A few metaphors found in The Piano

Rating: Null/10 (8 July 2004)

Spoiler Piano Lessons No Strings Attached
The 'Piano' was a tragedy that crescendos from an entangled web triangle of deceit. The movie is a conglomeration of metaphors. Like pearls on a string, the examples from scene to scene were priceless literary jewels mounted on the cellulose reel. From the beginning we are exposed to the wizardry of cinematography and literature fused in imagery to culminate a plot with a gradually revealed presentiment. The opening credits appear to express the structured pyramidal scheme that was characteristic throughout the movie. All of the title letters were arranged in a condescending order and formed triangles, which resembled stacked building blocks of pyramids. If the intent was there, then they were very subtle. If you look carefully at the following scenes you will know why. The first thing we see is a triangle formed by the fingers of the main character, Ada McGrath as she covers her face. This is followed by the ornate architectural design seen on the bed headrest also containing triangles. Moments later, Ada and her daughter Flora arrived at the coast of New Zealand; the sailing crew formed human pyramids to carry them ashore. It seems to me that the analogous triangle represented the three people that were to form the wrong-angles to a crumbling love affair pyramid.
Another detail that kept reappearing throughout the film was the strings and ropes that were so prevalent until the end. At first I didn't think anything of it, but then it became more obvious, to me anyway, that the pattern of strings, ropes, and even Mangrove roots carried some significance. It began with the skate shoestrings that Flora was wearing and could not remove. Afterwards, we see the mother cutting the laces with scissors. A few scenes later, we see the natives placing a rope on top of the piano and the little girl swiping it off with her hand. More hints of something to come having to do with ropes are shown perhaps symbolizing the entanglement that the main character is going to encounter as the plot develops. She is shown being bound by the laces of the corset. At one point the roots of the mangroves appear to be an entanglement as well. In that scene, the characters appear to be caught in a web, except the roots of the mangroves create the web. During one of the climactic moments of the film, a close-up shot of a spool of sewing string falls and it begins to unwind. This shot was strongly emphasized by the director. It was at this point that I came to realize that there was something significant about the strings. Finally, towards the end of the movie, the rope attached to the piano entangles Ada taking her down into the abysmal waters off the coast of New Zealand.
The meaning behind strings is left to the viewer's speculation. I subscribe to a few possibilities that I deduced. Let us start with the piano. The piano is the complex string instrument that has to be stricken in such a way that the very application of force can designate the instrument to the category of percussion. In which case, the complexity of the character using the piano as her way of choice to express herself, acquiesce her physical punishments for the privilege of projecting her feelings through the instrument. The other possibility is the entanglement of the love triangle between the three adults. There is the bondage that the lady is subjected to through the unwarranted betrothal by her father. Her original husband, the father of the child, is complacent as he encourages the engagement to a strange man, no strings attached. The seductive and passionate neighbor in the forest has a type of relationship with the native women that seem to be another situation of 'no strings attached'. This dark character harbors the piano that eventually becomes the bond between him and his lover. The director deliberately filmed the spool of thread rolling off the table as a metaphor for the unraveling of everything that held the affairs together.
Finally, The main character departs with her lover and her lover wants her to bring the piano. She doesn't want the piano anymore because she realized that she doesn't need it anymore now that she has found love. The piano has to be sacrificed. When the crew untied the piano, a loop of rope wrapped the lady's leg and brought her down to the bottom of the Ocean. She left everything of her past and rose to the top for a rebirth. She was set free and chose to live with no strings attached.