Communication, miscommunication and calamity in Jane Campion’s The Piano (1993)
Jane Campion’s award-winning film The Piano demonstrates that literacy, education and social hierarchical classifications do not directly translate into the ability to communicate with other people. This film was highly praised for its exploration of “a universe of feeling” (Ebert, 1993). Campion explores the themes of romance and familial love as well as hatred and revenge through the means of the communication (or lack thereof in many cases in the film). Communication and miscommunication can be seen in Alisdair Stewart’s inability to communicate with others, George Baines profound connection that is forged with Ada McGrath, Flora McGrath’s deeper affiliation with her mother and also in the protagonist herself being a poor communicator in some parts of the film. Miscommunication and communication in the film lead to many issues for characters including and especially the Ada when her finger gets chopped off through much fault of her own, although she is not fully to blame for her misfortunes. The Piano makes it undeniably evident that it is not only what one says that can lead to negative consequences, but also what one does not say that can bring about dire results.
Alisdair’s arrogance and confusion
Alisdair acts as if he is superior to those around him and this leads him to have relational issues with Ada — a reference to the climax of the film where Ada gets her finger chopped off. From the start of the film Alisdair comes across as a covertly arrogant but seemingly civilised individual. This can be seen very early in the film when Alisdair stops an entire escort of Maoris (and George) just to comb his hair. He wants to look good for his new wife even at the cost of efficiency and even if he irritates others.
It is shown in this scene that Alisdair cares much about himself and little of others especially when it comes to his convenience. Alisdair, when at the beach to help Ada move her belongings, only cares about the more ‘conventional’ possessions as a priority such as “kitchenware or clothes”. Despite Ada and her daughter trying to convince Stewart to take the piano first, he stands by his decision that “it can’t come [at that time]”. Ada and Flora’s persistence leaves Stewart bewildered and nervous; this bewilderment is echoed and, in fact, amplified as the film progresses. The irony in this matter is that, as Alisdair states later in the film, “[he] wants [Ada] to care for [him]”, yet he goes to no length whatsoever to even pretend that he cares about Ada. Even when offered land by Baines, Alisdair is inconsiderate of Ada’s clear attachment to her piano and his first question is “how marshy [the land is]”. Later in the film when Alisdair covertly observes Baines and Ada having intercourse (see below), the facts begin to add up for him. As life continues, he decides to trust her to not leave the house only to have been betrayed by the deeply infatuated Ada. This leads to the point in the film where Stewart attempts to rape Ada shortly after chopping off her finger is when the amplitude of his confusion is at its greatest. He does not know what he wants — to love Ada as his wife or to hate her for her marital unfaithfulness.
Stewart clearly wants something impossible out of a relationship that has not only failed to establish upon a secure and stable foundation but gets increasingly worse due to his own choices.
“Stewart’s “inability ‘to know’ Ada and thus to control her frightens him” — Bentley, 2002.
Stewart is climbing a tree with no roots while trying to use his ever-present axe to dig deeper into its trunk. Campion has clearly shown that misunderstanding and miscommunication can lead people to do unspeakable things and, consequently, can put others at the receiving end of their torment and misery.
George Baines’ effective communication and its resultant disaster
Conversely, George Baines is illiterate but the only person other than Ada’s daughter that can effectively communicate with Ada. This is clearly indicative of the fact that literacy or social status does not indicate how well one can communicate with others. In essence, as the only non-familial relation to Ada that can effectively communicate with her, there is a lot that can be observed in his interactions. Baines articulates his speech in a very straightforward manner (simple sentences such as “I’d like to make a swap.”, “I don’t want to learn.”, and the like) and is sure to speak his mind to avoid miscommunication. Although his intentions at the beginning of the film are questionable (a reference to his exploitation of Ada), the adequacy and efficiency of his communication is unparalleled in the film. When Ada asks Baines to get her piano from the beach, he, at first, plainly states “[he] can’t [because he] doesn’t have the time”. Despite saying this, Baines proceeds to spend countless hours taking piano lessons without ever really having much interest in playing the confounded instrument! It is apparent that Baines has ulterior motives when asking for piano lessons by offering land to Alisdair; he does not speak of these motives but what he does say to achieve his personal goal is articulated clearly even though his intentions are unclear to others.
In the case of George Baines, it is communication that is the devil in that his open line of communication with Ada leads her, through a series of events, to send him an instrument of her own misfortune. Campion has made Baines play a pivotal role in this film: he is an embodiment of the concept that even perfect (or near to it) communication and manipulation can lead to difficulties and adversities. He communicates so well yet the his communication leads others to act in ways that end only in disaster.
“I’d like to make a swap.” — George Baines
“I don’t want to learn.” — George Baines
Above: Baines speaks in a very simple and straightforward manner.
Flora’s choice
Likewise, Flora is the youngest character in the film and presumably the least ‘educated’ (both in terms of schooling and life experience) and yet she communicates the best with Ada and can comfortably play with the Maoris as well. Despite her advanced communication abilities for her age, she still gives in to her desire to communicate with Alisdair: she says to her mother, prior to meeting Alisdair, “I’m not even going to look at [him]” and, despite this statement, she ends up calling him “papa”. This is odd because she has a strong connection with her mother (as seen when she mirrors her mothers movements) and yet, she still goes against it.
This strong connection, involving deeper levels of communication (compared to other characters in the film)– sign language (see below) and even mirroring of movements — is forged through the hardships of their lives but when Ada stops ‘being there’ for her daughter, Flora drifts away from her. Flora’s adequacy in communication and her mother’s denial to open up to her about what she thinks about Alisdair and, comparatively, Baines is what leads to complications in their mother-daughter relationship. Flora communicates well with her mother but this quality does not go both ways. Although it takes two to tango, it takes only a single weak link to break a chain and the chain (that is their mother-daughter relationship) is broken due to Ada’s miscommunication with her daughter and Flora’s dangerously open communication about her mother with Alisdair.
It is not Alisdair’s imposing authority that causes her to be closer to him (at some stages) than she is with her own mother — it is the fact that, quite frankly, Alisdair is a better parent than Ada at many points in the film given that he spends more time with his ‘daughter’. Due to this, Flora goes to Alisdair with Ada’s piano-key message. A by-product of Alisdair being a better parent rather than Flora’s decision of where her loyalties lie.
Proficiency in communication does not guarantee that there will be no miscommunication in a relationship, and it is this miscommunication that leads to fingers getting chopped off, blood-spattered faces and lost honour.
Ada’s personal confusion and its ramifications
Even though Ada is literate, high in social standing (apparently) and, to all intents and purposes, educated, she is still the worst communicator in the film as she is unsure about her relationship with Baines and yet she proceeds to be intimate with Alisdair and puts her daughter up for a dangerous task without giving her enough information. Ada’s lack of knowledge about herself and her own will leads to misunderstandings between her and others in the film. The fact that she is electively mute alone leads to difficulties in communication and these result in gruesome outcomes, let alone her further encounters with absurdity. The most ironic part is that “no-one knows [why Ada is mute]. Not even [her]”. Ada is not aware (fully) of what she, herself, wants. A great example of this from the film is when she slaps Baines and proceeds to have intercourse with him. She gets intimate with Alisdair shortly after he sees her and Baines and this confuses Alisdair too.
“Stewart is overwhelmed and submissive as if shocked by her sexuality and his sexual fastidiousness.” — Bihlmeyer, 2005
Evidently miscommunication leads to difficulties many a time in the film but when it comes to Ada it is not in the way one might think. From a psychological standpoint, the difficulties in communication when it comes to the protagonist are within the individual and not between individuals. This intra-protagonist problem presents challenges such as the endangerment of children and general, bloody havoc.
A concise conclusion of the complications of communication in The Piano
The Piano is ostensibly a film about communication and its difficulties. The difficulties and complications arise from miscommunication (Alisdair and Ada), communication (Baines), lack of communication (between Ada and daughter, Flora) and also from misunderstandings within an individual herself (Ada). There is a beautiful interplay of all the aspects of disaster and its communication-related causes where Ada’s misery and lack of knowledge of herself is a weight that Flora, most of all, has to bear and Flora’s further communication with Alisdair — an interception of Ada’s communication with Baines — leads to calamity. In The Piano, Jane Campion explores the risks involved in communication through words whether they are engraved, spoken or written. A must-watch film for those interested in pandemonium and the pitfalls of communication.
References:
Ebert, R., 1993. The Piano movie review & film summary (1993) | Roger Ebert. [online] Rogerebert.com. Available at: <https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-piano-1993> [Accessed 7 June 2021].
Witherspoon, D., Wooding, S., Rogers, A., Marchani, E., Watkins, W., Batzer, M. and Jorde, L., 2007. Genetic Similarities Within and Between Human Populations. [online] NCBI. Available at: <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1893020/> [Accessed 7 June 2021].
Bentley, G. Mothers, daughters, and (absent) fathers in Jane Campion’s The Piano, Literature film quarterly, 2002.
Bihlmeyer, J. ‘The (Un)Speakable femininity in Mainstream Movies: Jane Campion’s The Piano’, University of Texas Press on behalf of the Society for Cinema 7 Media Studies, 2005.
