Jane Campions The Piano - A Metaphor for European Domination Essay

Jane Campions The Piano - A Metaphor for European Domination The exact character of the encounters between Captain James Cook and the Polynesian natives of Hawaii as well as all interactions and exchanges between Europeans and native Polynesian wads of the Pacific musical composition Cook was exploring the islands of Hawaii and after has been investigated by anthropologists and historians for many years. Captain Cook died at the hand of Polynesian natives while he was at Hawaii in 1779. Marshall Sahlins stated that Cook was seen as the god Lono during the celebration of the Makahiki festival taking place at the time of Cooks visit. Gananath Obeyesekere, in his noteworthy work, The Apotheosis of Captain Cook European Mythmaking in the Pacific, argues that Sahlins is incorrect in his conclusions about Cook and his myth models, which are defined as indigenous people not use rationality in the same way as Europeans. They underestimate the flexibility and pragmatism of indigenous cult ures and cosmology. Obeyesekere argues that the Prospero myth and the Kurtz myth are spare in the works of Sahlins and other historians as well. The Prospero myth that is of the European explorer who brings forth peace and a civilized culture to the native peoples of the lands he or she explores. The be Prospero is taken from a character in Shakespeares play, The Tempest. The Kurtz myth is that of the explorer, who witnesses the raw nature and uncivilized culture and ideology of the native peoples and becomes himself savage. The name Kurtz originated from Joseph Conrads novel Heart of Darkness and is adopted in Francis Ford Coppolas cinematic masterpiece Apocalypse Now. Obeyesekeres ideas are prevalent in The Piano, a feature film involving a lov... ...rts Obeyesekeres arguments by having the savage element awakened, then subdued with force in the supposedly civilized Europeans, as opposed to Sahlins denial of European savagery in the explorations of Cook and the denial that Cook was a savage and bloodthirsty male seeking to kill, using civilization as an excuse for killing. This idea is seen in the domination of Ada by both Stewart and Baines, and the males violence and sexual aggression toward the innocent and mute Ada. The inability to speak on Adas part is a metaphor for her domination by the males, a trait of european culture in the ninteenth century. The diffused is the means by which she is able to communicate, embodying both the Kurtz persona in the raw, beautiful sound that flows from the piano, and the Prospero persona in the intricate and ordered melody and harmony with that a skilled pianist plays.