"M. Butterfly"

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses how "M. Butterfly" is a play about the power of stereotypes to do harm, both to the person and the culture they are inflicted against, and also against the people who hold such stereotypes. The paper describes how, at the end of the play, Gallimard is destroyed because he realizes his life was based upon a lie, just as China was harmed by the lies and exploitation of Western colonialism. The paper examines how the conflict of gender, national, and identity issues are dramatically depicted in David Hwang's "M. Butterfly," when the French diplomat Rene Gallimard falls in love with a feminine image of the East, in the persona of the actress Song Liling.

From the Paper:

"Gallimard has a psychological as well as a national and gender based need to see Song as feminine. Thus, the gender disguises of the play do not merely invert stereotypes of male and female, Asian and West. They also destroy the security of Gallimard's own identity as a strong, male Westerner with power. Song Liling is not only a man. Song uses Gallimard's own cultural stereotypes to exploit the Frenchman. Gallimard begins the play thinking he is the Western, White man taking advantage of the virginal 'Oriental' maiden. But like the opera's "Madam Butterfly," Gallimard ends the play abandoned, disgraced, cut off from his countrymen and finally suicidal. Thus Gallimard's own secure identity as a powerful man has been so undercut, he cannot live with himself, because he no longer knows who he is as a person."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Aliener, Karren. "M. Butterfly: David Henry Hwang.' 29 Sept 2004. Culture Vulture. 25 Mar 2006. http://www.culturevulture.net/Theater7/MButterfly.htm
• "David Henry Hwang." Bedford St. Martin's. 1999. 25 Mar 2006. <http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/litlinks/drama/hwang.htm>
• Landow, George. "Orientalism: Pro & Con." 18 Mar 2002. 25 Mar 2006http://www.postcolonialweb.org/poldiscourse/said/orient14.html
• "Madam Butterfly: Story Origins." BalletNotes Home Page. Compiled 1996. 25 Mar 2006. < http://www.balletmet.org/Notes/ButterflyStory.html#anchor299340>
• Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Pantheon: 1977. Excerpted in part on the Post Colonial Web in "Three forms of Orientalism." Maintained by George Landow 18 Mar 2002. 25 Mar 2006. <http://www.postcolonialweb.org/poldiscourse/said/orient4.html>

More papers on "M. Butterfly":

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• Film Review # 9442 : "M. Butterfly"

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