In Jane Campion's The Piano Ada McGrath's most dominant personal weakness is her self-imposed muteness. However, Ada has experienced many misfortunes during her life, which make her a more vulnerable person than her self-imposed weakness primarily would have. Throughout the movie we observe how she feels imprisoned, both mentally and physically, how she was manipulated by men, and considered to be an object or a possession. The most disturbing, yet crucial, scene in The Piano when the `enraged' Stewart takes an axe and chops off Ada's finger, I believe is a result of the above three reasons; Imprisonment, manipulation and how she was seen as an object.

The very first scene that the viewers are confronted with in The Piano is that of Ada seeing the world through a wall of vague and greatly shadowed bars. Campion very cleverly tries to manipulate the viewers to assume these are...