M.Butterfly by David Henry Hwang

M.Butterfly by David Henry Hwang

The background of the story was from 1960 to 1980. The story had happened in real lives. David Henry Hwang directed the movie according to Giacomo Puccini’s famous opera “Madame Butterfly”. The French diplomat, Rene Gallimard,who went to see the opera “Madame Butterfly” and the important role was acted by Song Liling, who was actually a man masquerading as a woman. And he fell in love with Song. In fact, Song was a spy from Chinese and he wanted to get some information from Rene. When they were having sex, Song always took Chinese tradition for an excuse to deceive Rene for fear that he, in fact, is a man. In others words, Rene had never seen Song’s naked body and Song even lied that he was pregnant. And then, he divorced his wife Helga because he loved Song so much. After that since Rene has been sent back to France, Song was no longer useful to the Chinese government and was put in a reeducation camp for being an artist. Song came to France and reunioned with Rene. Song used their son for an excuse, so Rene had no choice but to be a spy. Finally, Rene was convicted of treason and imprisoned. At that time, Rene found the woman he loved was actually a man. He was not able to accept the truth and eventually committed suicide in jail.

Analysis:

We think that Song can completely realize Rene’s mental desire, so he can deceive Rene and made him fell in love with “her”. In other words, western men want their women to be obedient to them and take their husbands’ needs for the most important one. For western men, eastern women are mysterious, conservative and traditional. These are the reason why Song can deceive Rene for so long time. Actually, Rene loved the image of Chinese they thought rather than Song. In cultural aspects, men always took the role of women in Chinese operas. Apparently, Rene did not understand Chinese culture. In the end, the reason why Rene committed suicide is that he was totally mental disorders about genders and frustrated him because of his thought – men were everything for women. However, the “perfect woman” he devoted and loved was a man.

Gallimard’s confession

There are two scenes in the end of the film that expressed Gallimard’s dilemma. One is after the judgment on Gallimard and Song, Song said he was still Gallimard’s Butterfly and asked Gallimard to say that he loves him. However, Gallimard said he didn’t love Song, what he really loved was the illusion of eastern imagination. Another is Gallimard dressed him self into Madama Butterfly in the jail. Although he had said that he didn’t love Song, he confessed that he gave all his love to the Asian illusion. Gallimard committed suicide due to his ridiculous passion toward the mysterious illusion of eastern women. It may not just feel ashamed, also Gallimard refused to believe his illusion was wrong. In Gallimard’s mind, the relationship with Song might be the best moment of his lie. Once his belief had been destroyed, he felt worthless of his entire life. While other people could not understand his love, he rather chose to die with dignity in order to protect his belief.

Who is the real M. Butterfly?

In the first conversation between Gallimard and Song, Gallimard said Madame Butterfly was a pure sacrifice. Song said that because it is an oriental woman kills her self for a white man then Gallimard found it beautiful. If it was a blond western woman killed her self for a short Japanese businessman, he would say she was an idiot. It is a contrast with Gallimard’s death. The truth is, Gallimard is the butterfly who killed him self instead of the Asian woman in Madame Butterfly version. When Gallimard realized who he had deeply loved was a man, his self identification was totally destroyed. Gallimard could not stand what he had loved was not he imagined, and then he chose not to face the truth forever. However, Song did not kill him self in the film. Hwang has reversed the stereotype of races and genders in the story and also showed prejudice in favor of Asian people. It could be considered as Hwang’s expression of Asian American’s self-identification. When the second generation of Asian American fell into a dilemma of self-identification, it might be the same situation with Gallimard. In M. Butterfly, Hwang may imply his self-identification that his Asian identity is more valuable than American.