Boy Willie and is much more secretive and shy in comparison; however, upon becoming more comfortable with the family, his attitude changes to be a sympathizer who doesn't offer many original opinions. He does not speak brashly and attempts to escape the law by staying in the North and starting a new life. "Yeah, I can see why you say that now. I told Boy Willie he ought to stay up here with me." One of the few characters in this play not related to the members of the Charles household, Lymon offers help and sporadic advice to the other characters. He listens to Doaker's version of the piano story, sympathizes with Boy Willie's desires to sell the piano, and attempts to understand Berniece's connection to the piano. Lymon is also obsessed with women and plays a large role in allowing Berniece to slowly relieve the mourning of Crawley, her deceased husband. "I just dream about woman. Can’t never seem to find the right one." His desire to please women and find his soul mate softens Berniece's gaze on crude men and gives him a slight leeway to kiss her. Berniece: The 35-year-old mother of Maretha, Berniece symbolizes the guardian of her ancestors' past. She remains the only member of the family to adamantly demand the keepsake of the piano heirloom. Her relation with her brother further portrays her mourning of her late husband Crawley. Blaming Boy Willie for Crawley's death, Berniece questions Boy Willie's foolish actions more than others. While Boy Willie represents an opposing figure to their father Boy Charles by wanting to be a property-owning man, Berniece draws similarities to her mother Mama Ola, who never seemed to recover from the mourning of her husband, either. "Look at this piano. Look at it. Mama Ola polished this piano with her tears for seventeen years. For seventeen years she rubbed on it till her hands bled. Then she rubbed the blood in...mixed it up with the rest of the blood on it. Every day that God breathed life into her body she rubbed and cleaned and polished and prayed over it. ‘Play something for me, Berniece. Play something for me, Berniece.’ Every day... You always talking about your daddy but you ain’t never stopped to look at what his foolishness cost your mamma." Berniece feels as if the piano should stay in the home rather be sold as