Alec Mapa and Arye Gross
In literature class we’ve begun discussing David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly which he introduces as being “suggested by international newspaper accounts of a recent espionage trial.” How does the play’s beginning recreate the sources and structures of that incredible reality? What do you see the start of M. Butterfly attempting to establish?
Roundtable Conversation 
The beginning of M.Butterfly can be viewed in various ways but one of the most interesting thing I see at the start is the switching roles. Hwang intentionally sets up the play based on Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, nevertheless, he switches the actual roles of the two protagonists. It turns out to be Song Liling instead who literally is Pinkerton, although he initially acts out as Butterfly, as we read the play. But I will only focus on the beginning of the play here. Hwang has Rene Gallimard perform as Pinkerton. (5) By acting as Pinkerton, the fact that Gallimard firstly appears in Paris cell creates suspense in readers’ mind. Gallimard puts on a naval officer’s cap so it is likely to be him who takes the role of Pinkerton. So how come he ended up in prison? Isn’t Pinkerton supposed to be some sort of player who merely treats Cio-Cio-San as a toy in the meantime? Why does he still lament over his lover, “the Perfect Woman,” (4) as if he’s the one who takes the role of Butterfly himself? The contradictory roles of at the very beginning of the play makes it more significantly different than other Madama-Butterfly-inspired pieces of work. The title of the play also reinforces that Hwang does some differences here. By using M. (Monsieur), Hwang rips the old image of a pitiful Japanese 15-year-old girl, Madame Butterfly, and replaces it with Monsieur Gallimard, a 65-year-old French, who is a victim of this tragic story.
Yes! Hwang’s title switch from Puccini’s girl Butterfly to an ambiguous M or a man Butterfly begins the play’s provocative questioning process: can a Butterfly be male? At once male and female? Can a Butterfly be, not Japanese or Chinese but, French? Can a Butterfly be middle-aged? In which case, is a butterfly a fantastic object of desire or a real state of mind? We don’t know that Gallimard becomes Butterfly until the very end, but we do get hints at the beginning role-playing by Gallimard and Marc that you mention. Showing how acting is done right away reveals how it is an effective play on perception because “in life our positions were usually—no, always—reversed” (7).
In M. Butterfly’s introduction, the author, David Hwang, chooses to serve his readers both the stereotype of Asian girl and western man like Madama Butterfly by Puccini, and also, some reversal plots of his own play. Hwang lets Galiimard play the famous main protagonist in Madama Butterfly, Pinkerton by popping a naval cap on his own head and transforming his friend, Marc, into Sharpless (5). Also, Hwang does not forget to provide us a beautiful eastern woman, who seems to be an incarnation of Cio Cio San, Puccini’s Butterfly (1). However, during the beautiful portrayal of this stereotypical story, Hwang also put some distinction in several details which raise the questions in readers’ minds; why it seems like Gallimard is the heart-broken one? Why this version of Pinkerton still waits for his beloved Butterfly? These questions might be able to lead to the enlightenment that “M.” in M.Butterfly is not Madame and it might refer to Gallimard himself since he is the one who gets hurt.
Why Hwang has to introduce his play like this? If he wants to tell us what has happened since the first page of the play, why does not he just express this directly like letting Gallimard says that his Butterfly is a man not a woman? Or if he does not want to spoil his readers, why he has to introduce some strange plots such as the heart-broken “Pinkerton” who is still waiting for his Butterfly?
Certainly, it is almost impossible for us to answer these questions correctly since we are not Hwang. But, in my opinion, I think he chooses this introduction because he may want to force us to be Gallimard.
Through the play, we can see that though Gallimard always waits for his Butterfly to come to him, he knows exactly that it is possible only in his fantasy world (90). What he chooses to believe is the imaginary world he created—dressing and directing—by himself where he can be Pinkerton. It is the world he is more familiar with, the world he wants to believe in. Similarly, if we are critical readers, though we can come up with the idea that “M.” stands for Monsieur not Madame or other enlightened ideas, most of us, at least I, may ignore these ideas and unconsciously choose to embrace the stereotypical world like the tragic love that the woman is the one who suffers more. Like Gallimard, we tend to choose the world we are more familiar with, the world we want to believe in instead of the real one that Hwang, himself, does warn us. Thus, this may be the reason why the play opens in the particular way.
My opinion about the introduction of M. Butterfly is quite similar as Sikarin. I’d say it is “A reversed version of Butterfly: ironic foreshadowing introduction.” At the very opening scene, David Henry Hwang starts the play in the middle of the story (chronologically) which shows the result of Gallimard’s tragic love. We as the readers perceive the frame or the image of a western man yearning for his “Butterfly.” But then in the following scene the curiosity starts forming up. Even though Gallimard acts as Pinkerton and Song plays the role of Cio-Cio San, one begins to wonder the real role behind these scenes. There are words like “misidentified the equipment”, “time flies when you are being stupid” (3) or “I feel sorry for him” (4) which trigger our suspicions. It appears that this intentional misconception is emphasized at the end of act four when Gallimard says “In life, however, our positions were usually—no, always—reversed” (7). I find this as the foreshadowing telling that the story is not going to follow the stereotyped pattern. The characters are acting a play within a play which, ironically, later on reveals that the real role of Gallimard is actually the feminised, eastern Butterfly, not the powerful, western Pinkerton as he seems to be at all.
In the beginning of M.Butterfly, I am interested in Gallimard’s fame that he mentions. I wonder why he mentions his reputation as he says that “My fame has spread to Amsterdam, London, New York.” (2) And the next scene also reinforces this topic by having 3 people talking about this. Why? Is there anything related to the message that Hwang intends to say? In my opinion, Gallimard’s fame is significantly important. This is because in the end, it makes him decide to kill himself since he loses his honor since he spends 20 years having an affair with man! It cannot be accepted for sure especially the reason that he is a diplomat and that man is a spy. That’s why he emphasizes about his fame in a sarcastic way from the beginning and the flashbacks that are told just to show the cause why he loses his honor. Finally it leads to his tragedy.
David Henry Hwang begins the play M. Butterfly by revealing Gallimard sitting in his cell, reminiscing about the Perfect Woman he loves. The beginning lasts until scene 3 where the back story of Madama Butterfly by Puccini is shown so that the readers are now all on the same page about who Pinkerton is, who Butterfly is, and what they are like. At the end of scene 3, Gallimard says that he and Marc, his friend, play Pinkerton and Sharpless respectively; however, “in life, [their] positions were usually—no, always—reversed” (7). And this is ironic, because if Gallimard is truly a Pinkerton, “the womanizing cad” (7), he could have known the true identity of his Butterfly instead of being—willingly—deceived for twenty years. Also, this could also be considered a foreshadowing that the ending of this play will not be like that of Madama Butterfly.
(I’ve already posted this once, but I’m not sure you’ve seen it or not.)