The Piano

Some consequences of certain actions can never be looked past or forgotten. In The Piano Baines is a possible rapist that is shown to be a decent person in the film. Even if he is a decent person, he has crossed a line with possible rape. Although he technically never rapes Ada, he does manipulate her to do what he wants. Rape is defined as forceful sex that does not have consent but with any verbal agreement, consent is then given. In this film, Ada is torn to leave the piano behind on the beach because of the joy it brought her. While she was playing the piano, Baines hears the beautiful music being played and instantly falls in love with Ada. In order to get to know Ada better, Baines convinces her to give him piano lessons. Once she agrees to the lessons, Baines puts forth a deal involving a kiss for every black key on the piano and in return for him to give her the piano. This is one major form of manipulation because he understood how important the piano was to her and used this as an angle to get to know her better. He does ask consent for every action he takes towards her and she willingly agrees to his requests but at this point, she may be saying yes because there isn’t another choice or he as tricked her into it. Throughout their time together, he does fall in love with her and gives her the piano back without finishing the deal but the work was done by him getting to know her at that time. Would I consider his actions rape, no because he doesn’t physically force her to do anything but he does mentally manipulate her a bit which gives a creepy/rape type feeling towards his character.