This week I watched the fantastic 1993 New Zealand film, The Piano. It was a great film about a woman, unable to speak, that is sold into a marriage. This woman, Ada, speaks through sign language and her gifted piano playing. However, the man she marries, Alisdair Stewart, doesn't have enough room in his small house and doesn't let Ada bring the piano and it remains on a beach. One of Stewart's friends, George Baines, takes her to the piano on the beach so she can play it. When Baines hears her play he beings to develop an attraction to her. He begins doing various acts to help her and she--eventually--begins to be attracted to him. In short, there's a bit of tug and pull between the two but they end up making in love, and are caught by Ada's husband Alisdair.
Ada and Baines have an interesting relationship. But I had the question asked about there relationship and "is it rape?"
I will say that the film is a feminist film. But rape? I wouldn't go that far with it. At all. Just because she is unable to speak, that gives her a disability and one can make the argument that Baines takes advantage of that. And he does, to an extent. But there is an extent and the relationship never reaches a point of rape. When the film ends, which man is she with? For spoiler purposes we won't say but for those of you who know ask yourself that, then ask yourself if their relationship was rape.
When Ada discovers she can't keep the piano, Baines is the one that takes her to it. When she plays he begins to find her attractive. She, at first, isn't in to him. However, Ada eventually realizes she misses Baines and goes back to him, which leads to sex, which Stewart witnesses outside the house. Therefore, it is not rape, it is infidelity.
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