Act III of David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly contains yet another surprise for the audience. It is in these final scenes of the play that the revelation of Song as a man is played out both in court and in a final encounter between Song and Gallimard. Hwang has purposely structured the play in a way that highlights and explains the racial stereotype that Western men hold over Eastern women, and then proceeds to prove this stereotype as utterly wrong.
Scene 1 of Act III consists of a conversation between the judge of the courtroom and Song in which several questions that the reader/audience may have been wondering are brought to attention. Clearly, everyone wants to know how Gallimard could not know that Song was, in fact, a man if they were engaging in sexual relations—for 20 years. Song replies simply, stating “men always believe what they want to hear” (82). Gallimard believed Song was a woman “because when he finally met his fantasy woman, he wanted more than anything to believe that she was, in fact, a woman” (83). Also within his answer to the judge, Song includes a concise explanation of how the Western man views the Eastern woman. He describes it as the “international rape mentality towards the East” (82) in which “her mouth says no, but her eyes say yes” (83). The idea of Eastern women as modest and shy is prominent throughout the play, as is the notion that Eastern women actually want to be dominated by Western men. What upsets this Eastern stereotype is completely uncovered in scenes 2 and 3.
In scene 2, Song and Gallimard switch roles. Just as Gallimard found joy in forcing Butterfly to admit her shame in the letter, Song is also mercilessly attempting to force Gallimard to admit his undying love for him, even as a man. Song prods at Gallimard, saying “Now, open your eyes and admit it—you adore me” (89). Recall the “international rape mentality”. Gallimard’s mouth is saying no, but Song prompts him to “open [his] eyes”. In the end, Gallimard realizes that he, himself, is Butterfly. He has given up everything—even his freedom—in pursuit of Butterfly. He has been pinned, quite literally, and tragically ends his story with the announcement of his true name: Madame Butterfly. Clearly, Gallimard’s stereotypical beliefs of Eastern woman turned against him for the worst.
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I liked Katie’s choice of the word "pinned," since it actually holds quite a bit more than just the fact that Gallimard was the defeated Butterfly. When you pin a butterfly, it's almost guaranteed that more will join it. Song himself may not have captured more than one butterfly, or at least he never mentions it, but he says several times that he could if he wanted to. He even says to the judge, “You’ve maybe heard those phrases a few times in your own life, yes, Your Honor?”, referring to phrases that women say to men because men want to hear them, such as “this is my first time” and “that’s the biggest I’ve ever seen”. He assumes that all butterflies are the same, which is ironically what he's accusing the west of doing.
ReplyDeleteIn the end, however, one cannot entirely say that Song was Pinkerton and Gallimard was Butterfly. Yes, in the end, Gallimard dies, Song is still alive, Song abuses Gallimard, Song treats Gallimard like an inferior. But, in the imaginings of Gallimard, Song tries to go back to Gallimard, and Gallimard rejects him. Gallimard, here is the unworthy one who is being pined after by his Asian mistress. Even if just in his mind. I think this shows that Gallimard still has some Pinkerton left in him. Enough, at least, to make things worse for people around him and to refuse love that he doesn’t deserve. We even get Song saying, “So, you never really loved me?” And then he says, “Men. You’re like the rest of them.” Even Song admits that there are still traces of that relationship left. Certainly, it would be a far stretch to say that Gallimard is all Pinkerton and Song is all Butterfly, but it would be another far stretch to assume the other way.
I think that Katie referenced one of the most important switches of the play. The quotes helped to justify her reasoning and I agree that these key quotes also help the reader to justify what is going on, to get a literal interpretation. I was dumbfounded as to how Gallimard could not know that Song was a man, but the quote, "Men always believe what they want to hear." However, my mind only gives some lenience to this fact. I think Gallimard had to know on some level. Song mentions that whenever they "made love" his face was down. I think that Gallimard would have to be a pretty jaded man to not realize the reason for Song not facing him during intercourse. I believe the quote above could be a parallel to the cliche, "Love is blind." Gallimard simply did not want to face the fact that Song was a man, so he allowed himself to be blind to Song's gender. I'm sure that they "brushed" up against each other, like mentioned in the play, but instead of confronting the issue, Gallimard chooses to be "blind."
ReplyDeleteI also believe that Katie brought up a good point that Gallimard is Butterfly. This shows that the stereotypes between the Western and Eastern worlds are not true. Men can be vulnerable and submissive- and from the Western world. They just have to “believe” that there perfect woman is, in fact, a woman. This also proves that women from the East could be in control, except when it was brought to everyone’s attention that Song was a man, he brings up that he is not considered a man. Since he has feelings for Gallimard, his sexual orientation is not desirable among his countrymen.
I wanted to note that I love the ambiguity of the title, "M. Butterfly." Hwang wrote in his afterword that he was first thinking of "Mousier Butterfly", but his wife suggested that that would be too obvious.
I agree with the majority of what Katie wrote and found her focus on the aspect of Eastern and Western mentalities to be interesting. I wrote about the theme of control in my last blog post and it seems to pertain to this final section of the play because of the interesting reversal of roles at the end when Song attempts to convince Gallimard of his own intentions. In her blog post, Katie focuses on the opposing views and stereotypes of the East and the West and how they are represented in this final section. As Noah commented, the word "pinned" seems entirely appropriate to describe Gallimard during the second scene and it made me think of a connection between it and an earlier scene in the play. The theme of control still pertinent, the scene in which Gallimard has his first sexual experience with a woman who was paid to be involved with him was described in the very same way as this final scene. In both cases, while the first was physically and the second metaphorically, Gallimard was "pinned" down and unable to attain control over the situation. After his first sexual experience during which he had no control, Gallimard attempts to control every other aspect of his life, especially in his relationship with Song. After this final scene when Gallimard is once again "pinned" down, he makes another attempt to control all aspects of his life by ultimately ending it by his own hands. I found Gallimard's suicide to be extreme at first yet, after making the connection between the two scenes with the theme of control in mind, it seemed only fitting. Just as earlier in his life when Gallimard had a moment during which he had no control and attempted to gain it after, he does it again in these final pages by taking his own life. On the whole, I found the opposing viewpoints of the East and the West highlighted in this play to be interesting and important yet I believe the main underlying theme is that of control.
ReplyDeleteI was glad to see several people mention the courtroom scene – Act III, scene 1 – in their lead blogs. This scene held a lot of interest to me, for a number of reasons. First of all, it actually gives answers. In the rest of the play, there is always something being kept from the audience, although the characters themselves seems to know everything that has happened in the past and will happen in the future. But the courtroom scene is where everything comes out into the open. However, it doesn't actually answer all the questions.
ReplyDeleteIt’s not that hard to understand what is going on in the courtroom scene in the strictest sense. Song, as a man, is explaining what had happened between him and Gallimard. At this point in the play, the judge (played by Toulon) stands in for the entire audience. He asks the questions everyone is dying to know. And yet we still never really see this from Gallimard’s point of view. He does admit that he accepts that Song is a man, but we never get to find out what he saw and felt during their affair (not necessarily in a sexual way). Gallimard admits that on some deeper level he must have known, and was only trying to keep his fantasy intact by denying the truth. But the audience, despite seeing Song walk around naked on the stage for a while, is never shown any doubt or awkward moments between Song and Gallimard. This is where Hwang’s writing really shows its cleverness.
Even taking into consideration all the strange and bizarre things today’s audience can tolerate, there is a certain limit that most people have to what they see or hear. A reference from Shakespeare comes to mind about this sort of thing – in The Taming of the Shrew, the audience hears about a priest getting punched, and is able to laugh about it, but if that had been shown onstage, it would have lost its humor. The same sort of thing applies to this play. Even though there are still some, if not unanswered questions, then lingering uncertainties about exactly how Gallimard was so blind to Song’s true gender, it is better to have those lingering questions than face definite answers.