What Is the Theme of the Weary Blues
The Weary Blues | Themes
The African American Spirit
In most of his work Hughes presents a romanticized version of the African American proletariat or "every man." Hughes felt drawn to the working class, in part, because he never belonged there. Although he occasionally had little money, Hughes was a lifetime academic, even as a child, and his mother came from a family of prestigious African American educators and activists. His maternal grandmother often told him stories about courageous slaves who escaped to freedom or abolitionists who fought to free their enslaved brethren. These stories captivated Hughes's imagination and instilled in him an appreciation for African American stoicism, or the ability to endure long-suffering hardship: "Nobody ever cried in my grandmother's stories. They worked, or schemed, or fought. But no crying." This mentality is seen throughout the poem, with lines like "I's gwine to quit ma frownin' / And put ma troubles on the shelf" and "While the Weary Blues echoed through his head. / He slept like a rock or a man that's dead." Both pairs of lines showcase the "weariness" of African American suffering and the seemingly innate impulse to soldier on. The singer is so tired he wishes he were dead, yet he sleeps deeply, fortifying himself before another day of struggle. As the singer says, he will stop complaining (or "frowning") and carry on (put his "troubles on the shelf"). Despite the "melancholy" tone and the "weariness" in his bones, the singer creates beautiful music that unites the crowd and inspires the speaker.
For Hughes, the duality of weariness and beauty represents the African American spirit, and he strives to represent it in "The Weary Blues."
The Power of Music
The bluesman is exhausted. The reader or listener knows this because the bluesman comes right out and says so: "I got the weary blues." Exhaustion is also reflected in the speaker's description of the room. Everything looks tired: the lights are "dull," the bluesman has a "lazy sway," he sits on a "rickety stool," he plays a "poor piano," and so on. But despite his weariness, the music pours not from the musician's fingers or memory, but from his soul, which suggests buzzing vitality that cannot be suppressed by depression or exhaustion. Even though the mood in the club is "mellow" and "drowsy," the speaker connects with the singer's vitality and there becomes a feeling of energy. The speaker shouts, or at the very least thinks, "O Blues!" and "Sweet Blues!" Whatever weariness the speaker himself entered the club with has somewhat been ignited for the time being. Whether the audience is white or black—a contrast suggested through the imagery of "ebony hands on each ivory key"—they are unified through the music.
By calling the bluesman a "musical fool," Hughes draws parallels to Shakespearean fools—court jesters who would equally entertain audiences by highlighting their struggles. This reference is another way Hughes reminds readers of the power of music: by basking in the sadness of others, audiences somehow draw strength to face their own struggles.
The Body as an Instrument of the Soul
By creating an association between the bluesman and his instrument, as well as the artifacts on stage with him, Hughes effectively paints a picture of the bluesman as an aged man who perseveres in the face of old age and death. It is significant that music is what gives the old bluesman a contradictory youthful spontaneity because, ultimately, the bluesman's exuberance is translated to the younger speaker, who, in this aspect perhaps, represents the next generation.
The "poor piano," which later in the poem is an "old piano," moans. The stool the bluesman sits upon is rickety, such as an old man's body might be. The tune is sad and raggedy, and even the light in the room is from "an old gas light." The speaker never says the singer is old, but by describing the instrument and set pieces, Hughes conveys the idea of an old man to the listener or reader of the poem. The bluesman's body may be old, but his soul—coming through the music he plays—has the vibrancy of youth. Hughes juxtaposes body and soul to highlight the transforming power of music, to show how music is connected to the soul, to provide a contrast between body and soul, and to create a sense of admiration for the old bluesman. The speaker's adoration for the bluesman and the music the bluesman plays so skillfully serves to create a sense of veneration for the experienced bluesman, who is characterized as playing his tune "like a musical fool." Fools are often associated with hidden wisdom—and wisdom is associated with age. Though a fool plays the part of a jokester, through using mockery to poke fun at others, the fool often gets away with serious criticism and displays clever wit and insight. The allusion to the archetype of the fool adds to the sense of the bluesman being aged and wise.
And it is no accident that a sense of mortality lurks just under the surface of the poem. Hughes creates this effect in just a few interspersed lines: "I ain't happy no mo' / And I wish that I had died"; "The stars went out and so did the moon"; and the last words of the poem, "or a man that's dead." Despite this sense of inevitable death and the bluesman "having "nobody in all this world"—as the older generation often is left to feel as time wears on—the speaker believes the bluesman will sing and perform until dawn. The sense Hughes leaves the listener with is that the old man will sing and play his music until the day he dies, and, ultimately, this sense ends the poem on a note of profound joy.
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