Joanna Muralles

English 102

Professor Batty

16 October 2017

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

David Henry Hwang's drama M. Butterfly was influenced by a real life event between a

spy and a French Diplomat and surrounds its events around the infamous opera known as

Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini. In the opera by Puccini a Japanese woman marries a

U.S. navy man, who treats her without respect but still she remains devoted to him and

ultimately gives her life for him becoming his concept of a butterfly. The play M. Butterfly calls

into question the power dynamics of the Western man by doing a full analyzation we find out

who actually upholds the position of power. Hwangs drama casts the stereotypic figure of men

from the Western countries who are see themselves as having power over the Easterners.

To fully analyze the text and its power dynamics I will apply a Postcolonial Criticism

lens. Postcolonial theory goes deeper into the power, political and economical structure area. It

helps figure out who has the upper hand in the stories and how the countries with more power

often see themselves as better, being the standard example and eventually ending up colonizing

other countries. Postcolonial Criticism is shown in the drama between the Western viewpoints on

the Eastern countries and it is easy to identify by looking at examples of relationships between

the characters in the play. The scholarly article written by Samira Sasani says M. Butterfly, on

the other hand,delinates a colonial relationship between a French diplomat and the Chinese opera

singer in which not only the colonizer but also the colonized exerts power and intimidates the
other power. Postcolonial Criticism shows that the chinese opera woman reversed the roles and

proves to the Westerners that stereotyping can be dangerous and that it can help to rob them of

their power

In M Butterfly we have a character named Gallimard and his friends Pinkerton and Marc

who are French Diplomats from the Western country that are sent out to China. Pinkerton unlike

Gallimard is a man who knows his way with women, he knows how to speak to them and attract

with them. Pinkertons characteristics proves that he upholds his masculinity and projects it

through his relationship with woman, his confidence in himself may come from the power that

he believes he maintains. Pinkerton like many other Westerns believe that they have more power

than the Easterns. In a scene of the drama Gallimard and Pinkerton along with their friend Marc

are holding a conversation on their perspective of women from China, Pinkerton says Not like

American girls. Its true what they say about Oriental girls. They want to be treated bad!(scene

3, act 1,pg 6.) He is comparing the women of China to American women saying that the women

of China are unworthy and that he can treat them without respect and the way he would please,

because that is supposedly how they want to be treated. I am certain that this is not true, no one

ever wishes to be disrespected, Pinkertons thoughts all originates from the concept that the men

of the West believing that the women would die and sacrifice for them because of the reputation

that the Westerns have as being powerful men. This is an example of Westerns seeing

themselves as high and mighty.

Gallimard however does not fit into the stereotypical thoughts of a Western man, he is

shy, awkward and unattractive. Gallimard is aware of his personality and knows that he is not as

masculine as his friends. He is influenced by them and makes attempts to fit into the ideal

thoughts of how a Western man is suppose to act. Song is a chinese opera diva who catches the
attention of Gallimard, he attempts to prove his Western side through her. In a scene

Gallimard explains the first time that he comes across Song he says to himself We, who are

not handsome,nor brave,nor powerful, yet somehow believe, like Pinkerton, that we deserve a

Butterfly. (scene 5, act 1 ). He is overtaken by Songs beauty and the way that she appears to be.

Gallimard is aware of the things that he does not obtain, he is aware of his appearance and the

way that he carries himself but he thinks that he is still worthy because of where he comes from.

Like Pinkerton, Gallimard begins to think that his background makes his deserving of anything

that he wishes for.

Throughout the play Gallimard begins a relationship with Song despite the fact that he is a

married man. This was not uncommon among the Western man, Pinkerton would go on to have

many affairs and even leave his wives showing that this was a of being part masculine in the

Western community. The article titled Colonialism, Imperialism, and Orientalism in David

Henry Hwang M. Butterfly says The resulting play is a textbook execution of postcolonial

deconstruction that dissects the flaws of imperialism by drawing on Edward Saids concepts of

Orientalism and shows that gender characteristics are not innate to their assigned sex, but a

matter of socially constructed performances. (pg 1, paragraph 1) Saids concept says that the

feminine and masculine characteristics are not natural nor are people inherited with these

specific characteristics, they are formed through their social interactions. Gallimard demonstrates

that through his observations of how his colleagues act and the things that he has seen them gain

have a way affecting and shaping his personality. Gallimard becomes infatuated with Song and

the that way she presents herself, he makes many attempts to gather her attention by showing up

to her shows, he views her as the perfect women. As many attempts as he makes to get her

attention Song does not fall for Gallimard which frustrates him, so he decides to no longer visit
her at the opera theater because he knew what would happen next. A scene of the drama shows

Gallimard receiving a letter from Song, the letter reads I am out of words. I can hide behind

dignity no longer. What do you want? I have already given you my shame.(scene 11, act one)

Song is falling under the stereotypical thoughts of Chinese women, she is chasing after

Gallimard which is exactly what he wanted, he knew that once he stopped showing her attention

she would miss it and come looking for him. The fact that Song who is a beautiful and

submissive women comes looking for him and says that she has given him her shame gives

Gallimard a sense of power that he has never experienced but that he always desired. The power

that shes gives to him excites him. She allows for Gallimard to find his masculinity through her

shame and the way that she degraded her position.

Though Song holds up the characteristics of the typical Chinese women she flips the role of

who holds power. She makes Gallimard believe that in their 20 year relationship that he was the

one who held the upperhand. She knew his perspectives of the women from Eastern countries

and she adjusted herself to fit into those stereotypical characteristics in order to manipulate and

use Gallimard for her own benefits. Many years after, Song and Gallimard find themselves in a

courtroom in Paris, Song reveals her true self. In the courtroom it is revealed that Song was a

man all along, she played a woman to lure in Gallimard and obtain valuable information about a

particular war. She was a spy who made Gallimard fall in love with her for the sake of her job. In

the courtroom she was asked by the judge to share her tactics for gathering this information,

Song says The West thinks of itself as masculine-big guns, big industry, big money-so the East

is feminine-weak,delicate,poor but good at art,and full of inscrutable wisdom-the feminine

mystique. She is aware of the Western thoughts on Oriental countries which is what gave her
the power to control Gallimard without him being able to be aware of what she was doing or

revealing who she really was.

Song played a role and fulfilled Gallimard's fantasy of a women, she pleased him and became the

women of his dreams. It was not difficult for her to do so because she knew that the way

Gallimard viewed her was the same way that all Westerners viewed her, as Oriental. Orientalism

is a negative connotation when describing women because orientalism often shows them as

being oppressed and submissive. An article titled Edward Saids Orientalism and the

Representation of Oriental Women in George Orwells Burmese DaysThe term Orientalism

was popularized by Edward Saids groundbreaking text, Orientalism, in which he examines the

process by which the West has Orientalized the Orient. By Orientalism Said means the

collection of stereotypes, distortions, myths, and fantasies which the Occident (the West) has

imposed in order to dominate it.(pg 22, paragraph 2) The idea of being oriented lead to the

Westerners stereotyping and creating fantasies that would allow for them to become the

dominate country, Song proves to them that by doing so they can be broken down and made

weak.

Once Song revealed her true identity it ruined his dreams and made him come back to reality, a

reality where he was made a fool and where his fantasy of a women did not actually exist. Inside

of his prison cell Gallimard says But how can it face the one sin that implies all other? The

devastating knowledge that, underneath it all, the object of her love was nothing more, nothing

less than a man. ( scene three, act three ) Having to face that what he believed for so long was

not truly there and that it came to an end devastated him and ultimately brought him to his death,

Gallimard committed suicide and chose to have a death with honor. Gallimard took his life

because he could not bare the truth that his women was a man crushing his fantasy, that she
played him and stripped him of his power in front of others. An article by William A. Henry

quotes Hwang recalling what interested him to write the play was the idea of the perfect

woman. A real woman can only be herself, but a man, because he is presenting an

idealization,can aspire to the idea of a perfect woman. In the drama Gallimard was blinded by

the concept of Song being the his ideal woman that he never bothered to look past her concept.

The fact that Gallimard was so blinded by his fantasy of Song gave her the advantage to

manipulate Gallimard to her own benefit. The fact that the Westerners stereotyped women from

Eastern countries also gave her an advantage because it was not difficult to know what they were

looking for, she knew exactly what Gallimard wanted without having to ask him.

Song publicly humiliated Gallimard by revealing her true identity that Gallimard was

unaware of for 20 years making others view him as a joke and stupid. In the end it seemed like

Gallimard had finally found his masculine side but it is the chinese woman Song who proved that

she obtained power. She was granted the power, she came from an Eastern country where they

were seen as little and where power was something she was not destined to obtain but she

skillfully took over a white Western man. She reversed the roles of who possessed power and

proved that they shouldnt stereotype people because they can be proved otherwise..
 Work Cited

1.Dickey, Jerry R. 'Myths of the East, Myths of the West': Shattering Racial and Gender

Stereotypes in the Plays of David Henry Hwang. Old West-New West: Centennial Essays,

edited by Timothy J. Sisler, University of Idaho Press, Moscow, 1993, pp. 272280

2.Hwang, David. M. Butterfly. New York:New American Library, Dramatics Play

Service Inc , 1988,pp. 100.

3.Horn, Jason J. Colonialism, Imperialism, and Orientalism in David Henry Hwang M.

Butterfly. Literary Ramblings, May 2014.

4.Sasani, Samira. The Colonized (the Other) and the Colonizer's Response to the

Colonial Desire of 'Becoming Almost the Same but Not Quite the Same' in M. Butterfly.

Journal of Language Teaching and Research, vol. 6, no. 2, Mar. 2015, p. 435.

5. Saif, Edward. Edward Saids Orientalism and the Representation of Oriental Women in

George Orwells Burmese Days. 22 Sept. 2015.