In Act III, scene two, Gallimard and Song have a very interesting conversation. Song is very rude and domineering, saying things like, "C'mon. Admit it. You still want me. Even in slacks and a button-down collar" (85). His arrogance and complete disregard for Gallimard's feelings makes him seem like a womanizer himself. I believe the author meant to insinuate that Song has been Pinkerton all along.
In conjunction with this role reversal, Gallimard turns into Butterfly at the end of Act III, donning her kimono and wig. This gives very strong implications that Gallimard was, in fact, the woman in his relationship with Butterfly. Thinking back to earlier scenes, Gallimard had felt so empowered and manly from tricking Butterfly into sending him letters and giving him her shame. When it turns out it is actually he who has been duped (and he finally accepts this fact in the previous scene when Song drops his pants), he transforms into Butterfly, the woman because women are the ones stereotypically "fooled" by love.
It is also interesting to note that, while Gallimard is the butterfly and has figuratively been "captured" by Song, Gallimard is also literally captured--in prison. I consider this very nice foreshadowing that Hwang sets up in the very beginning of the play.
For a moment I thought that Gallimard had learned from his story. Specifically, that male/female and West/East stereotypes are incorrect and highly insulting. After all, Gallimard had been in denial for years about Song's true gender. Accepting Song as a man has to mean he understands, right?
Wrong.
Gallimard says, "Tonight, I've finally learned to tell fantasy from reality" (90). Okay, that's good news! Then he continues: "And, knowing the difference, I choose fantasy." While he accepts Song as a man, he does not accept that stereotypes and fantasies are what have ultimately harmed him.
Because Gallimard is a symbol of Western culture, I believe there is a tie to the Vietnam War. To me, the Vietnam War was a misperception not much different from Gallimard's misperception of Song's gender. Gallimard saw Song as a submissive woman who he could save in his "big Western arms" because it was his fantasy. The American government saw what they wanted to see in Vietnam because their fantasy was to save a country from communism and spread democracy.
However, has America realized this yet? I believe many have not. In fact, I think many see it as a mistake, just as Gallimard sees his predicament; but, also like Gallimard, they have yet to address the stereotypes that led them to disaster.
I agree with Jessi on her analysis of Gallimard being Song’s Butterfly instead of the other way around, but I want to plunge deeper. I want to discuss how this role reversal and the fact that a woman’s role is actually played by a man contributes to the Western man’s perception of weak and strong.
ReplyDeleteFrom my first read of this script, I kept wondering why Hwang made Song’s role played by a man? This play is inspired by Giacomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, this we have already decided in class, but in Puccini’s opera, Butterfly is played by a woman not a man. I believe Hwang made a man portray Song’s character because it shows two powerful points that Hwang wants to make clear to his audience.
The first point is that the West is weaker than the East, but Western society believe so much in masculinity and proving the size of our penis to every country that challenges us, that we are blinded by our egos and pride to who is really in control. The West is like a band of rockstars, going wild, showing off how much money and how many women (other countries) they can get and control, but behind every great man is an even greater woman. The East is the subtle wife of the rockstar, watching every move that the West makes, and it studies all its mistakes, waiting for the right moment to get a divorce and wipe the West dry of everything it has. Song is the subtle wife, but beneath her kimono surface, the strength of a wise man lurks, waiting to pounce.
Hwang’s second point, and I probably believe this because I am a woman, is that the stereotypical relationship between a man and a woman is wrong. Song represents smart women around the world because she acts like she is a helpless, submissive woman to get Gallimard exactly where she wants him. Once she has him thinking she is butter in his hands, which is quite the opposite of what’s really happening, she strips away her feminine stereotype and reveals her masculine side. Suddenly, Song is a man and he reveals that he’s been in control the entire time. I believe Hwang is saying that women are always in control of a man, but they do not always let the man know that.
I completely agree with the idea that, by the end of the play, Gallimard figuratively transforms into Butterfly (just as he does so literally) and that Song becomes Pinkerton, the embodiment of the powerful, domineering West. I also agree with Jessi in that it’s incredibly sad and pathetic that Gallimard, instead of accepting his enlightenment about Song’s sexuality, takes his own life in an attempt to preserve his fantasy. On the one hand, I do pity him – it cannot be easy to go on living with someone “after twenty years of betrayal.” But I cannot understand how he could kill himself over his own mistake. I guess that, despite his desire to associate himself with and be Pinkerton – Pinkerton the powerful, the wealthy, the man “very few of us would pass up the opportunity to be” – he had an even deeper desire to be Butterfly, to be the one who was taken care of…by having Song fool him into thinking that everything (his job, their relationship, the world) was alright. In a way, he still, as Butterfly, attempts to be a Pinkerton; by choosing to believe in the fantasy rather than the truth, he is in control of his own destiny. But what kind of destiny is death? Once the act is over, how could he possibly be sure of what will happen, let alone who is making the decisions? So Hwang, by having Gallimard commit seppuku, places him irrevocably in a stereotypically female role (where he lets an outside force – his own immaterial fantasy – consume and control him), while Song, as the representative of a dominant, masculine identity, coolly watches his demise. As a representative of the West, Song does not attempt to stop Gallimard’s suicide – after all, Gallimard is no longer of use to him as a spy (just as the West takes no significant interest in countries unless those areas help them by supplying oil, by bordering a communist nation, etc.); all Song, and the West, does is question his lack of existence once he’s gone. Hwang could also use Song as a symbol of the East, to prove that the West will not always, nor should it, prevail in struggles with them. In this light, Song’s symbolic association becomes as ambiguous as the rest of play: East, West, masculine, feminine…the dividing stereotypes are not real or important, only the actions taken by the players.
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