Literary Analysis Essay on Madame Butterfly

Introduction

The story of "Madame Butterfly" written by David Henry Hwang, is now more well-known than the actual story it was based upon; the relationship between a French diplomat Rene Gallimard and Song Liling, a Chinese opera singer. Particularly, the story is more famous because of the way Mr. Hwang explores the central theme of masculinity and sexism towards women in the book and in most cultures around the world. In his play "Madame Butterfly", the author David Henry Hwang offers a great analysis in the intercultural conflicts in Puccini's story and portrays a traditional connection between authorship, masculinity and sexism. According to Bates (n.p), sexism is defined as the discrimination, prejudice or stereotyping of a person, mostly the female individuals on the basis of sex. Throughout the book, Mr. Hwang portrays sexism through the behaviors and the actions of the protagonist character, Rene Gallimard. Even more, the author reveals the theme of sexism and masculinity through the actions and the conversions of various characters in the book. Ideally, through Rene Gallimard and Song Liling, the author explores different prejudices and stereotypes against female characters in the book and how these discriminations not only affect the women but also leads to the demise of the male individuals.

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In the opening scene of the play, the author David Henry Hwang presents the protagonist, Rene Gallimard, as a character who the audience identifies with due to his lack of masculinity. The beginning of the play starts with Gallimard in a prison cell where he is seen to be shouting the word "Butterfly" to an imaginative character who the audience later finds out to be a fantasy. For this reason, he gets mocked repeatedly, which reinforced his lack of confidence over time. In essence, since childhood, Gillarmad has suffered from the hegemony devised by society, which continues to contribute to his lack of masculinity. As a matter of fact, he was once voted by his school's classmates as the least person to be invited to a party. When he meets his friend Marc, Gallimard starts to see how much lack of masculinity weighs on him as he compares himself to his friend who is often referred to as the "ladies man". Being a good friend, Marc tries to urge the protagonist to reclaim his manhood, which puts the pressure on Gallimard. In fact, as a champion of hegemonic masculinity, Marc criticizes anything that goes against what he considered to be the norm of what a man should be. At some point, he suggests to Gallimard a weekend away on a cabin somewhere; however, the problem with the idea to Rene was that the cabin was filled with college girls. Eventually, this pushes Gallimard to discover the Playboy magazine, which he sees as a source of power to his emasculated personality:When I first saw them in the closet, my body shook. Not with lust but with power. A shelf-full of women who would do exactly as I wanted (Hwang 10).

After discovering the Playboy magazines, Gallimard starts to search for a woman who would fulfil his dream of becoming "king" and Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" provided just the right platform for his fantasy to become a reality. The opera which debuted at La Scala in Milan allows the protagonist to view himself as a significant and a dominant man over the submissive Asian Woman. It is a story portraying the masculinity as witnessed in the foreign cultures in the West, subduing the feminine power. Although he had a loving wife, Helga, whom he traveled with to China as a diplomat for France, Gallimard disregards his marriage and describes it as a union of convenience. He states, "I took a vow renouncing love" (Johnson 125), which indicates how much he does not respect his legal Western wife and prefers the feeble Asian women who are relatively submissive.

It is not until his first encounter with Song that Gallimard considers his dream of having a submissive woman in a world in which he already falls short. Indeed, as a feeble butterfly, Song the antagonist stays at Gallimard's feet whenever they are conversing, exaggeratedly complements him on his intellect and influence and even more puts up with his demeaning behaviors even though she claims it takes away her happiness and violates her ethical code. In this case, the antagonist presents herself as being weak and highly vulnerable towards the protagonist, desperate, soft and sexually inexperienced. Unfortunately, through these behaviors and attitude, Song Liling boosts the protagonist's ego, which makes him feel invincible when it comes to women. In particular, the qualities Gallimard indicates a life-altering power which he did not possess before meeting Song and certainly not in his first marriage. "No fantasy woman would ever want me, so, yea, I would settle for a quick leap in the career ladder" (Hwang 14). This clearly indicates that his relationship with his wife was a marriage of convenience and what he truly dreamt of was a vulnerable and a submissive Asian woman. Even more, he uses this undeserved devotion from Song as a means of thriving in his career. Since Butterfly presents herself as weak and harmless in her plea to see him, Gallimard gains some level of confidence that not only earns him respect among his colleagues but also earns him a promotion to a position of leadership and influence.

The culture of discrimination and stereotypes that triggers Gallimard's aggression and confidence in his diplomatic mission in China clearly relate to other destructive prejudices about women. For instance, in the play, Hwang portrays the protagonist and other European compatriots such as his best friend, Marc, as characters who have absolutely no respect for women and usually see them an object who exists solely to satisfy men's' pleasures. For example, in the play, Gallimard states, "And its hero, the man for who she gives up everything..." (Porter 211), which shows the power men have over women and the expectations they have from them. In his justifications for the ill-treatment against women, Mr Gallimard believes that women in their nature prefer someone mentally and physically stronger who can intimidate and dominate them and that male supremacy is the order of the day in any culture. This same sexist assumption, as indicated by the author through Song's court testimony, is the same ideals that most Western countries use in their justification for dominating the Eastern countries. In particular, he points out that Westerners often view Asians as feminine and that their interaction is based on dominance. The Westerners just like men wants to exert absolute power over Asian people and that the Easterners just like women prefer being dominated and controlled. Song believes that it is the same thinking that blinded Gallimard from discovering his real identity; being a man. Moreover, Marc makes it clear when he urges Gallimard to start dating Song:

All your life, you've waited for a beautiful girl who would lay down for you. All your life you smiled like a saint when it happened to every other man you know. And you see them in magazines, and you see them in movies (Hwang 25).

Although Gallimard fell in love with Song Liling at some point, the events following the reenactment of Song's court testimony only proved that Gallimard was more interested in his fantasy rather than real life experiences such as love. Song, due to his love for the protagonist shows him his naked body for the first time thinking that the love he has for Gallimard would compel him to accept that love. He believes that showing his true self to his lover would force him to embrace him and their homosexual intimacy. Sadly for him, he realizes that Gallimard is more fixated on his personal desire of domination than what he actually felt for him. Eventually, Song gets driven from the stage while Gallimard continues to commit himself more passionately to the fantasy of Butterfly. In the end, the protagonist commits suicide over Butterfly which shows just how much this fantasy meant to him and how intense his devotion was to the ideals of a true woman as well as his own ego.

Furthermore, despite things going well with Song, the author indicates that Gallimard still searches for something completely different, something he believes Song still lacks. As they continue with their relationship, Gallimard starts getting bored with his fantastic Butterfly and yearns for something different. Besides Song, he meets a young foreign exchange student from Denmark, Renee, who he thinks is better because of her boldness. Indeed, Renee is no timid woman, and although she looks more feminine compared to the antagonist, tend to be vocal and likes to speak her mind. In her conversation with Gallimard, she openly discusses his penis, which slightly makes him uncomfortable. She even goes further ahead to say that penises are the true cause of wars throughout their "masculine" conversation:

I think that the sole reason why people fight wars is that we wear clothes. No one knows the sizes or who has a bigger penis...the whole world is run by a bunch of mean with penises the size of pins (Hwang 56).

Conclusion

In conclusion, through Rene Gallimard and Song Liling, David Henry Hwang explores different prejudices and stereotypes against female characters in the book and how these discriminations not only affect the women but also leads to the demise of the male individuals. Gallimard starts as a character who lacks masculinity but develops into a person whose only dream is to dominate women. He disregards his wife and begins a relationship with Song, who is more submissive and vulnerable in character. Gallimard and his best friend Marc have zero respect for women and believe it is their nature to be dominated, and it is the nature of men to dominate them. He throws Song out of stage after his court testimony and sticks to his fantasy relationship with Butterfly. Eventually, he decides to date Renee, who he believes a new kind of woman with unique characteristics.

Works Cited

Bates, Laura. Everyday sexism: The project that inspired a worldwide movement. Macmillan, 2016.

Hwang, David Henry. M. Butterfly: With an Afterword by the Playwright. New York: Plume, 2006. Print

Johnson, Marthaj. ""Are You My Butterfly?": The Metamorphosis of M. Butterfly, 1988-2017." Text & Presentation, 2018 15 (2019): 125.

Porter, Natalie. "The butterfly dilemma: Asian women, Whiteness, and heterosexual relationships." Women & Therapy 38.3-4 (2015): 207-219.