June22012

Grouping

We touched upon the grouping the occurs in M. Butterfly in previous classes, such as grouping all Asians and stating that they are all demure and weak, particularly the Chinese and Japanese since Song is Chinese and portrays Butterfly, a Japanese character. Something I did notice was that the entire Asian population is grouped together, but the Chinese language, in particular, was grouped as well. In China, several dialects exist. We see Song speak in Mandarin in Act 1, Scene 10, through the written pronunciation, “Kwai-lah,” which means “fast.” However, later in scene directions and through Gallimard we see the pronunciation, “chong-sam,” which is the Cantonese pronunciation of the traditional Chinese gown. By having Gallimard say it makes it seem that he is not throughly educated about Chinese language and culture. I find this funny because in Act 1, Scene 8, Song says, “Well, education has always been undervalued in the West, hasn’t it?”  Do you guys think that this is grouping? What other examples of grouping did you see in M. Butterfly? 

~Gabby

M. Butterfly gallimard grouping song 

May312012

Fantasies in Reality

Throughout M. Butterfly, we see Gallimard wonder in and out of his fantasies and also confuse his fantasy with reality. For example, we see Gallimard in his fantasy world by calling Song “Butterfly” and viewing her as a stereotypical submissive Asian woman. Although, as the audience, we are aware of the line between reality and Gallimard’s fantasy in the play, sometimes the line is blurred. For example, in Act 3, Scene 2, Gallimard only says, “I am transported,” to notify the audience that this is his fantasy. And in the movie, under the same name, this scene happens in reality. I think by bringing the audience along into the fantasy is another element of “breaking the fourth wall.” By confusing the audience, it allows the viewers to confuse fantasy with reality, just as Gallimard does. What do you guys think about the effect of this confusion? 

~Gabby

m. butterfly gallimard song reality vs. imagination 

May272012
As I was talking about in class the other day, I noticed a connection between M Butterfly and  Thomas Beatie, otherwise known as the Pregnant Man. In M Butterfly, Song pretends to be a woman and claims pregnancy in order to reenforce Gallimard’s false belief that she is a woman. Because Song uses pregnancy to emphasize her womanhood, she asserts the idea that only women are capable of having babies. But Thomas Beatie proved her wrong by being the first man to have a child, but it turns out Beatie was formerly a woman. I have heard that physical attributes are what define the sex, but the way one feels determines their gender. Does this statement make Beatie a woman still? Or does having a uterus make someone a woman? I personally believe that he is still a man, but I know some people may disagree with me, so please respond with your thoughts!  -Amanda

As I was talking about in class the other day, I noticed a connection between M Butterfly and  Thomas Beatie, otherwise known as the Pregnant Man. In M Butterfly, Song pretends to be a woman and claims pregnancy in order to reenforce Gallimard’s false belief that she is a woman. Because Song uses pregnancy to emphasize her womanhood, she asserts the idea that only women are capable of having babies. But Thomas Beatie proved her wrong by being the first man to have a child, but it turns out Beatie was formerly a woman. I have heard that physical attributes are what define the sex, but the way one feels determines their gender. Does this statement make Beatie a woman still? Or does having a uterus make someone a woman? I personally believe that he is still a man, but I know some people may disagree with me, so please respond with your thoughts! 

-Amanda

gender sex m butterfly thomas beatie pregnant man song gallimard 

May232012

Twist and Shout - The Beatles

Haaa alright so this song doesn’t really relate to what I’m going to talk about…. but hey..it’s the last blog post (I think) so what the hay

The reason I thought it *somewhat* related was because everything is getting ‘twisted’…

Anyways, there are many huge contradictions and role reversals we see in M. Butterfly. One being the stereotype of East and West. Towards the end of the play, the idea of “rape mentality” and East being feminine (desiring to be dominated, “want to be treated bad” 1.4, p 6) and the West being masculine (3.1, p 83).  Along with the basis of Madame Butterfly and other references to the West’s superiority, the conclusion of the play proves otherwise. In the end, the ‘superior’ Westerner falls apart at the hands of Song, an Easterner. This also brings up the reversal of gender roles.  Through Song’s actions, we learn a lot about what men think men want (and what men - like Gallimard - expect/want in a woman).  But the words “just a man” in act three, scene two (pg 88) and just the fact that Song has been pretending to be a woman for twenty years brings the roles into question.  We see reversals in power; we see twisted ideas of reality and fantasy - but the last switch I want to discuss is who is Butterfly and who is Pinkerton (who are the parallels between Gallimard and Song).  Throughout the whole story, you are lead to believe that Song is Butterfly, and Gallimard even begins to call her that.  Therefore, you would assume Gallimard is Pinkerton (even though he explicitly said he wasn’t in the beginning of the play). But, in the end we see that Song was the real Pinkerton and it is Gallimard who has been Butterfly.

This play takes many twists and turns and flops over everyone’s idea’s of right and wrong.

-Annsley

M. Butterfly madame butterfly the beatles twist and shout role reversal gender roles gallimard song liling east and west 

May222012

Right before killing himself on page 92 and 93 Act 3, Scene 3, Gallimard says, “Death with honor is better than life… life with dishonor. (He sets himself center stages, in a seppuku position) The love of a Butterfly can withstand many things–unfaithfulness, loss, even abandonment. But how can it face the one sin that implies all others? The devastating knowledge that, underneath it all, the object of her love was nothing more, nothing less than…a man.”

While this quote does most directly depict Gallimard’s transformation into Butterfly but killing himself due to, for simplicity’s sake, abandonment just as Butterfly in Madame Butterfly ends up doing, I think more than that he kills himself out of complete humiliation and loss. Rather than being so noble and living out his fantasy by killing himself, I feel like the shock of realizing his fantasy was nothing more than a fantasy instead of the reality he thought it was also drives him to kill himself. I also think we see a lot of shame from him when he says that death with honor is better than life with dishonor. He sees Song as having made a fool of out him. Today in class we discussed a lot about the idea of this moment being one of power for Gallimard because he gets to live out his fantasy and escape reality but I want to also consider the idea of this scene being one of Gallimard’s weakness. Throughout the book the woman is portrayed as being weak and submissive and in this scene I think Gallimard can be interpreted as submitting to his loss and humiliation through death as an escape. Do you guys think Gallimard’s speech before his suicide represents his strength or weakness?

Ashley

M. Butterfly Hwang david henry hwang gallimard suicide weakness gender roles 

May162012

Gallimard: “I had finally gained power over a beautiful woman, only to abuse it cruelly.” (M. Butterfly, Act I, scene 11)

Gallimard says this after having received letters from Song and he realizes that he has her completely wrapped around his finger. Gallimard relishes this power, because he has never had it before. For example, when he describes his first “experience,” he was in the submissive position, and he only got the girl because his friend Marc helped him out. Having gained this power over a woman all by himself, naturally, the first thing he does is abuse it. He leaves Song hanging for weeks on end only to wait for her to desparately admit that she belongs completely to him. His realization of his power leads us to wonder if he will ever be able to relinquish it. However, knowing this story is based on a real life event, the entire situation is completely ironic since Song is really a man and is playing the role of butterfly to get Gallimard wrapped around his/her finger and to get information from him because he/she is a spy. What do you guys think of Gallimard’s power over Song, or his lack thereof? In this quote does he appear as the “man” or “woman” in his relationship with Song?

-Ashley

david henry hwang m. butterfly gallimard power control 

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