Jane Campion’s film “The Piano” explores the ideas of art, feminism, and communication in a complicated and composite but clear love triangle. The base structure of Campion's story is that various forms of art can be representative of love as well as touching on feminist stereotypes at various points throughout the film.
I believe that the triangle intertwines Ada’s feelings, Baines’ love, and Alisdair’s expectations, to show how Ada had choices that led to different events throughout the movie which creates problems and constructs an entertaining film. These three elements of the triangle influence each other and show how it caused problems due to difficulties in communication and differences, and how this allowed the characters (mainly Ada) to change throughout the film, and eventually reach a solution, though not a particularly silky one.
The relationship between Ada Mcgrath and Alisdair Stewart
A lack of communication between Alisdair and Ada creates tensions between them and limits their relationship; used by Campion to be the main issue of the film, spotlighting the feministic characteristics of Ada. Tensions arise from various interactions, from Alisdair creating expectations for Ada and vice versa, to Ada distancing herself from him.
“You’re smaller than I expected. I never thought you would be small”
— Alisdair Stewart
Expectations are seen when Alisdair sees that Ada is small, setting up a requirement for Ada. This, occurring when they first meet, shows his perspective on her and possibly women, as something to be examined and rated superficially.
This further evidenced by the change in his expressions from the shot at 9:25, where first he looks lustfully at a picture of Ada, but later, is bewildered at his broken expectations. His confusion is constant as he tries to figure her out.
Here, a close-up shot is used to juxtapose Alisdair’s expression with what he is saying, as he struggles to find words to describe his perception of Ada right now. He is doubtful in saying that she will ever be affectionate towards him; coupled with his confusion from earlier when Ada “played” the table, shows how he thinks it’s got something to do with “more than that, (her being mute)” (27:36). He believes that “she’s not brain affected” (27:39), and therefore knows that she chooses to be quiet. Hence, his confusion comes from not her seemingly obscure actions, but rather struggling to communicate. This set up by Campion clearly demonstrates Ada’s form of communication is through her art, touching on the feminist aspect of the film that she can express herself however she wants to and does not need to meet Alisdair’s expectation of “normal”.
Alisdair finds out the truth
Eventually, a sense of extreme adronitis sweeps away his control, as he takes an axe to her piano (1:32:42). The close-up shot highlights the simplicity of the wooden piano and the rusted axe, stressing how important it is to Ada. In this scene, the music is a gentle melody of a moderate tempo, however, upon hitting the piano, a cacophony of piano keys interrupts the music, symbolistic of Ada’s emotions at the time which Alisdair still has not considered. He repeatedly continues to say that he “trusted (her)” (1:32:44), which shows the one-sidedness of the relationship, how both this time were lacking in contribution.
Following this scene, Alisdair cuts off Ada’s fingers, cementing the severed relationship between them. It did not matter at this point, as Alisdair already broke their connection when he cut the piano. But when he did cut her fingers off (1:34:06), Ada’s expression suggests that she is trapped in an ambedo and cannot seem to fully process what has just happened, as Campion introduces some irony here, that Ada’s lost for words when Alisdair asks who she loves, when to begin with, she could not speak at all. Similarly, in an earlier scene, we see his expectations of the relationship that they “could be happy” with it, however, quite clearly, Ada is not. All of this, contributing to Ada’s decisions, influenced by her lack of freedom, and being forced into the relationship, which may have contributed to her choosing Baine’s over Alisdair.
The relationship between Ada McGrath and George Baines
Having seen this opportunity, Baines grabbed onto and pursued a way to connect with Ada which led to a relationship, however, Ada rejected this relationship at first and she did this for various reasons. Firstly, in the medium shot above, Baines’ expression is shown. The background here is simple, and so highlights his observative face, from which we can imply that he is judging whether he should pursue the relationship further with Ada. But he had already neared Ada from the moment he thought that he should bring Flora (Ada’s daughter) and her down to the beach for the piano.
Similarly, at 23:07, Ada and Flora look at Baines with curiosity as he prepares his horse, and from Ada, we can see that she is observing what sort of person he is. This is since the melody that is playing in the background, is the same continued melody when Ada is at her most comfortable, showing that she may be starting to be more comfortable around Baines.
“(It’s) her piano and she won’t have him touch it!” — Flora
However, at this stage Ada is reluctant to give over her piano to Baine’s; though feeling more acquainted with him, she demands that the piano is hers and hers only. This shows Ada’s current priority and her relationships now which are only with Flora and her Piano, however, this eventually changes as her carnal desires take over. Such changes in priorities are tangible.
At 55:10–55:23, the camera directly focuses on Ada and Baines. Both noticed each other/are bothered by each other, and when Alisdair takes Ada’s hand (a very tangible form of communication, 55:07) Ada for a moment feels glad, however, just as quickly switches her attention to Baines, demonstrating to us that she and Baines now have a unique connection through the piano, and Alisdair’s attempt at connecting to Ada has come too late. The shift in priorities becomes quite clear later, but even now, she continues to see Baines.
“I’ve given the piano back to you. I have had enough. The arrangement is making you a whore, and me, wretched. I want you to care for me. But you cannot. It’s yours now, and you can leave”
— George Baines
Such a change in emotion in Baines who once lusted for her beyond his mind can only mean that he realised that he really has had enough. The relationship between them was never romantic, rather, a sexual one. Ada only accepted the relationship due to the pleasure of sex, this being a basic feeling buried deep within the human condition. Such a situation is also used by Campion to demonstrate Ada’s defiance to female stereotypes at that time, using her to breakthrough in various ways as she starts to connect with Baines than the man chosen for her. However, the realisation of this sexual relationship eventually develops into a romantic relationship, as Baines begins to care more and more for her as his obsession. As Baines said, it is really making him “wretched”. Eventually, Ada pursues a romantic relationship with Baines as well, used by Campion to set up the biggest breakthrough for a woman in that age. Not only has Ada rejected the man chosen for her and slept with someone else, but she pursued a full-on relationship. This completes the main “issue” of the film, chosen by Campion to be the climax.
Character development when everything becomes transparent. A conclusion.
Upon finding out that Baines and Ada were in a relationship, Alisdair feels betrayed (by both) and confused, and this eventually leads to a solution than a problem.
Alisdair questions Ada on how the music lessons are going, to which she smiles. Alisdair’s look and lack of words say it all, foreshadowing his feelings at a minuscule level.
His feelings are truly revealed here when he watches his wife shows her love for another man. As expected, Alisdair is shocked, however, the way the scene shows him, seems as if the light on his face is the truth. It seems as if him knowing the painful truth is better, as this resolves one corner of the triangular relationship. A sweating, sombre, sober Alisdair seems to be glad that for once, he knows something concrete about Ada. This entire time, he felt catoptric tristesse towards Ada, but now, he knows exactly what she is thinking. It is also symbolistic, as, in the triangle, Alisdair laid the foundation for their relationship. Ironically, it is true that his failure at connecting with Ada led to the relationship between Baines and her.
Later, we see Ada writing a message to Baines on a piano key. This first shows how she has changed, with Baines being her priority over her piano now, since she just took a piece of what mattered most to her for a simple message. Her sending the piano key could also be symbolistic of the “key” to her heart as the message implies. This scene also shows us how Ada prioritises Baines over Flora since she knowingly puts her daughter in danger to send the message. At this point, Alisdair has reached his limit and demands Ada for an answer. He asks her “(if she) loves (Baines)?!” (1:33:43) repeatedly, once again showing his disbelief. He knows the answer to the question yet hopes that Ada can say something different.
The scene is dramatized with the rain, music and Flora screaming, where we see Ada’s chopped fingers and the axe in the background. It incorporates a close of her face, clearly showing us that more than her physical pain, her emotional pain is taking over at her realisation that she may never play the piano again. It is also symbolistic, that Alisdair severing her fingers just severed their relationship. He cannot tolerate this anymore.
“I wish her gone and I wish you gone. I want to wake up and find that this was all a dream”
— Alisdair to Baines
This moment symbolises realisation and rather than a smooth unfolding of the various tangled wires in this triangle, Ada’s betrayal and Alisdair seeing reality cuts through the triangle, untangling it, but severing the wires, nonetheless. Campion did this so that the characters could develop through various emotions, joyful and negative. Alisdair, from when he was a character who wanted to dominate, was now stepping down and gave up, attempting to get rid of his problems and drown his sorrow.
Such character development is evident across all the core characters of the film, making it not only an engaging but a meaningful one. Campion chooses to structure the film on creating the problems between Ada and Alisdair and brings in Baines to add more to the issue, but mainly to reach an endpoint. The key point here though is that Ada does not comply with Alisdair attempting to be the dominant person in the relationship, something unusual at the time. This sparks tensions between the two, resolved by Ada’s demonstration of her own free choice by choosing Baines, through whom she concretely rejects Alisdair. Campion chooses this to highlight the freedom Ada has, and how such choices and freedom are available to anyone. This is also where Campion decides to cut the triangle, freeing Ada and allowing for Alisdair to realise what went wrong, setting up the solution to the entire film.
Bibliography:
- ÇELİK NORMAN, S., n.d. Two Feminist classic revisited: Jane Campion’s The Piano and Sally Potter’s Orlando.
- N, P., 1997. Keys to Imagination: Jane Campion’s “The Piano”. Literature/Film Quarterly;. [online] p.173. Available at: <https://www.proquest.com/openview/d9bd4e2dced08ce93a40fc04373687ca/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1821050> [Accessed 7 June 2021].
