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

Abstract
An analysis of the David Henry Hwang play "M. Butterfly", focusing on issues of imperalism, sexism and racism. The paper considers the prejudicial views of both the East and the West that warp judgment.

From the Paper
""M. Butterfly" is based on a true life story of a minor French Diplomat's long affair with a Chinese Peking Opera star who turned out to be both a spy and a man. The essential themes of the story are Western Imperialism and Eastern duplicity. (Grenier) However, racism, sexism and homophobia are all undercurrents of the story. In the play, Hwang's character song seduces Rene Gallimard and in the..."

Tags:M Butterfly, Hwang, sexism, racism, imperialism

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.

Tags:madama, butterfly

Abstract
This paper shows the sexual gender and stereotype roles in the play "M. Butterfly" by David Hwang.

Tags:david, hwang's, butterfly

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."

Tags:danaus, plexippus, canada, mexico, invertebrates, segmentation, antennae, proboscis, eggs, milkweed, caterpillar, life, cycle, endangered, reserve, automobiles, pesticides, herbicides, fine

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."

Tags:changing, form, continuance, species, lepidoptera, mating, lays, larval, food, plant

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

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
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. "

Tags:French, diplomat, Rene, Gallimard, John, Lone, Song, Liling

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".

Tags:play, complicated, gallimard, song, woman, communist, government, chinese, japanese, story