Moderato cantabile opens with a piano lesson. The teacher, a child, and Anne, his mother, are present at the lesson. This opening was interesting. When I began reading it seemed that the teacher was an authoritarian, very harsh in her words. Many times in the text, the child was referred to as an “object” sitting at the piano. As the story progresses, it is evident that she cares for him and wishes that he would work harder in lessons because he is talented. I think that her harshness is meant to appease Anne and make her realize how talented the teacher really is. Throughout the reading the child is unresponsive to his surroundings and the actions of other people. The most he does is announce that he doesn’t want to learn to play the piano and ask his mother why they are in the area where the lady was murdered. He appears to be very timid and doesn’t say or do much. Anne is the character explored the most. She seems to be fascinated that the woman was killed, going so far as to visit the bar where it happened and ask about it. When she is speaking to the man it seems as though it could be the beginning of an affair. This idea is further established when the man and the patronne are speaking of her and the patronne tells him Anne’s schedule—that she brings her son to piano lessons “once a week, on Fridays (76)” and that “she’s often out for a walk with her little boy (76).”
When the scream appeared in the first chapter, it appeared to echo the frustration that Anne and the teacher felt concerning the child’s piano lesson. The scream comes from a woman. It isn’t immediately clear that she has been murdered; just that she is in trouble of some sort. It becomes obvious that she was murdered when all the commotion begins, and the police are summoned. The next day Anne goes to the bar to learn more of the murder. While talking to a man that was at the bar during the murder she asks if “it was almost inevitable (75)?” The man replies that he thinks “he aimed at her heart, just as she asked him to (75).” It seems to me that the woman was likely fighting with her lover and made an over exaggerated statement to invoke his sympathy and understanding, but instead caused him more anger, to the point where he acted on her statement.
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