his failure to contain his wife which Campion uses to propel her narrative.
George Baines is presented as a “gentle giant” by the director. We see him as a victim of the situation in which he’s in.
In the beginning of the film, he is presented as an innocent and hard-working man. He is able to speak the language of the Maoris and translate for the settlers. He is strong and seen as a respectful person. It is Ada that convinces him to take her and Flora to the beach, which he reluctantly agrees to do. So far, the relationship is devoid of romance, and has simply been a favour. There is a beautiful scene at the beach, where Flora does cartwheels while her mother plays the piano. George watches calmly from a distance. They stay until dark, indicating how much Baines cares about others. He is inspired to retrieve the piano, wanting to learn how to play. Ada reluctantly goes to Baines so she can play her piano.
The following day Ada plays the piano. George sneaks up behind her and kisses her neck. Ada gasps in shock. A (pretty rape-y) relationship is still being established.
“Ada, do you know how to bargain?” he asks her. They decide on a bargain, “One visit for every key”.
His lust for the woman becomes stronger with each subsequent visit, and the things he does with her get increasingly more physical and sexual. Baines has good intentions, and his love for Ada is pure, however his methods are tainted (to say the least). However, his bouts of “sexual exploitation” lead to a stronger bond between him and his love.
He is a lonely man, not just without a woman but without an identity. He is stuck between the world of the natives and the world of the settlers. The director wanted to present a man who may seem the opposite of who we would a expect a lady like Ada to be attracted to.
Our expectations are subverted when after having sex, Ada gains affection for Baines. Despite his manipulative actions, his more-caring and genuine attitude appeals Ada more than her new foreign environment, far from home, along with the foreign-ness of her household situation with Alisdair. Baines is sort of a “lesser of two evils”.
Once realising his mistakes, George confronts her: “I’ve had enough. The arrangement is making you a whore, and me wretched. I want you to care for me. But you can’t. It’s yours, leave. Go on, go.” His honesty shows us his true, gentle character, and helps us empathise with Ada.
Despite this situation seeming like a sort of Stockholm Syndrome, Baines truly does deliver, and he proves that he is a great man. The director deliberately leaves Baines out of contact with Alisdair after he finds out of the affair with Ada so that at the climax Alisdair can confront Baines about his actions.
Throughout his spout with Baines after Ada’s finger is cut off, Baines only blames himself. He is a selfless man, the opposite of the narcissistic Stewart. His seductions compels Ada into acting impulsively after falling in love with him, which quickly progresses the events in the film. In his attempt to stay neutral, he had sparked off the relationship of hatred between Ada and Alisdair.
In the final scenes of The Piano, when George and Ada leave the colony, there are many subtle intimate moments which cement the strength of this relationship and contrast heavily with the detestation of Alisdair by Ada.
Baines stares into Ada’s eyes several times before boarding ship. When the Maoris complain about the weight of the piano on the boat, Baines looks at them sharply and tells them “No. She needs it. She must have it.” Ada stares at him as he speaks these words. In the “happily ever after” ending we see, Flora is once-again doing cartwheels as a reminder of the compassion of George in the beginning of the film, going “full-circle” as with the imagery of the axe. Baines kisses Ada in a heartwarming fade-to-black. Despite Baines not being a “gentleman”, neither educated or physically attractive, his tenderness charms Ada, and is the both the beginning and the end of the most important events throughout The Piano.
Ada McGrath is the crux of the romance within The Piano. She is the decider, and all events and decisions of others revolve around her actions. Ada is portrayed as a soft and powerless woman. We could believe that she is a weak woman from our initial view of her.
This comes from her being carried by men in tides of beach where her new home will be, to her feminine dress and expressions. However, we quickly see that she is not a conformist, and does not accept others stepping in the way of her desires.
Her rejection of interaction with the other settlers marks her out as a balck sheep. Aunt Morag is not comfortable with the rebellious attitudes of Ada, describing them as a “concern”. She continues, “Certainly, there is nothing so easy to like as a pet and they are quite silent”, as if to dismiss the person of Ada as a simple “pet”.
Ada is dissatisfied with Stewart, and she sees that he does not care for her. From the time that she lands, he views her as an object. He does not care about her passions, her piano. And so her new voice becomes the relationships she has, the love she shares.
Intercourse, like sign language, is another way of expressing oneself through the motion of the body. Her selection of sexual relations is also what leads to the anger of the men so in-love with her.
The night she is caught cheating with Baines by Alisdair, she makes a sexual advance on Stewart (which has been mentioned before). Stewart is surprised. He has not been allowed to make advances on Ada, but when she is comfortable she tries to show Alisdair affection. However, Alisdair’s lack of empathy and understanding make him uncaring and incompatible in the eyes of his partner.
Ada is a “mail-order bride”, and not everything that comes by mail arrives as expected. She does not allow the expectations of others to faze her. In her involvement in the love triangle, she disregards even her daughter. Despite Flora showing discontent in her mother’s relationships, Ada attempts to force her into relaying messages to her lover.
Ada plays the most important role in the film, and all development within the film happens by her accord.
Her search for pleasure is one from her piano to her relationships. The very title of the theme for The Piano is “The Heart Asks Pleasure First”:
The love triangle between Alisdair Stewart, George Baines and Ada McGrath forms a complex network of romance and rejection. The affairs and disputes which occur advance the story told by Jane Campion. Stewart’s vanity, Baines’ compassion and McGrath’s pursuit of satisfaction allows the director to produce an elaborate and riveting film.
Bibliography:
Chumo, Peter N. (1997) Keys to the Imagination: Jane Campion’s “The Piano” Periodicals Index Online, pg. 173
Dalton, Mary M;Fatzinger, Kirsten James (2003) Choosing Silence: Defiance and Resistance Without Voice in Jane Campion’s “The Piano” Women and Language, pg. 34
Klinger B. (2006) The art film, affect and the female viewer: The Piano revisited
Margolis, H. (2000) Jane Campion’s The Piano, Cambridge Press
McGlothlin, E. (2004) Speaking the “mind’s voice”: double discursivity in Jane Campion’s The Piano, Post Script, Inc., Vol. 23 Issue 2
Nelmes, J. CASE STUDY: THE PIANO
QUANTUMJOKER (6 Aug. 2014) The Piano (film review). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDK2f1YJZDw, [Accessed 21 May 2021]
anotherrainbow2008 (17 May 2009) The Piano — The Making of — Part1. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DopuUIYBX-g, [Accessed 21 May 2021]
anotherrainbow2008 (17 May 2009) The Piano — The Making of — Part1. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Vdv_Efu49I, [Accessed 21 May 2021]
