Abstract The paper discusses figures of sight and blindness used in the play "M Butterfly" examining Gallimard and Song's relationship in the greatest detail. A look at the Western depiction of Eastern women.
From the paper:
"David Henry Hwang uses figures of seeing and not-seeing to depict the relationship between the East and the West in his play M. Butterfly, an inversion of Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly. Gallimard can turn a blind eye to the fact that Song is a man in disguise because of his deeply-ingrained, stereotypically Western fantasy of Eastern women as submissive, fragile ?Madame Butterflies.? Gallimard is so enamored of the Madame Butterfly fantasy that he cannot see past it, and he is blinded to the obvious fact that his ?Butterfly? is a far cry from the original."
Tags:butterfly, colonial, cultural, david, east, english, henry, hwang, multi, play, post, studies, west
Historical account of Giacomo Puccini's careet in relation to his famous opera, Madama Butterfly, with comment on the opera's strengths and weaknesses.
1,150 words (approx. 4.6 pages), 5 sources, 2002, $ 44.95
Abstract The popularity of Giacomo Puccini's 1904 opera Madama Butterfly has endured for nearly a century, despite both positive and negative views expressed by critics. This paper traces the evolution of Puccini's career in relation to this composition and describes the history, strengths, and weaknesses of the opera.
Abstract This paper describes the Monarch Butterfly in great detail, such as why does it have the bright colors and what do they mean? It states that the life of a Monarch Butterfly is quite complicated. The Monarch Butterfly is watched closely to prevent it from being extinct.
Table of Contents
Butterflies are Invertebrates
The Monarch"Danaus Plexippus
The Life Cycle of a Monarch
Lincoln Brower and the Monarch Butterfly Brad Darrach and the Monarch Butterfly The Monarch Butterfly Will It Be an Endangered Species"
The El Rosario Monarch Reserve
More Monarch Butterflies Killed and Solutions
From the Paper "The butterfly comes from the Lepidoptera, which is a Greek word meaning that the wings are covered in scales. Butterflies have compound eyes on either side of the head. The eyes are and made up of thousands of lensed-eyes called "ommatidia". They are not able to see fine detail, but are able to detach if they have a predator."
Abstract This paper explains that there are four concrete stages of metamorphosis in the life of a butterfly, listing these stages as the egg stage, the caterpillar/larva stage, the pupa/chrysalis, and finally the butterfly stage in which the complete butterfly emerges. The paper describes the processes and changes that take place in each of these stages and points out how the final stage of the butterfly's metamorphosis has become the universal image for various transformations.
From the Paper "The lifecycle of the butterfly, namely metamorphosis, is a symbol of transformation. The process of Metamorphosis has four stages; each stage can be used to symbolize the life process on a diacritical level. The essence of this change of form can clearly be seen when one observes an ungainly, crawling caterpillar morph into a delicate, brightly colored flying butterfly. It is crucial to note that not only is this process beautiful, it is complex as well. Metamorphosis is controlled by a blend of genetic messages and hormones residing inside the organism, though it can also be influenced by environmental factors such as diet and temperature (Metamorphosis, 2). Additionally, Metamorphosis is defined as a marked and more or less abrupt developmental change in the form or structure of an animal occurring subsequent to birth or hatching."
Abstract 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."
Tags: exotic, persona, race, gender, personal, identity, Asian-American, Tony, Award
From the Paper "Playwright David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly is based on a true story. In 1964, a French diplomat stationed in China fell in love with a native Chinese opera singer, lived with her for twenty years, and believed he had fathered a child by her, and then discovered she was a man. One would expect Hwang's play to be a farce -- and yet it is not a farce at all. It is a deeply riveting study of not only the psychology of two individuals but of the way the West stereotypes the East and prefers its fantasies to the reality of a changing Orient."
Abstract The paper explains how the play and film of "M. Butterfly" both tell the same story in much the same way, but there are some details that are very different and the way elements are emphasized is different. It shows how both the play and the film raise the same essential question for the viewer, though, a question that was originally raised by the true story on which each is based: Given that the diplomat in the story has an affair for several years with a man dressed as a woman and claimed not to know that this was a man and not a woman, how is this possible?
From the Paper "The external world of the film is more realistic than the "suggested" world of the stage, and this also undercuts the way the play deals with the conflict between reality and illusion because it makes reality more real and the illusion more obviously an illusion. The way Hwang develops Song Liling contributes to the essential deconstruction of Madame Butterfly, for while Song Liling decries the story of the opera, he makes use of it to seduce Gallimard and plays the part of Cio-Cio San in their relationship. "
Abstract This paper focuses on the theme of seduction in the play ?Madame Butterfly?. The writer concentrates on the complicated relationship between Gallimard and Song. The author indicates that while it appears to be the story of a man being tricked by a woman, it later becomes known that Song is actually a man trying to save himself from the new Chinese communist government. The paper concludes by highlighting how the themes of seduction could be accentuated in a production of the play, through the set, lighting and music.
From the Paper "In the play the character Gallimard, is seduced by both Song and by his own idea of Song. The seduction of Gallimard is a seduction perpetrated by his own stereotyped ideal of what an Asian woman is and can be for a white man mainly, submissive and by his actual seduction by Song the actor. In the very beginning of the interaction between Gallimard and Song there is the hint of a deception. Song laughs at him when he tells her that she made a convincing butterfly. "Convincing as a Japanese Women"? she says. (Hwang, 1988 17) Yet, Gallimard must have given her some real indication that he believed that she was a woman, or she was just desperate to win the favor of someone who could give her the information that she needed to save herself".
Abstract A four page examination of Ernest Hemingway's short story, "The butterfly and the tank" as a metaphor of Hemingway and the war itself as perceived by his critical contemporaries.
Abstract "M. Butterfly" deconstructs Western stereotypes of the East and the women of the East. It reveals the multiplicity of individual relationships and their meanings in social and political contexts. Within the duality of masculinity-femininity and West-East, the play brings forth the aspects of power embedded in Western stereotypes of the femininity of the East, which is comparable to the power involved in political imperialism. With the deconstruction of the stereotypes and reversal of the duality, the play leads the audience to new political consciousness and look at the Western as well as Eastern stereotypes critically.
Abstract This paper is a research project "thesis" and a literature review for an environmental science unit for children about monarch and swallowtail butterflies.
Abstract To understand the power of incest literature, one must also understand the symbolic power of the act and then develop a clear concept of how it applies within the structure of the story. Cain's, "The Butterfly", is a work that took the author several years of sporadic work to complete. Incest is more than simply a sexual act between members of the same family, it is a representative of the betrayal of the self and of the violent division of the body from the mind. We understand, from the archetypal Oedipus Rex, that incest, whether it be imagined or real, does not find its true power to destroy through its physical side. Instead, incest is an absolute betrayal of the soul and abuse of the mind.
Abstract This paper discusses the gender conflict in the play 'M Butterfly' by David Henry Hwang. According to the paper, this work is based on the romantic relationship of Song and Gallimard. In many ways, Gallimard offers a typical sexist male gender role behavior toward the typically female, Song. These gender norms appear to be colluding in unison for the couple, but are ultimately destroyed when Gallimard learns if his lovers true sex. This provides the foundation for gender norms, and Hwang reverses these roles in a clever plot twist through romance, espionage, and culture.
From the Paper "This drama study will analyze the gender conflict that arises within the play: M Butterfly by David Henry Hwang. Much of the play revolves around Song, and her unique ability to seduce Gallimard with her submissive and seemingly passive female behaviors. However, the backdrop to her femininity is merely a mask for the male gender intrigue that surrounds her real identity as a man. In this study, the basis of gender conflict within this story reveals the darker side of male-female relationships through the conflicting masquerades of character identity within this play by David Henry Hwang. The initial and defining role of Song in this play revolves around the imperialistic sexism of Rene Gallimard, a French diplomat traveling through China. "
Abstract The paper relates that Julia Alvarez' novel "In the Time of the Butterflies" is based on the real story of the four Mirabal sisters, who take an active part in the Fourteenth of June Movement against the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. The paper discusses how Catholicism is a very important element in the novel and demonstrates how religion shapes the very culture and identity of the Dominican nation.
From the Paper "The main functions of the church in human life are those of kerygma or witness, litourgia or worship and diakonia or service. All of these three functions indicate the roles that the Catholic Church should play in the life of man, namely to witness the religion of Jesus Christ and to perpetuate it, to worship God as the sole divinity and to do service to men, that is to protect and support them at any time. In Alvarez' novel, the Church fails at the beginning in its main functions, as it becomes involved in the political game of power. When the Catholic Church backs the regime of Trujillo, it forgets the essential duties to God and man: it no longer acts as a witness to God when it comes to obey a single man, the dictator."
