"M. BUTTERFLY" (DAVID HENRY HWANG).   Term Paper ID:23182 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Analyzes memory play's plot, structure, characters, themes of love & deception.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Analyzes memory play's plot, structure, characters, themes of love & deception. Paper Introduction: M. Butterfly is a memory play in which author David Henry Hwang smoothly switches time and place throughout the play in order to reveal a story that is already known to the narrator and central character, Rene Gallimard. The play is constructed as an "evening" in the theater in which the speaker will take the viewers over his story until his "ideal audience" will come to envy him because he has been loved by "the Perfect Woman" (1936). Hwang (and Gallimard) assume that the audience is already somewhat familiar with the outlines of the story. Yet, just in case anyone is not clear on it, a certain amount of suspense is built in to the play. The opening conversations of the people at a party do not specifically state the case. Their remarks could be understood by anyone who knew the story and would offer hints to those who did not. But the gradual revelation of Song Li's Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Their remarks could be understood by anyone who knew the storyand would offer hints to those who did not. He viewed Asians and women in the manner that wasmore or less prescribed by his own society. Just as Pinkertonwas definitively shown to have betrayed Butterfly, Song has betrayedGallimard. But he never does quite understandbecause, like Butterfly in the opera, he kills himself for love. They probably never asked. There cannot be another work that can be considered to be itsequivalent in terms of its successful treatment of a subject. Littleis said about the fact of spying against his own government and betrayingthem and the Americans to the Chinese. Gallimard proves himself not to be a true member of the club butit has far less to do with Song's gender or with spying than it does withthe fact that he takes it all very personally. This playdoes, after all, represent Gallimard's own version of events and they couldhave been staged in such a way that he was not present at all. If the plot actually revolves around his understandingof what he really was up to, so the action is really the development of thedeception by the two main characters. A personcan be willing to destroy himself or herself for love. WORK CITEDHwang, David Henry. The movement from the unhappy young man who isnever able to find a girlfriend to the man who, when he does find one, diesfor her is the trajectory that outlines Gallimard's development of his ownstory. Thecharacters explain the play's meanings in detail and it almost seems asthough there is nothing else to be said. He effectively removes himself from the action whenever thetruth is being discussed. But the most powerfully expressedtheme of the play is that he cannot do this at all. The structure of the plot and the organization of scenes reflects thestructure of Gallimard's mental representation of the story rather than anyobjective reality. His absence from the Chinscene emphasizes the true degree of his relationship to the Chinese culturefor which he not only speaks but for which he is paid to speak by hisgovernment. He is far less interested in the nature of his response to Song.That is partly because, as he later admits, he must have been disguisingSong's true nature to himself and partly because, having fooled himself, heis willing to make a commitment to the ideal relationship that goes farbeyond what the rules allow. He seeks to liberate himself from time and place by means of thememories he evokes from his prison cell. Did no one ever mention to them that menplayed the women's roles in the opera? Character is plot in an unusual way in this play. At first Hwang's play might not seem to fall into this category. The deepest ironylies in the fact that the Chinese prey on the Vietnamese yet this escapesthose Westerners who think of all Asians as basically the same. But she is not unfriendly or unkind -- shemerely assumes that he too knows the rules. Gallimard says hehas gone over the whole affair many times and he has reached a climax wherehe understands what has happened. While this obviously reflects his physicalabsence at the time, it also clearly creates a parallel between his willedignorance and his current behavior on the stage. Gallimard has said, inintroducing the scene, that the audience will now see why everyone findshis story so amusing and they will see how "We are all prisoners of ourtime and place" (195 ). The play can be considereda masterpiece because ideas such as this are only available after repeatedviewings (or readings) and the audience is drawn back repeatedly to clarifyand rethink what has gone on in that single "evening" that was, forGallimard, different from all the others. The term masterpiece refers to a work of art that is inexhaustible.It takes the greatest skill and talent to create a work, in any medium,that will continue to provide the audience with a fresh experience or withnew ideas in repeated viewings (or readings or hearings). The audience may see Madame Chin as naive in notunderstanding that the Party is willing to use anyone, in any way to getwhat it wants. In another scene with Madame Chin Gallimard remains frozen in placeas Song discusses the need for an appropriate child to present toGallimard. A masterpiece isalso unique. A good example is the question of treason. It must have a voice that is allits own. But it must be a work that addressesa problem in a way no one else has done. The character of Renee, by assuming maleprerogatives, is a little too masculine for Gallimard. But she is committed, in an admittedly unquestioning way,to the Party and Song clearly is not. Gallimard, of course, was also absolutely faithful and true to theideals of his nation. But Song also has learnedFrench and observes the Westerners and his understanding of Westernignorance and attitudes may include some prejudices and biases that arejust as deeply ingrained as those of Gallimard. But the gradual revelation ofSong Li's gender is not so much a function of the presentation of the plotto the audience as it is a function of Gallimard's own review of the story. Song's resentment of the Westernvision of Asians is apparent at all times. The first Madame Chin scene hints that Gallimard willfully withdrewfrom knowledge of the true facts. There is no point where he specifically interjectshimself into the story as the gradual revelation is made. After the scene, inwhich Madame Chin comes very close to stating clearly that Song is a man,Gallimard sticks his head out from the wings of the stage and asks if shehas left. It would be a mistake toaccept everything Song says as the final answer to all these questions.Instead the play asks the audience to work out Gallimard's and Song'sshared complicity along with hundreds of other ideas about gender, race,ethnocentrism, power and human relations. Please continue in your own fashion"(1 51). But, after seeing or reading M.Butterfly, there are certainly more questions that have been raised thancan ever be answered. Overall the play's action is not limited to Gallimard's discovery ofSong's deception. Gallimard and Song work together tocreate their relationship and the play presents an account of theircomplicity in constructing the affair. He only wants to be sure that she, whowould speak the literal truth, is gone in order to allow him to continue.This scene raises many questions, of course, about his knowledge of thelanguage and the culture of China and the knowledge all the otherWesterners had about the culture. The play is constructed as an "evening" in the theater in whichthe speaker will take the viewers over his story until his "ideal audience"will come to envy him because he has been loved by "the Perfect Woman"(1936). After all, everyone else does. He misunderstands a basic rule -- thatit cannot become personal. His own fashion is, apparently, to live in willed ignorance of thefacts. Gallimard willfully ignores thefacts and Song ignores the fact that he is involved on a level that is asmuch a violation of "Communist Party principles" as Madame Chin suspects itmight be (195 ). He asks if she is goneand he freezes in place like an animal hoping not to be noticed. He does not, forexample, want to be present on the stage when Madame Chin comes on for thefirst time to discuss Song's assignment. But his death places Gallimard firmly outside all the play'ssignificant categories -- the French, the Western, the "Oriental," theChinese, and the Asian. AsToulon and Renee both point out, their lives are limited strictly to thesame small group of Westerners -- they never go beyond their small circle.These questions are deliberately raised as a sort of echoing response toGallimard's very positive assertions about the nature of the "Oriental"character in the previous scene with Toulon. His half-presence in the scenes stands for his half understanding at the time theevents took place. Butterfly. Song replies, "Yes, Rene. Thisdemonstrates simultaneously that he is not a Pinkerton and that there issome emotional plausibility to the idea of Butterfly's suicide. M. Hwang (and Gallimard) assume that the audience is already somewhatfamiliar with the outlines of the story. M. Even though he has thefreedom of his imagination in which to review the events of the past andtry to understand them, Gallimard remains a captive of the forces behindthe strange affair that, he supposed, allowed him full membership in theclub of men who "sit behind thick doors, smoke -- and celebrate the factthat we're still boys" (195 ). Yet, just in case anyone is notclear on it, a certain amount of suspense is built in to the play. Butterfly is a memory play in which author David Henry Hwangsmoothly switches time and place throughout the play in order to reveal astory that is already known to the narrator and central character, ReneGallimard. Theopening conversations of the people at a party do not specifically statethe case. Renee merely treatsGallimard as a convenience. No one says,"It's another Hamlet," or "It's just like Citizen Kane." A masterpiecedoes not have to be the definitive word on a subject -- Oedipus and Hamletboth had trouble with their parents. He can only see himself as being outside or inside the "club" ofmen. 1 34-1 68. The Chinese were also an outsidepower with designs on Vietnam and Vietnam disappears under the layers ofbetrayal and interest among all these other parties. Song then specifically announces that the scenetakes place one evening after Gallimard has gone. Thus the apparent plot -- the gradual buildup of the affairand the movement toward treason and revelation and disgrace -- is secondaryto the real plot which is Gallimard's development of understanding . The characters of Marc and Toulon take the same attitude and Helga saysthat she knew he was having affairs but expected as much from the day theymarried. Yet he managed to take hisfaithfulness to the ideal too far. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.