Boy Willie Charles
Boy Willie is Berniece’s brother and Doaker’s nephew. Unlike them, he has stayed in the South, cultivating the land their family has farmed for generations. He dreams of gathering enough money to buy land from the declining Sutter family so he can become an independent farmer rather than a debt-ridden sharecropper. Boy Willie plans to raise the funds by selling a load of watermelons and the family piano, which he co-owns with Berniece. To achieve this, he travels north to Pittsburgh. However, Berniece refuses to sell the piano, and there are past issues that further strain their relationship. During Boy Willie’s previous visit, he got involved in an illegal scheme and ran into trouble with the local police. He lied to Berniece’s husband, Crawley, about the scheme; Crawley tried to protect him from the authorities and was killed. Boy Willie then left abruptly. His grieving and hostile sister is thus strongly opposed to his plan to sell the family heirloom.
Boy Willie argues that Berniece never uses the piano, using this point to justify his decision to sell it. This complaint highlights his practical approach to life: why shouldn’t an unused piano be sold to buy productive land? However, it would be unfair to describe Boy Willie as merely interested in “getting ahead.” He honors the family’s history in a way that differs from Berniece. He aims to rejuvenate the land worked by his enslaved ancestors and to finally claim it by owning and cultivating it himself. Additionally, he wants to educate his niece, Maretha, about her heritage, believing that pride in her past will help her carry herself with dignity.
Characters Discussed
Boy Willie Charles
Boy Willie Charles, who is thirty years old, with an infectious grin and a boyish charm. He is brash, impulsive, and talkative. He is proud, and he believes that he and whites occupy the world equally. Boy Willie is an independent thinker and possesses a strong sense of what he believes. His immediate goal in the play is to get a piece of land, because, as he says, when you “got a piece of land you’ll find everything else fall right into place.” For him, land is the key to equality, dignity, and freedom.
Berniece
Berniece, Boy Willie’s sister. Thirty-five years old and a widow, she still blames her brother for the death of her husband three years earlier. She now lives with her uncle, Doaker, and has come to Pittsburgh to work. She is strong, determined, serious-minded, intense, religious, and superstitious.
Doaker Charles
Doaker Charles, the uncle of Berniece and Boy Willie. Forty-seven years old, tall, and thin, he has been a railroad cook for twenty-seven years. He has retired from the world, has no fight left in him, and tries to serve as a peacemaker in the quarrel between Berniece and Boy Willie.
Lymon
Lymon, Boy Willie’s companion. Twenty-nine years old, he talks little, but when he does it is with a straightforwardness that is often disarming. In his old truck loaded with watermelons, he has come with Boy Willie to Pittsburgh with the intention of selling the watermelons and remaining to find work, have fun, and find a woman.
Avery
Avery, a thirty-eight-year-old man, honest and ambitious. He wears a suit and tie with a gold cross around his neck and carries a small Bible. He wants two things: to start his own church and to marry Berniece.
Winning Boy Charles
Winning Boy Charles, Doaker’s brother. Fifty-six years old, he tries to present the image of a successful musician and gambler, but everything about him is old.
(This entire section contains 347 words.)
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Winning Boy Charles, Doaker’s brother. Fifty-six years old, he tries to present the image of a successful musician and gambler, but everything about him is old.
Maretha
Maretha, Berniece’s eleven-year-old daughter.
Grace
Grace, a woman who goes home with Boy Willie and later with Lymon.
Other Characters
Avery
Avery was once an acquaintance of Boy Willy's in the South, but like many other
southern African-Americans, he moved to the North. Now residing in Pittsburgh,
he works as an elevator operator. Avery has also taken on the role of a
preacher and is currently raising funds to build a church. His aspiration to
become a preacher and lead a congregation reflects a traditional path through
which African-Americans gained prominence within their communities,
highlighting the significant role of religion in African-American culture.
Avery’s aspirations include Berniece; he courts her, hoping she will agree to marry him and play piano for the church congregation. However, when Avery reiterates his marriage proposal to Berniece in Act Two, scene two, she refuses to discuss it seriously. Instead, she asks him to return the next day to exorcise Sutter’s ghost and bless the house. Avery agrees to do so, but his exorcism ceremony fails. Ultimately, it is up to Berniece to invoke another spiritual source—the power of her ancestors—to rid the family of Sutter’s presence.
Berniece Charles
Berniece, Boy Willie's sister, left the South for Pittsburgh long ago. There,
she married Crawley and had a daughter named Maretha. Widowed for three years,
she now works as a domestic to support her small family. Recently, an old
acquaintance from the South, Avery, has started courting her, but Berniece
feels very conflicted about his interest. She resents the pressure from family
and friends to remarry, saying, "Everybody telling me I can’t be a woman unless
I got a man."
Berniece’s relationship with the piano is also deeply conflicted. On one hand, she is fiercely protective of it and refuses to let Boy Willie sell it. She also encourages Maretha to play the piano. On the other hand, she refuses to play it herself, claiming she only played it while her widowed mother was alive out of respect. After her mother’s death, she stopped playing because she felt bitter about the pain it had caused the family.
In the play's final scene, Lymon and Boy Willie try to remove the piano, but Berniece threatens them with Crawley's gun. The potentially tragic confrontation between the siblings is diffused when Sutter’s ghost appears. While Boy Willie attempts to physically remove the ghost from the house, Berniece turns to the past—to African-American spiritualism—to exorcize its presence. This joint struggle with the past ultimately reconciles the siblings in the present.
Doaker Charles
Doaker is the uncle of Berniece and Boy Willie. He is a dignified and wise
older man who previously made a living by building and working on the
railroads. Now, he works as a railroad cook. While Boy Willie and Berniece may
be like two misaligned wheels, Doaker serves as the stabilizing frame that
holds them together. He is the primary storyteller of the play, excelling at
recalling and narrating family history better than either Berniece or Boy
Willie.
Through Doaker, the audience learns about the piano's significance: "See, now . . . to understand about that piano . . . you got to go back to slavery time." His powerful recounting of the piano's role in their family history, although he maintains a neutral stance in the siblings' conflict, subtly suggests he sympathizes with Berniece.
Maretha Charles
Maretha is Berniece’s eleven-year-old daughter. Her importance lies in the
conflict between Berniece and Boy Willie over how she should be raised. Should
she be taught about her family’s history, especially the history of the piano
her mother encourages her to play, or should she be shielded from it to avoid
the "burden" of the past? The resolution of this question is crucial, as
Maretha, representing the next generation, signifies the future of both her
family and the African American community.
Wining Boy Charles
Wining Boy is Doaker’s brother, making him the uncle of Boy Willie and
Berniece. He is a failed musician and gambler, who can be charming and
affectionate at times, but also selfish and irresponsible. As his name
suggests, he is somewhat of a "wino"—a heavy drinker—and a "whiner"—a bluesman.
In Act One, Scene Two, Wining Boy reminisces about the past with Doaker. He
also manages to swindle money from Lymon and Boy Willie, who have recently come
into cash by selling their watermelons. While his role in the play is not
pivotal, his presence reflects the current state of the piano: the failure of
the music within.
Grace
Grace's time on stage is brief. She has a short encounter with Boy Willie in
the living room, which is abruptly interrupted when Berniece, outraged, demands
they stop or leave the house. They choose to leave.
Lymon
Lymon is a friend of Boy Willie from "down South." He is in trouble with the
local sheriff back home and has traveled North with Boy Willie to avoid
prosecution and sell their truckload of watermelons. Lymon intends to stay in
Pittsburgh. However, being his first time in the North, he is more captivated
by the city's dazzling lights than focused on selling watermelons and securing
a job.
His lack of experience and gullibility provide much humor in Act Two, Scene One, when Wining Boy tricks him into giving up six hard-earned dollars for a cheap suit, shirt, and pair of shoes. His naivete is further highlighted in Act Two, Scene Three, when he informs Berniece that Boy Willie had pursued the woman Lymon was interested in.
In this scene, Lymon compliments Berniece on her nightgown and gifts her a bottle of perfume. They share a kiss. This moment of brief intimacy indicates that Berniece is beginning to lower the defenses she built after Crawley’s death, foreshadowing the play’s positive conclusion.
