The Difficulties of Communication in The Piano by Jane Campion
The 1993 film “The Piano” by Jane Campion is a powerful film about a mute woman, Ada, who expresses herself through her titular piano. There is a purposeful focus on the difficulty of getting your thoughts and emotions to others through communication. The challenge of expression and communication is best conveyed by the characters of Flora, Baines, Alisdair and Ada. Each character represents an obstacle that the absence of communication poses. Flora’s character shows the audience a character getting information across easier than others who still faces fatal consequences showing that communication is not as easy as speaking your thoughts. Ada, on the other hand, as a mute main character illustrates the importance of expressing oneself and the problems that arise when you can’t. Baines and Alisdair illustrate two characters who face barriers in communication, one of which overcome their barrier while the other one suffers.
Flora, Ada’s child, is a character of naivety. She is a young child who has little trouble speaking her mind. She is used by Campion to show that just being able speak your mind and express yourself isn’t enough and Flora experiences great pain due to her bluntness. Many scenes involving Flora involve her use of ill-mannered language towards adults, which on more than one occasion, anger the adults. “She says she’d rather be boiled alive by natives than get back in your tub.” This is one occasion of Flora, who in this scene is supposed to be translating Ada, adding her own opinion and as a result, triggering the seamen. In this case, Flora is sheltered by Ada and receives no punishment but this foreshadows for later scenes when Ada is not there to protect Flora when she speaks out. Instead of answering with a simple no as Ada signaled, Flora chose to insult and berate the seamen, showing her inability to hold back from expressing her thoughts. There is a later scene in the second half of the movie, just before the climax when we see Ada entrusting Flora to deliver her message to Baines. Here Flora makes the decision to defy her mother and show the message to Alisdair, which infuriates him as he had just made Ada promise never to meet with Baines again. “Mumma wanted me to give this to Mr. Baines.” Flora causes Alisdair to fly into a rage which leads to Ada’s finger getting chopped off. Campion shows the audience how communication is not as simple as just expressing thoughts through the character of Flora.
While Flora is a character who speaks her mind easily, Ada is a character who cannot speak at all. Jane Campion has purposefully placed a mute woman as the main character. Campion emphasizes the mysteriousness of Ada by the fact that she’s mute. She is unable to use words to express her thoughts and emotions which makes it harder for the audience as well as on-screen characters to understand Ada. The audience is never given a reason as to why Ada is mute “I have not spoken since I was six years old. No one knows why, not even me.” This not only adds to the mystery of her character but it makes her character feel stranger than others. Ada relies on her piano, Flora and her notepad as her only ways of communicating with others. An interesting part of Ada’s character is that she doesn’t think of herself as silent “The strange thing is, I don’t think myself silent. That is because of my piano.” Ada’s piano is an essential tool for self expression and when she doesn’t have it with her she becomes, angry or sad. For Ada, her way of expression, her piano is more important than clothes and other essentials which can be seen when she would rather the Maori people bring her piano than bring her clothes or kitchenware. For the first part of the movie, Ada is separated from her Piano and she secludes herself from everyone with the exception of Flora. When Ada meets Baines and he gives her the opportunity to lay her piano she is at first defiant, because she doesn’t want to share her voice and her main way of communication. Baines is a character who understands Ada’s connection with her Piano, unlike Alisdair and as a result she opens herself up to Baines and not Alisdair. Ada’s character is a representation on how important expression and communication is to all people.
Ada is a secluded female protagonist. In the film George Baines and Stewart Alisdair, who are two sides of the same coin, aim to get Ada to open up but they both go about this in their own way. Alisdair illustrates that without putting in the proper effort, one can never fully understand another person. He treats Ada like an object rather than an equal partner in marriage. He believes that his actions are what’s best for his marriage. When Alisdair first meets Ada on the beach we get a glimpse at the man underneath as he doesn’t and doesn’t attempt to understand the importance of the piano to Ada. Baines, on the other hand, gets to hear Ada playing her Piano and begins to understand her complex character. Of course, he is only able to understand it in a more ‘creepy’ way, by having her bargain her body for her piano back. Baines stops once he realises he is going too far however when he says “This arrangement is making you a whore and me wretched. I want you to care for me, but you can’t.” Campion has tried to make sure the audience knows that Baines thinks of Ada as a person, which is contrasted to how Alisdair treats Ada like he owns her. There is a scene almost halfway through the movie where Alisdair strokes the table at which Ada had carved the keys to a piano onto. He strokes it coldly, showing Alasdair’s inability to communicate with Ada to understand her obsession with the piano. Again, Campion contrasts Alasdair’s actions with Baines, as a bit later on in the film we see him warmly dusting her piano, in the nude, highlighting his comfort and his ease of communication with Ada. Another key difference between Baines and Alisdair comes from their own ability to communicate with others. Alisdair is unable to understand the Maori people and can’t speak their language so he relies on Baines who can. Alisdair has a complete inability to converse with the Maori people which makes it harder for him to understand their culture, something he never even attempts. Baines, on the other hand deals with the hurdle of being illiterate. Baines is unable to read the notes Ada writes, one of her only ways of communicating. Despite this large barrier, Baines makes a lot more progress, overcoming his barrier through more effort. Campion utilizes the characters of Baines and Alisdair to encapsulate the idea of putting in effort to overcome the difficulties of communication.
Jane Campions “The Piano”, is a well thought out film that takes a closer link into the struggles proper communication poses. The challenges of communication represented in the film are the complexity of communication, the problems of being unable to communicate as well as how to overcome such challenges. The theme of communication and its vital role in relationships drives the story of “The Piano”.
